TN State Sen. Paul Stanley Resigns

Tennessee GOP state Sen. Paul Stanley has resigned over his adultery and blackmail scandal.

"Due to recent events, I have decided to focus my full attention on my family and resign my Senate seat effective August 10," Republican Sen. Paul Stanley wrote in his resignation letter. Court records show that Stanley, 47, told agents investigating a blackmail case that he had a sexual relationship with intern McKensie Morrison. Her boyfriend, Joel Watts, is charged with trying to extort $10,000 from Stanley in April in return for explicit photos of Morrison that Stanley had taken.

During his tenure Stanley fought to ban gay adoptions and tried to defund Planned Parenthood because "unmarried people shouldn't be having sex." Unmarried people like Stanley and the intern young enough to be his daughter? The guilty dog barks the loudest.

Details Emerge In Adultery/Blackmail Case Of GOP State Sen. Paul Stanley

The Nashville Scene has gotten some of the delicious details into the scandal surrounding Tennesee state Sen. Paul "No Queer Adoptions" Stanley.

According to court documents, here's what happened: Stanley, who is married with two children, was accused of having an affair with a 22-year-old legislative intern, McKensie Morrison, by the woman's boyfriend. The boyfriend, Joel Palmer Watts. 28, discovered a computer memory disc with sexually explicit photographs of Morrison that appeared to have been taken in Stanley's apartment. Watts then blackmailed Stanley, demanding $10,000 in return for keeping quiet. "Releasing the photographs to individuals or the media would cause embarrassment, both professionally and personally, to Stanley," according to the court affidavit, as if we needed an explanation for why this might pose a small problem for our family values champion. (Notably, as a House member, Stanley introduced a bill prohibiting the showing of pornographic materials in a moving vehicle. Don't ask us to explain why.) Now a blackmail victim, Stanley went to the TBI, and they set up Watts. Stanley met his blackmailer behind the El Rey Azteca Mexican restaurant in Whites Creek. Where else?

So this Defender Of Children was not only cheating on his wife with an intern young enough to be his daughter, he had her over for a pornographic photo shoot in his own home. HAWT. Stanley is facing calls for his resignation, but some far has only given up the chairmanship of a state Senate committee.

TN State Sen. Paul "Defender Of Marriage" Stanley Blackmailed For Adultery

Tennessee GOP state Sen. Paul Stanley, the architect of that state's failed ban on gay adoption, went to the authorities to complain that the husband of his mistress was blackmailing him. Boo hoo. Stanley was cheating with a subordinate half his age.

“Unfortunately, I am the victim and a witness to a crime in an ongoing investigation. At this time, I have been advised by authorities and the District Attorney’s office not to comment. There is already misinformation being inferred regarding this matter which I look forward to clearing up at the appropriate time,” Stanley said in a statement. Interesting phrasing. Of course, we don’t know what happened or didn’t happen exactly. All we know that instead of telling the blackmailer that his bluff was called and to do his worst, he called the TBI. Instead of proclaiming his innocence and his martial fidelity on camera to get in front of the story, he hid behind a written statement. While the words in his statement say innocent, his actions say guilty. If Stanley did transgress in any way with this woman, if he put himself in the position to be blackmailed, he should not be sending out statements calling himself a victim. He should not be simply resigning his committee chairmanship. He should be resigning from his seat in the state Senate.

Stanley tried to ban gay adoption in Tennessee by authoring a bill requiring that all adoptive parents be legally married. The state attorney general decided that Stanley's bill was unconstitutional.