My general rule of thumb on political stories is to only cover them if there’s some kind of celebrity or juicy-gossip angle. This story has a celebrity angle, in some really amazing ways. This isn’t even the first time I’ve written about Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Illinois) – last year, Rep. Schock was “outed” online after he seemed to be living his life one way (allegedly he’s gay) while supporting fervently anti-LGBT legislation. Anyway, Rep. Schock resigned in disgrace yesterday from the House of Representatives. Rep. Schock has been mired in some pretty amazing controversy for several months, and it kept getting progressively worse for the young congressman with each passing day. Schock was supposed to be one the bright future leaders for the GOP – he’s handsome, adept at social media, friendly and not a rage monster. Moms could look at him and say “what a nice young man!” Then it all went to hell. Here’s a laundry list of Schock’s transgressions.
*The whole scandal exploded when the Washington Post published photos and a story about Rep. Schock’s crazy Downton Abbey-themed Congressional office. Go here to see the photos of his office. When I say “Downton Abbey-themed” I mean red walls, black candles, gilded sconces, crystal chandeliers and pheasant feathers.
*It wasn’t just that Schock made the questionable choice to decorate his DC office like a Downton Abbey set – taxpayers initially paid thousands of dollars for the decorations. Schock had to reimburse the government for $40,000 (for pheasant feathers and gilded sconces).
*Schock got thousands of dollars in fraudulent reimbursement for mileage (on his car). That’s thousands of dollars defrauded from the taxpayers.
*He used public funds to charter private planes so he could watch the Chicago Bears play.
*He spent thousands of dollars on other questionable “business trips.” The money came from public funds AND campaign funds. And he liked to charter private planes for every trip.
*He spent campaign money on massages. And taking his congressional interns to see a Katy Perry concert.
When he announced his resignation he said: “Today, I am announcing my resignation as a Member of the United States House of Representatives effective March 31. I do this with a heavy heart. Serving the people of the 18th District is the highest and greatest honor I have had in my life. The constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards that they deserve and which I have set for myself. I have always sought to do what’s best for my constituents and I thank them for the opportunity to serve.”
It’s widely believed that Schock is only resigning now so he won’t have to face a long and embarrassing investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The committee doesn’t have the jurisdiction on ex-House members. But I’m guessing that some federal prosecutor of even a local Illinois prosecutor is taking a hard look at all of this.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Men’s Health, Aaron Schock’s social media.
I think he confused congressional membership with holding office in his college frat.
Oh but of course he’s from Illinois!! I am born and raised in Illinois…I swear we are not like our government officials that represent us!!!!
🙁 boo!
Don’t forget about Lincoln. He was also from Illinois and I’d place him in the ‘good’ camp.
Lincoln didn’t move to Illinois until he was 20 or so. But never fear, shortstuff. If we were all judged by our politicians… well let’s just agree to never do that.
Also born and raised in Illinois, and not even mildly surprised by this.
Now, I’ll have more ammo in my ongoing argument with my friends from Louisiana about who’s got the most dirty politicians!
It’s always the problem that people who are good at campaigning and winning elections are seldom the people you want in office making sensible decisions for the rest of us.
Guys like this run for office so they can live well, feel powerful, network with richer and more powerful people, and then give away taxpayer-funded favors to future employers who will make them millionaires. Looks like this guy got ahead of even that corrupt, mendacious career path and decided he wanted to live like a millionaire when he was just starting out.
It’s always clear that the fight between liberals and conservatives isn’t whether people should “feed” from the government “trough”, but who gets to do it. This guy clearly thought it was there for him, but the poor can just shove it.
Lincoln was actually a southerner from KY but still the people of Illinois were smart enough to elect him.
I am SCHOCKED!
Washington Post covered the office. It copies Downton Abbey but the effect is quite different! How could ANYONE have thought this was OK??
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hes-got-a-downton-abbey-inspired-office-but-rep-aaron-schock-wont-talk-about-it/2015/02/02/1d3f1466-ab1f-11e4-abe8-e1ef60ca26de_story.html
It’s so bad!!
He is cute, but WOW.
And I think it must be the most terrible thing in the world to be gay, and feel that you have to hate that part of yourself and/or hide it.
And moron! I don’t understand why these politicians don’t think they won’t get caught……they WILL.
As we have seen from the disgusting comments by Dolce & Gabbana there are many self loathing & homophobic gay men around
and they are mostly in congress wide stancing it in public bathrooms the Movie Outrage was really really great about just showing the lengths these men (mostly) go to harm their fellow gay Americans while living a double life and whatnot
I really hoped this story would have less to do with his dating preference and more to do with how he abused the system for his personal benefit. The gay angle is just too juicy to let go though for some news outlets.
He messed up from an ethical stance. That’s all this should be.
That we still bring up ones orientation says how much it still matters. That people still get “outed” and can’t simply live.
Disappointing, isn’t it? The issue isn’t that he’s gay or his taste in office decor. The issue is that he is corrupt and stole our money.
Very disappointing. He deserved to leave his office and to be shamed, but not for this. For being corrupt. Everything else shouldn’t matter.
Blame this particular self-hatred on the GOP, the Party of Entrenched Homophobia. But that’s almost beside the point – this guy was a total goniff and deserves to pay back everything he “appropriated.”
Some big scandel is going to hit the fan soon. TMZ must have found out something. Massage scandel? Washroom stall ” I have a wide stance” scandel?
right? he’s resigning b/c something is about to come down on him. maybe i’m watching too many house of cards episodes but i’m hoping there are pictures.
If TMZ is sniffing around there will be photos
There might be pictures of him and a guy during college. He didn’t keep his sexuality so hidden back then. Although he might bet lucky since that was before social media became huge and before smartphones.
Yeah, I can only imagine whats going to come out.
Always love when politicians blame it on people asking questions, rather than accepting fault for their own actions.
Sort of like my ex when I caught him cheating. Why must you constantly bring up these unpleasant matters?!?
I know. What a tool.
totes…it’s not because he’s guilty, it’s because the accusations are a distraction.
SHENANIGANS!
Seems he used campaign and public funds like 90% of all politicians and we all know tons of GOP are in-the-closet gay or wanna-be’s. Only thing out of the ordinary is the Downton Abby schlitz.
Politics is turning into a branch of reality TV, ain’t it?
Count your blessings, Americans. At least he wasn’t caught on tape telling an undercover reporter that he doesn’t have a job (while demanding £5k per hour for speechifying and lobbying). That’s what British MPs do. Cos y’know, being an MP isn’t a job or anything.
Sixer
So true. The level of entitlement and drama is madness.
That district is adjacent to mine and it is red, red, red.
He’s got a lot of financial improprieties going on–his wealth has doubled since he’s been in office, I don’t think he resigned because of anything to do with his obviously closeted gayness.
Sounds more like his not-so-closeted dishonesty. Wow.
I’m in Illinois, too, and I was surprised again about the gay angle when reading this, I had forgotten about that. Not a whiff of that in all the news although people are speculating that there’s likely a lot more to be uncovered since he decided to resign so abruptly.
Did you hear his dad’s “defense” of him? Sounds like maybe not the brightest family.
You’d think the Republicans would absolutely WANT a gay person on the ticket. That would sway 3/4 of liberal voter’s alone, particularly a pro ss marriage, which this guy was not.
Does this mean a seat is up for election?
Depends on the state laws for filling vacant congressional seats. The state law may just allow the governor to hand-pick a replacement or it may require an election, at our expense, or it may allow the governor to hand-pick a replacement until an election for a replacement is held, at our expense.
They have to have a special election within 115 days.
The district was actually gerrymandered by state Dems to be a Republican sinkhole, lumping GOP votes together. It will never go blue. Any Republican with a pulse gets elected.
His sexuality would NOT sway liberal voters who are informed. That’s a bit insulting.
THANK YOU Honeybee Blues.
And if the Dems gerrymandered this district to be a GOP sinkhole, they did not do a very good job of it because everything south of Kankakee is a GOP sinkhole.
Her certainly has a lot of issues, but the fact that his wealth has more than doubled since he took office is the norm for elected federal representatives. Truly it’s disgusting. Here is one link (there are plenty of others) that shows the minimum increase in a TWO YEAR period is over 20% with most increasing their wealth by over 50%…in TWO YEARS.
http://ballotpedia.org/Changes_in_Net_Worth_of_U.S._Senators_and_Representatives_%28Personal_Gain_Index%29
There’s no reason to ask, “Why would anyone want to put themselves through that?” It’s always about the money, and then there’s those Cadillac life long health benefits. Kaching!!
This may be an erroneous question but are conservatives in Illinois more open to accepting gays versus the bible belt conservatives?
Hi Isabelle! Yes, many parts of Illinois have conservative lawmakers probably more willing to be accepting of gays than in Alabama or Georgia. One of our senators is a Republican and supports gay marriage (yay Mark Kirk!). We do have pockets of Illinois that could be say, Kentucky. Schock is in one of those areas. Still, like I said, republican senator who supports same-sex marriage, so I think yes they are more willing to be accepting here. 🙂
Not all conservatives are “anti-gay”, and not all liberals are “pro-gay”.
ALL politicians’ wealth doubles..triples..quadruples..and so on as they get higher in office and the longer they are in government. Including the Clintons and the Obamas. That’s just a dirty fact.
The story here is not that he misappropriated taxpayer money (they ALL do it). The story is that he actually admitted it and had the decency to resign.
Did he admit it though? Based on that statement he resigned because of the “distraction”, not for his wrong doing.
Actually, they do not all do it. Many do, but not all. Did he admit it? Is there more of a statement? Because what is quoted above indicates that questions and focus on it are the problem leading to his resignation, not the misappropriation itself. If he faces charges, which he should, will he confess and plead guilty or will he waste more tax dollars going through a trial?
The “they all do it” excuse is used when someone you like/support did something bad and you want to deflect.
even if it were true, it doesn’t excuse what he did. even if true, all it does is show the person to not be as smart as the folks who DON’T get caught.
so, either he’s a criminal, or he’s stupid. or both.
No I don’t think he’s come close to admitting it, just saying he’s resigning because the scandal is a “distraction.” The evidence seems undeniable and to be piling up fast though so I’m not sure how he’ll weasel out of it.
But by resigning, he’ll face it outside the larger national stage. It will still get coverage but not as much as it would for a sitting representative. By resigning, he also skips out on ever having to answer to constituents.
I see no decency whatsoever in anything he has done. Has he paid the money back? Has he agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges of misappropriation? No? It seems all he has done is avoid having to stand in the pit of the House while the Speaker censures him and this allows the Republican Governor of Illinois to fill his seat with a hand-picked party member to carry on the party business until an election is held, at taxpayer expense.
Yes, you are exactly right.
What are you talking about? They do not all behave like that, spending tens of thousands of dollars on junk and defrauding their constituents, and he didn’t admit anything!
You’re right Nicole. Not all of them do. Only about 98% of them.
he admitted it? I must have missed that part.
and his resignation has ZERO to do with “decency” and EVERYTHING to do with CYA.
He resigned to avoid answering Congress in a special committee meeting. Who knows what will come out of that!
Nothing now
Exactly- they all do it. How is this news? Politicians waste taxpayer money every single day
This isn’t just wasting money; it is misappropriation of funds, also known as stealing.
What a coward and a weasel.
He’s only good looking when compared to other politicians, besides the abs, he’s average. But that will be enough to get him a job on Fox, where he can continue to rally against the gays and the takers while covering Taylor Swift concerts.
I lived in his district when he was first elected. NOT thanks to my vote. I was student teaching at the time and I remember a lot of my classmates fan-girling out. Like the “good Christian” girls who thought he was hot and someone they could take home to their conservative dads for approval.
Man, reading this feels so good. ETA, not because I want taxpayers defrauded, of course, but I always knew he was gross and now it’s public!
I was shocked (no pun intended) when I heard that he was re-elected by such a huge margin. How depressing, but how great that he’s been exposed sooner rather than later.
So, the QUESTIONS are the problem, not the misuse of tax dollars that could have been better spent on education, health care, and our crumbling infrastructure?
If he faces charges for the misappropriation of funds and does not IMMEDIATELY confess and plead guilty in court, then no, he is not admitting or taking responsibility for anything.
But what does Lilacflowers think about this?
@Kiddo, I think he should parade around the streets of Boston tomorrow, where it will be like 10 degrees, while wearing beige booty shorts, orange fringe and carrying a fake baby. We can stand around drinking comet Sophies and hurling fish heads at him
The beige bootie shorts need canvas turquoise belts.
How did I forget the turquoise belt? He’ll look like a Howard Johnson’s. Fake baby needs one too. And silver high tops
“well he resigned.”
“aaron u. schocked?”
“surprisingly not.”
I go to college close to this district too! Wow, glad to see so many Illinoisans on here. The community has known about him being gay forever. My favorite photo is the turquoise belt – the defense rests, your honor. For real though, what a disgrace. I’m glad he was pushed out, and as a journalist, I’d like to point out the aggressiveness of the Associated Press in investigating him. We have great journalists to thank when we see these kind of wrongs exposed, and the subject resign. Yay reporters!
First narcissistic Millennial in higher office went exactly how most would have predicted, but some of this seems overblown. Nevertheless, he has TV face, so I’m sure Fox News will give him a hefty contract.
So what happens to the office? Does the next representative have to keep it that way after all that money was wasted or do they get to redecorate it.
They redecorate. They always redecorate. And many of those offices are quite extravagantly decorated. Some do it with their own funds, others use our tax dollars.
v. obviously they did not learn from these period dramas that to be able to freely redecorate on taxpayer’s expense they should first marry a prince. then they can decorate as many times as they want in multiple locations, even.
He is just an amateur compared with politicians in my country. If he was a spanish politician of a big party that would be swept under the rug and let bygones be bygones.
Nothing quite screams straight guy like gilded sconces and ostrich feathers.
+1000000
If he thought he was hiding his lifestyle (for political gain) he is sadly mistaken. He probably didn’t want to talk to the reporter because he knew how crazy it sounded for a grown single man to decorate his OFFICE, not his Home, like a soapy British show. I cant begin to imagine how his house is decorated. The living room probably looks like Studio 54.
He is really cute though.
I agree, he’s hot. Wonder if the Bears games were his idea of a beard?
Yeah, when the office decorating scandal first came to light, apparently Schock was so clueless that he was happy to show it off. Supposedly his staffers were in a panic, though, at the media getting a look at it.
And he may look hot in still photos but yesterday I saw some footage of him at some banquet where his smarmy, wink-y way of operating really overshadowed his looks.
Gay guys can love football and people born in Illinois are known for loving da Bears, so I think it would be a stereotype to say gay men don’t like sports. My little brother who flames like a beautiful, sparkly comet is a HUGE Washington Redskins fan. Now, he bucked family tradition, as we love the Ravens, but we’ll forgive him. 🙂
Well what kind of man likes that kind of decor or know what Downtown Abby is?
“black candles, gilded sconces, crystal chandeliers and pheasant feathers” sound like it was designed for Liberace.
I once helped him pick out LINEN sheets at restoration hardware……need I say more.
Also, although very cute, he’s very short.
SMFH at this mess.
He reminds me of David Miscavage, another short meglomaniac.
ugg. All I knew about him I learned from the DA piece and Instagram.
Well, damn! Don’t hold back on your love of all things Downton on our account, dude. Please, take tax money for feathers and candles-he’s practically a Windsor! No, really-like most politicians he is a total narcissist. With nice abs. And bad taste.
The issue here is not how the guy decorated his office; apparently, he did pay back the $40,000 for that. The issue is that he improperly used tax dollars for private planes and trips and related costs for himself and others and he has not admitted doing so in such a manner that would hold him accountable for breaking the relevant laws.
I can tell you right now that if you are a govt employee and you falsified your travel expense claims, it’s grounds for termination and you are liable for repaying that money and other damages. I wish the GAO will go after him.
The GAO AND the prosecuting power of the Justice Department, which I believe is why he resigned.
What’s up with that Men’s Health cover? Congrats, you have nice abs, what does that have to do with anything?
Oh, and yes, thanks for misappropriating Illinois tax dollars, because this state doesn’t have enough problems!
Not just Illinois tax dollars but federal tax dollars. We’re all paying for his corruption.
I have been so waiting for this to happen. Been following this for a while now as he kept such a busy scheduke traveling all over posting photos for quite a while now. Hypocrites.. More in both parties need to be called out too.
Something similar happened in Michigan with a very vocal attorney trying to lobby anti-LGBT legislation and cock-blocking (pardon the pun) other groups from supporting pro-LGBT legislation. He was found out to be closeted gay. I have a hard time understanding how any gay person could be a far-right conservative. Our conclusion was this particular man was attempting to join the “brotherhood” at his firm so he could become partner.
That magazine cover was shot before he resigned. If that were a female politican showing that much skin and giving the sexy vibe under the guise of being “fit”, she would be vilified. Make a decision – is it okay for both genders to portray themselves as sex symbols or not because it is definitely not okay for it to be acceptable for one gender but not the other. And no, Palin, this is not an invitation for your to do a sexy spread. Please, just no.
JenniferJustice you are absolutely right. But is it wrong that I was happy that for just once a man was being asked about his looks instead of his accomplishments? When John Edwards was running and people kept asking him about his thick glossy hair and frat boy face, I LOVED IT. I also loved that he was visibly annoyed and confused; why are you asking me about my abs when I’m here to talk about social security?
WELCOME TO OUR WORLD B*TCH!
JenniferJustice you are absolutely right. But is it wrong that I was happy that for just once a man was being asked about his looks instead of his accomplishments? When John Edwards was running and people kept asking him about his thick glossy hair and frat boy face, I LOVED IT. I also loved that he was visibly annoyed and confused; why are you asking me about my abs when I’m here to talk about social security?
WELCOME TO OUR WORLD B*TCH!
Aaron schmuck
I know people in Peoria who thought he’d be president at some point.
LOLOL looooosers.
Prediction:
he’ll be moving to LA, shacking up with Harvey at TMZ and will have a reality show if they do’nt throw him in prison.
Another entitled American politician acting like 17th century French royalty. Off with his head!
The stupidity involved here is what is so surprising to me. Of all the ways to steal money from the taxpayers – and I’m sure there are plenty of subtle ways, well known by the more experienced political thieves – I would think that SOMEONE would have tipped him off with , “Whatever you do, don’t mess with the travel expenses. They’re really obvious and it’s the first place anybody looks.”
The deep red Downton Abbey office just made it easier for the press to focus in on this dude.