“C” Is for Cheater

If I were the wife of one of the boys shacking up at C Street who had not yet admitted an extramarital affair, I’d be getting nervous about now.

Former Congressman and C Street resident Chip Pickering’s estranged wife has filed a lawsuit against Pickering’s alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering is suing Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering, a Republican from Mississippi, allegedly continued seeing his college sweetheart while they were both married. According to the suit, some of the "wrongful conduct" occurred at the C Street facility for Christian congressmen — the same one where Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have lived, and where Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has recently sought counseling.

Let’s see. Zach Wamp. Bart Stupak (a Dem). Jim DeMint. Sam Brownback. And of course, C Street’s resident ObGyn, Tom Coburn.

Any of you have something you want to tell us?

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    • Mauimom says:

      Cheaters Anonymous?

      Ooooh, I wish that incredibly low-rent show, “Cheaters,” would use some hidden cameras on these guys!!

  1. prostratedragon says:

    Definite pattern here.

    But as I said somewhere else, I’m beginning to wonder whether part of the problem is not only that they’re politically-motivated marriages, but that C St. arranges or clears them in the first place.

    I’ve no idea of these folks’ backgrounds, but I’ll bet they were spotted well before showing up in DC, like at family-formin’ time.

  2. Petrocelli says:

    Overheard at “C” Company: I am happily wedded for 6 months. Got married 27 years ago, of which 6 months have been GREAT ! *g*

  3. Waccamaw says:

    Interesting the wife decided to file suit now…let’s hope more of them will play “follow the leader”.

    There is something seriously sick going on in that location.

  4. drational says:

    Wrongful conduct often results in progeny, unless they were practicing non-intercourse with alternative orifices. Did Tom Coburn abort any of the would-be C-Street love children, or did they stick with unnatural acts to thwart God’s will?
    Let’s ask.

    • Petrocelli says:

      Surely you’re not suggesting they used contraception ?!!

      *this is usually a set-up line for phred*

    • emptywheel says:

      That’s sort of why I raised Coburn’s profession. Of course, it’s especially nice if the OB/GYN is also a Deacon because–as we know–both OB/GYNs AND Deacons can protect all speech. So Coburn says.

      • scribe says:

        One of the benefits of practicing law is that you meet all kinds of people with all kinds of problems, but you don’t get involved with the problems on a personal level.

        One of the things that marks a good whorehouse is that it has a doctor immediately available. Similarly, one of the most important numbers in the Rolodex (TM) (or equivalent) of a high-end working girl is her OB/GYN’s. Someone who takes last-minute walk-in-without-an-appointment office visits. In both situations I describe, this doctor takes care of things in a quiet, discreet manner – both for the girls and their particular medical needs, and for those guys who set out to have fun and get crosswise somehow – and takes payment in cash.

        So, there you have it. It would seem that Coburn might be the kind of doctor who, in the words of the Eagles “Life in the Fast Lane”, “… says … you gotta pay in cash.”

        Or, as seems to be the case with the C Street house, political chits. Chits are better than cash – you don’t have to list them on your 1040.

        • alabama says:

          I have a good friend, a gynecologist in his mid-seventies, who retired long ago from the field, except that he continues to treat prostitutes, taking only “payment in kind” for compensation (he has enough money to cover his professional expenses).

        • scribe says:

          A nice arrangement, I suppose. Kinda like a mechanic buying a used car and fixing it up for his own use.

          He knows exactly what he’s getting and that there are no problems with it. And he knows that, if he does shoddy work, not only will the put himself at risk but the girls will go elsewhere.

          The girls know they are getting honest services on their health issues, seeing as how it’s in the doctor’s personal (as opposed to financial) interest to do his work as well as can be done.

          And no one can bullshit anyone – one of the more throughgoing problems in that corner of the economy – and they all know better than to try.

          Everyone wins.

          Cui bono, writ large.

      • Mary says:

        A subpoena from Pickering’s wife might be a way to test that. On Maddow’s show, Sharlet talked about a member getting counseling from David Coe bc the member thought his wife was demonically possessed. Coe agreed she could very well be – the symptoms being that she wasn’t sexually satisfied with her husband.

        Hmmmm – does this mean the C-Street crew needs to undertake a mass exorcism of Pickering, Ensign and Sanford?

        BTW isn’t Bill Nelson on the list too (the C-Street list, not the exorcism list)? His wife on the board? If so – shouldn’t she be a good person to be directing follow ups to – maybe to fill in the medical services being provided by Dr. Coburn at the church?

        And wasn’t St. Pete a member as well?

        @32 – that’s great! I didn’t see that, thanks for catching and sharing. And @36 – and elsewhere. Thanks much.

        @55 – “David from C Street” I didn’t realize that. Her death was very weird and didn’t get nearly the interest you would have thought.

        • fatster says:

          Oh, that’s rich. She was judged to be “demonically possessed” simply because her asshat of a husband didn’t turn her on or couldn’t keep up long enough to get her off? Sheesh.

  5. fatster says:

    Several years ago, I picked up a list someone was keeping of scandals involving Repugs. I began adding to it, copying only two or three paragraphs (as I typically provide here) and the source. It is now 129 pages long. LOL.

  6. bgrothus says:

    C is for cuckqueans (women with adulterous husbands)

    from Wiki

    This is just so C-C-C-Crazy!

  7. hackworth1 says:

    Lest we forget, Ensign, Sanford, et al, (These C Street Good Ol’ Boys) are not reglur Christians atall. No Sir. These fellers are ordained by God to be extra-special chosen leaders. As such, they are entitled to all the harlots and man whores they like.

    This is one reason why it was so easy for Sanford to correlate himself and his predicament (rudimentary and flawed as it is) to God’s also chosen King David.

    These are not regular assholes here. These are assholes of a higher calling.

    • pretzel says:

      I think it’s the entitlement that these people feel that seem to be as much a driving force.

      Take Chip Pickering for example. He’s the son of Judge Charles Pickering. Now a quick look at the good judge and his past views may shed some light on Chip’s up bringing.

      Mark Sanford’s father appears to have been a very successful cardiologist. I’d be hard pressed to quess that he wasn’t lacking for anything while he was growing up.

      John Ensign’s step father is CEO/Board member of Mandalay Bay Hotel in Vegas. Again, growing up not wanting for anything could lead me to believe that he feels entitled to anything he wants.

      I’m starting to believe that “C” Street targeted those who lived there.

  8. FormerFed says:

    “Best Little Playhouse in Town” (and I don’t mean Arena Stage)

    Just think, it comes with a resident OB-GYN, just in case specialized counseling is required.

    I thought I was inured to any to this nonsense after all the zipper cases I dealt with in the military, but this is shocking even to me.

  9. emptywheel says:

    And keep in mind two points.

    1) C Street is, according to the IRS, a Church.

    2) Coburn is probably the only Republican who accept Madison’s role in the Constitution–but, as KagroX pointed out earlier today:

    Madison wouldn’t permit the chartering of churches within the boundaries of the District of Columbia.

    • posaune says:

      Quite a block it is:

      131 C Street: City Church DC, purchased 2006, taxable, but classified residential, owners Kirkland, Washington
      137 C Street: National Prayer Center, Inc., purchased 2000, taxable, rated residential, owners address POB, WDC

      133 C Street: Youth with a Mission, Inc., purchase date not available, classified commercial, but religious exempt
      Funding comes from the Fellowship Foundation, inc. Virginia

      119 C Street: American Assn Christian Schools (Natl Home Schooling Assn), purchased 1997, taxable, but classified residential, owners from East Ridge, TN

  10. earlofhuntingdon says:

    The “Family”, its “C” Street house and its other houses in Metro DC are tiresome. It predates, but supports and exacerbates Newt Gingrich’s “rule” that Goopers could no longer live normal lives in DC and occasionally commute “home” to their districts.

    That pattern was bad for morale, Newt claimed, especially with a lot of newbies. They rubbed shoulders too often with wives, children and Democrats: at the grocery, neighborhood pub, school, PTA, walking the dog, etc. Gingrich wanted them alone and needy and living with each other in dorms, basements and one bedroom walk-ups in order to free them from social ties with Dems and make them dependent on him for their social as well as political leadership.

    Making them commute home many weekends – purportedly to keep up local ties – actually exhausted them, drove them away from their spouses, children and social support, and led them down the garden path of thorns and away from the daisies and the dandelions.

    Most importantly, this pattern helped Newt and his successors maintain a frat boy environment, especially for the newbies. It was an environment devoid of social obligations or consequences. It made it harder to broker deals across party lines by cutting and roping the rank and file. It made it easier to demonize political opponents and easier to enforce discipline: no inconsistent advice from spouses, no voices of reason and experience built on daily parenting and familiarity with the everyday world.

    Gingrich wanted a brotherhood, a closed circle dependent on him as abbot, father confessor and an angry avenging patron. He got it and the party still has it. We all know how well that worked out for the Catholic Church and its altar boys.

    • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

      Most importantly, this pattern helped Newt and his successors maintain a frat boy environment, especially for the newbies. It was an environment devoid of social obligations or consequences. It made it harder to broker deals across party lines by cutting and roping the rank and file. It made it easier to demonize political opponents and easier to enforce discipline: no inconsistent advice from spouses, no voices of reason and experience built on daily parenting and familiarity with the everyday world.

      Gingrich wanted a brotherhood, a closed circle dependent on him as abbot, father confessor and an angry avenging patron. He got it and the party still has it. We all know how well that worked out for the Catholic Church and its altar boys.

      The entire comment took my breath away; the explanatory power is huge.

      Wow, this could sure explain many things.
      Keep ‘em busy, keep ‘em distracted; don’t let them have 5 minutes of silence to hear their own minds, and they’ll be in your power, I suppose.

      • rapt says:

        & back to the Earl @24 which is the most lucid comment so far, even though yeah the “Scarlet C” stuff is fun.

        I resent the way Newt and the rest have conjured up methods whereby this “free govt” created by those old men in wigs can be used as a vehicle to gain king-like power. And it is all sorta kinda legal because they say so. And the precedent has been set y’see, so no point in trying to revert to the old way again folks, or try progressing in ways uncomfortable to the incumbents.

        I still think the ONLY way to fix it is to demolish and start anew, as I’ve said some time ago, but at least recognize this scam for what it is: 1) Very long term, 2) Hidden from view (but less so lately), 3) Serious to the point that threatening opposition is eliminated permanently.

        IOW these guys are not joking around; the sex stuff is a convenient diversion.

    • plunger says:

      We have enough historical examples now to confirm a trend – better yet, an epidemic. All of this facilitates blackmail. What ever happened to the recent Watergate poker party scandal? Someone made it go away quietly, but you can bet your warrantless ass that more politicians are entrapped on security camera video and/or wiretaps with mistresses, hookers, same-sex liaisons, etc. than are not.

      Gary Condit was in charge of what?

      Wiki:

      His most important committee assignment was as a senior member on the House Intelligence Committee in the months and years prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

      Condit voted against President Bill Clinton most frequently of all Congressional Democrats.[4] In 1998, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Condit publicly demanded that Clinton “come clean” on his relationship with the young woman; this demand would become part of a film clip aired often during Condit’s own sex scandal. Condit disappeared from the news after 9/11. [10] Despite the allegations against him, Condit was allowed to keep his seat on the Intelligence Committee, and he did not lose his security clearance. Condit was one of just a handful of members of Congress who were cleared to see the most sensitive information on the 9/11 attacks.

      Chandra Levy was Condit’s assistant – with access to national security information. It was said that Levy had learned something BIG that she was eager to share with her parents when she went to visit them. She was “disappeared” before she got the chance, and coincidentally (not), at the moment she was alleged to have logged off her computer to go for her alleged walk, Gary Condit was meeting with Dick Cheney.

      In the months preceding 9/11, Mr. Assassination squad was Gary Condit’s alibi for the disappearance (murder) of a person who seemingly knew too much?

      Our so-called leaders, hand-picked by AIPAC for their low moral character, are the type of people who are easily manipulated. They take the bait. As was the case with Bill Clinton and Gary Condit (and countless others whom you’ve not yet heard about), “Swallows” like Monica Lewinsky and Chandra Levy seduce them for the purpose of compromising America’s leaders.

      • bmaz says:

        This kind of crap does not belong on this blog. For the 99th time, please stop; it tends to make the rest of us look as bat shit crazy as you are just because we provide you a forum to spew unadulterated crap. Stop.

  11. oldtree says:

    It’s a church? Then there is nothing here out of ordinary. Except the wall to wall room, the hot tubs, the tie down room. I can’t wait to see pictures of this place. Before they remodel it back into something other than a crack house for hooker hunters. It does sound like descriptions of the church in Utawr though.
    I wonder if these dullards rent a hole’s are going to be talking soon? It’s likely the stuff only Hustler can print. I wonder if Jeff Gannon was on the menu? Maybe Ralphie Reed came there for his “washingtonian” Bohemia Days picnic with the boys? These are funny freaks. Truth is probably more strange and less humorous.

  12. Neil says:

    Will the Mrs and Chip reconcile? Can the Family show them the way? Who will force Chip to write the letter of reconciliation and who will drive him to FedEx?

  13. reader says:

    Very, very funny, ew! What a ridiculous arrangement for grown men. If they tolerate this nonsense, it’s no wonder they don’t have sense enough to figure out how to live like adults.

    And isn’t it un-Republican to pursue such lawsuits???

    • emptywheel says:

      To be fair, a lot of COngressmen adopt weird living arrangements bc Congressman salary didn’t keep up with DC’s real estate prices and you do have to hold down two residences.

      Rahm was living in Rosa DeLauro’s basement before he became COS.

  14. LabDancer says:

    Riddle: What do get when you cross a characteristically repressed Christianist with an cartoonish Republican Congress critter? Answer: A humpafant!

    Oh wait, there’s the father, the son, the holy ghost … either I have to redo this as a threesome, or throw in a penguin.

  15. Citizen92 says:

    I find it interesting that Leisha Pickering has retained Oliver Diaz as counsel.

    Diaz, as you’ll probably recall, was on the Mississippi Supreme Court and faced the same Rovian legal forces and tactics that took down Don Siegelman.

    [Diaz is] a man who was one of the first targets of the Bush Justice machine. And here is what makes the Diaz story so fascinating: He was indicted twice by the feds, and he was acquitted both times. A study of the Diaz case shows that the charges against him were preposterously weak. That prosecutors moved ahead with them anyway adds consider fuel to the notion that justice in the Age of Bush is motivated by politics, not facts and law.

    Snip

    Diaz was indicted three months prior to Mississippi’s gubernatorial election. Because he’d been appointed by the incumbent Democratic governor, Republicans used his name as part of a smear campaign to bolster their candidate, Haley Barbour.

    http://legalschnauzer.blogspot…..tical.html

  16. orionATL says:

    was that zack wamp

    or zack hump?

    i thought the stereotype was

    sex for democratic deviants and money for republican deviants –

    “cultural shifts” seem to be occurring.

    what’s needed is a “laundering list” – a list of republican congressmen who need to be run thru the washer of god and cleansed of their sins –

    “adultery” – thunder, thunder,

    “fornication” – thunder, thunder,

    maybe even “blowjobs” – flash of lighting.

    these republican religious morons sure know how to make life complicated when, at base, it’s really very simple.

  17. Citizen92 says:

    Leisha Prather Pickering – Mrs. Leisha Prather Pickering is a 1977 Briarcrest (Christian School, of TN) graduate. Mrs. Pickering received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communicative Disorders from the University of Mississippi where she was also a cheerleader. Upon graduating from The University of Mississippi, Mrs. Pickering served in missions work in China, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic. Leisha’s husband, Chip, serves as the Third District Congressman from Mississippi. She currently owns her own event planning business where she has coordinated events for Presidential Inaugurations and planned the 9-11 Widows’ Baby Shower in New York. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast last September, Leisha organized a non-profit organization called HANDS: Helping Americans Needing Disaster Support in which they supplied and coordinated relief for thousands of Mississippians. Her efforts during this disaster were featured on national news programs, including Focus on the Family, where she was praised for the effectiveness and compassion during the disaster. Leisha, husband Chip, and their 5 sons are residing in rural Madison County, MS.

    Uh, oh… Event planning. Wasn’t another House spouse an event planner? Oh yes, Julie Doolittle. But she planned events (that never happened) for Jack Abramoff.

    But wasn’t Chip Pickering’s staff closely tied with Abramoff too…

  18. Hmmm says:

    BTW, if not already linked, over at largeOrange the beams are crossing: Palin Pastors, C Street House Owner Promote Infiltration Plan

    Gets into the 7 Mountains thing, New Apostolic Reformation. Y’know, happy stuff.

    One of the things it sez: “In an October 16, 2005 ceremony, shown in footage that the church tried to wipe from its website archive but which was rescued by a prescient blogger, Sarah Palin was blessed and “anointed” by three pastors, two of whom are advocates of the Seven Mountains Mandate: Wasilla Assembly of God head pastor Ed Kalnins and New Apostolic Reformation leader Thomas Muthee.”

    For some reason that makes me want to go look up the date the video was scrubbed and compare it with the date of the arson fire at the church.

  19. wavpeac says:

    One thing that was certain to me, as so many have noted…the Clinton rage about the blow job…(yes I said it) was PROJECTION.

    They were busy cheating and stealing…saying LOOK AT THAT GUY!

    Classic. I think it’s also safe to say that a large majority of republicans are gay and in the closet. Just sayin…

    I hope this does in the Neo cons so that they have to find themselves a whole new brand and finally let go of the Christian right…I am hoping that most Americans understand that the Christian Right movement is just a whole bunch of sinning folks looking to pray their way out of the wreckage of their lives. While the rest of us face our consequences with grace and dignity…they whimper in the corner praying for God’s mercy on them, while ignoring the very real pain they have caused in our lives and the lives of those who love them.

    Doesn’t get more selfish and self centered than that.

  20. freepatriot says:

    C street is a whore house

    plain and simple

    a whore house for hypocrites

    nothing more, nothing less

  21. der1 says:

    These guys are 15 years behind the guru cult movement that swept the country at the end of the last century. See here: The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power http://www.banned-books.com/tr…..s211u.html
    and here: Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment* http://www.strippingthegurus.com/index.html#stgtoc

    The end turns out the same as we’re seeing today. For rank hypocrisy watch this Pickering short: http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=1674 at 51 seconds the clip relates to Cochran helping him decide to retire, watch through and you’ll hear him give the same reasons Palin gave.

  22. Citizen92 says:

    Leisha’s 9/11 ““Baby Shower“was shepherded by a nonprofit “conservative research group” called Independent Women’s Forum. IWF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in DC. That 2001 event happened at NY’s Cipriani restaurant.

    Lynne Cheney, Kate O’Bernie and Dan Pipes’ wife is connected to this organization.

    Maybe its just the usual wingnut welfare that Mrs. Pickering was chosen to event manage for this event, much like Julie Doolittle was event managing for Jack Abramoff. But I see the usual elements cropping up – nonprofit, lawmaker’s wife running a business, etc, etc. How easy would it have been for her to run this event in NY from Mississippi?

    Any ideas what the name of Mrs. Pickering’s event management company is/was?

    • Citizen92 says:

      And Independent Women’s Forum shares space and staff with the 501(c)(4) Independent Women’s Forum Foundation as well as the Americans For Prosperity and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. AFP and AFPF are involved, in among other things, the Tea Bag movement, the global warming skepticism movement and pro-tobacco stances.

  23. klynn says:

    Just remember EW, Debra Palfry said Vitter went by, “David from C Street.”

    Thus, I question the DC Madame’s death even more today. Imagine if her records tied her clients to C Street regularly.

  24. Citizen92 says:

    Leisha Pickering has four corporation “hits”:

    -Newstar Communities (a nonprofit) f/k/a Family Restoration Coalition, Inc.
    -My South Inc (a nonprofit)
    -Helping Americans Needing Disaster Support Inc “HANDS” (a nonprofit)
    -Leisha Pickering Event Planning LLC

    • Citizen92 says:

      The “My South” non-profit incorporation appears to have been set up to throw a party at the 2004 New York GOP Convention. As many will remember, there were significant abuses of nonprofit status for that 2004 Convention (think Bill Frists’ World of Hope events and Foundation).

      • Citizen92 says:

        A Scot Thigpen appears as a Director as part of Mrs. Pickering’s HANDS charity.

        Scot Thigpen also appears to have been a VP and Financial Advisor with the Stanford Group, based in Jackson, MS.

        Now I seem to recall that Sir Allen Stanford’s company recruited its top people from the Jackson, MS area. And they did so through church.

        Any chance the Family is connected to this Stanford Financial boondoggle?

  25. damagedone says:

    Reading over the complaint, Haley Barbour wanted to appoint Pickering to Trent Lott’s Senate seat. Wonder what Barbour knew and when he knew it? Seven John or Jane Does also mentioned as possible defendants. Wonder whether Mrs. Pickering was looking for a little ‘explaining from’ Coburn and the other C streeters?

  26. tejanarusa says:

    Curiouser and curiouser.
    Not least because I had thought that suits for “alienation of affection” had been barred decades ago.
    Skimming quickly through the complaint/petition, I did not see any statute cited, so assume they’re going on common law.

    Anybody know if these are often successful in Mississippi?

    Even at common law, it seems like no-fault divorce – why would you want to stay in a marriage with someone who doesn’t want you?

    Which leads me to the conclusion that Mrs. Pickering (I doubt she prefers the title “Ms”) mostly wants to publicize the behavior and humiliate her husband, and, not least, his mistress. not that she really wants him back.

  27. Citizen92 says:

    In my snap judgment Mrs. Pickering’s nonprofit and business activities, I’d say she was:

    1 – Pretty much owned by Haley Barbour
    2 – Pretty much dependent on Barbour related activities for revenue

    And (forgive me, but) her husband (serving as a Congressman or Senator) was pretty much the meal ticket into that world.

    I think she wants back at her husband, because he ruined a good thing going.

    But judging from this interview, she was already lukewarm to Chippy back in 2004…

    5. Is there a typical day in the life of the wife of a Congressman?
    You mean is there a typical day in the life of a mother to five boys and the answer is no.

  28. Mary says:

    SO there were journals?

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…..e_seat.php

    Leisha Pickering apparently gleaned this information from her husband’s journals and other documents, which a judge ordered returned to Rep. Pickering. The judge also apparently forbade Mrs. Pickering and her lawyers from discussing what was in the documents.

    There’s a pretty accomodating judge.

  29. Mason says:

    One of the central ideas that the C Street Family regard as Christ’s true message is the notion that by virtue of their positions as elected officials, without regard to how they won, and its attendant wealth and privilege, they are the Chosen Ones who are Saved no matter what they do. According to Jeff Sharlett, author of The Family, they are a tightly bonded, wealthy, and influential group whose members accept any misconduct committed by a member and deal with it in-house exclusively by discussing it with the offender in their discussion groups. Adultery appears to be scarcely worth an arched eyebrow, given its apparent popularity in the group.

    They quite literally believe they can commit any crime, even murder with impunity, so long as the police don’t arrest them, and freely talk about it with fellow members without fear of condemnation or anyone ratting them out.

    Just like Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, huh?

    Rachel Maddow interviewed Jeff Sharlett about this insane and scary group in two back-to-back shows last week. The interviews are available for your discerning pleasure on her website.