Before Matt Gaetz, there was George Costanza. CNN on April Fools' Day reported

Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican being investigated by the Justice Department over sex trafficking allegations, made a name for himself when he arrived on Capitol Hill as a conservative firebrand on TV and staunch defender of then-President Donald Trump. Behind the scenes, Gaetz gained a reputation in Congress over his relationships with women and bragging about his sexual escapades to his colleagues, multiple sources told CNN.

Gaetz allegedly showed off to other lawmakers photos and videos of nude women he said he had slept with, the sources told CNN, including while on the House floor. The sources, including two people directly shown the material, said Gaetz displayed the images of women on his phone and talked about having sex with them. One of the videos showed a naked woman with a hula hoop, according to one source.

"It was a point of pride," one of the sources said of Gaetz.

There's no indication these pictures are connected to the DOJ investigation.

There's no indication these pictures are connected to the DOJ investigation. So is that (it) wrong? It is unlikely any selfies were taken of Gaetz showing the pictures and therefore there is no smoking gun and the allegations probably never will be proven.

However, it should be a firing offense, though by the time the Gaetz saga is played out, he likely will be indicted and the "nude women he had slept with... while on the House floor" will become no less a footnote than a dangling participle.

Nonetheless, as an example of "not satisfactory" or "needs further improvement" of job performance, it ought to bring to mind an old Seinfeld episode, which George Costanza describes beginning at :58 of the video below:

My favorite George line. I can't remember the name of the episode. It might have been the red dot, with the red dot on the seater. But it was when George was working at Pendant Publishing and he was having sexual relations with the cleaning woman in his office and gets called- he gets called into the boss; office played by Richard Fancy and Richard did a great job of the tee up, where he's really not quite looking at me and goes "George, it's come to my attention that you've been having sex on the desk of your office with the cleaning woman."

Now of all the things that George could have said- all of the potioential lies- I mean you know you're dealing with Larry David so the things that he could have come up with are innumerable but what they wrote for me was "Was that wrong? Should I not have done that 'cause I got to tell you, I've worked in a lot of offices and that kind of thing goes on all the time. If anyone had said to me when I started here that that was frowned upon..."

Life does not exactly imitate art. "Was that wrong" was brilliantly funny but tactically foolish. It's more effective, as Gaetz has done, to deny, deny, deny.  But both acts took place in the workplace- Costanza with the cleaning woman and Gaetz (allegedly) with male colleagues at his workplace, as he (allegedly) tastlessly and crudely flaunted his sexual exploits.

Moreover, one was appropriately fired and the other should be fired by his constituents, if it must come to that. But given that the operative auxiliary verb is "should" rather than "will," let's hope Matt Gaetz doesn't escape the clutches of the penal system for the illegal acts he (allegedly) committed.

 

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