Heterosexual affair with adult not as bad as homosexual affair with teens, Mahoney says

Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) publicly apologized to his constituents and family today by reading a statement that implicitly, at least, seemed to acknowledge that having an alleged affair with an adult woman is not as bad as an alleged affair with teenage boys. Mahoney is accused of having an affair with a female staffer, Patricia Allen, and then promising to pay her $121,000 to avoid a lawsuit. In 2006, Mahoney replaced Republican Mark Foley, who infamously resigned in disgrace over revelations of his lewd text messages and e-mails to teenage boys serving as House pages.

Accompanied by his wife, Mahoney read a prepared statement and did not take questions.

“I have not violated my oath of office, nor have I violated any laws,” said Mahoney, whose re-election bid next month is suddenly up in the air. “Most importantly, however, I have never asked a male teenager, ‘how my favorite young stud doing?' or said to him ‘you need a massage' or ‘love to watch those great legs running' or ‘you'll be way hot then' or ‘good so you're getting horny' or ‘cute butt bouncing in the air.' Hell, I could go on and on. The fact is, I didn't do those things. Simply put, there's a chance I may have had an affair with a staffer. A female staffer. I take full responsibility for what may have happened. That's it.”