Mahoney Mess: Threesomes and Sex For Political Favors?

Florida Congressional District 16 is the district that just keeps on giving. First they had Mark Foley, who proceeded to send salacious emails to Congressional pages. That cost him his seat, and the GOP lost control of the House because the leadership wasn't up front and forceful about dealing with the mess.

Now, we've got his successor, Rep. Tim Mahoney who has admitted to extramarital affairs.

ABC News now reports that he pressured his staffer into engaging in threesomes and to use her to curry political favors with big name donors.

But a document obtained by ABC News reveals new allegations of threatening behavior and sexual harassment toward a female staffer, that go far beyond Mahoney’s public confession, including claims that he urged one of his mistresses to serve as a “tease” for big donors.

The former Congressional staff member, Patricia Allen, was paid $121,000 by Mahoney after she was fired and threatened to sue.

(snip)

The settlement was reached after Allen hired a lawyer who sent the Congressman a "demand" letter, listing specific examples of Mahoney's alleged "gross misconduct" and "stalking" including:

"a) Calling Allen late in the evenings and demanding "phone sex;"

b) Demanding that Allen answer his calls or face termination;

c) Demanding that Allen attend fundraisers and "tease c-ck" to bring in more donations from the male members of the public;

d) Demanding that Allen engage in sexual conduct with another woman for his enjoyment."

Mahoney was chosen by Democrat Rahm Emanuel to run for the seat in the wake of the Foley mess. What did he know, and when did he know it.

UPDATE:
ABC broke the story, and has been running it via the Blotter, but it simply hasn't gained traction the way you'd think because we're talking a Democrat here and not a Republican. This is the same that gave the nation Mark Foley and GOPers in charge lost bigtime because of claims of salacious emails to pages.

Here, we've got real sex, money, power, and abuse of power and the office of a member of Congress, and nothing but crickets from the rest of the media. This is the kind of story that should be banner headlines because of the salaciousness and sleazy attitudes of the key player, and questions should be asked of the Democrat leadership who knew or may have known of key details far earlier than previously admitted - that would be Emanuel who has admitted to knowing but trying to contain the story. The GOP lost the House under much less serious charges.

Bias? What bias?

UPDATE:
I decided to run some numbers for Mahoney and Foley for their comparable scandals. Resist they have. I'd compare the reaction from Foley to Mahoney. It's no comparison.

They swarmed over Foley. According to Google, there were 10,700 for Foley in 2006. For Mahoney, there's not nearly that kind of reaction. Mahoney gets 3,307 hits according to Google.

Oh, and Mahoney has now dropped out of planned debate for today. The GOP challenger was there by himself and simply fielded questions.

UPDATE:
Ace links. Thanks!