Rep. Steve Rothman Fires Chief of Staff Over Sex Crime Charges

Steve Rothman is my congressional representative and I'm glad that he canned this staffer, who also happened to work on President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and previously worked for Russ Feingold for this criminal act.

Robert Decheine, chief of staff to Rep. Steve Rothman (D-NJ), was arrested in Gaithersburg, Md. last Friday on charges of soliciting sex from a minor. Decheine, who had been with the Democrat's office since 2003, was fired immediately after the congressman consulted the House Counsel about his arrest, Rothman spokesman Aaron Keyak told The Hill in a statement.

Decheine was arrested as part of a sting targeting people interested in sex with minors -- the first one ever launched by the Gaithersburg Police Department, according to a press release provided to TPM. Eleven arrests were made during the operation, which came in phases. First, ads were placed online and an undercover officer began communicating with each "John."

Decheine happens to be married and attempted to meet up with the girl who he believed to be 15 after working on Capitol Hill.

He also happens to be Rothman's top staffer, running his DC and New Jersey office. While some think that Rothman took his time in making this news public, I'm not quite sure how much faster Rothman could act - after all, he was informed of the incident on Friday and consulted with layers before terminating Decheine.

The Record also reports on an incident that occurred during the recently concluded campaign where he and several other Rothman staffers were accused of tearing down Rothman's opponent's campaign signs.