ANOTHER REPUBLICAN ELECTED OFFICIAL ON PERV PATROL-- BUT A GOP POL FROM NEW YORK CITY THIS TIME!

There aren't that many Republicans in New York City. Almost all the congressmen, assemblymen, state senators and city councilmen elected from the city are Democrats. You can count the exceptions on one hand. (Of the 51 members of the City Council, only 3 are of the Republican persuasion.) One of the three GOP councilman is Dennis Gallagher, a 43 year old Republican first elected in 2001 from Middle Village, very white part of Queens. He's also on the Executive Committee of the Queens Republican Party.

Now, just because David Vitter has been hiring prostitutes for decades-- to dress him up in diapers and humiliate him-- and is from Louisiana, and just because the McCain campaign's co-chairman Rep. Bob Allen solicits unsuspecting men in public toilets for sex and is from Florida, and just because nutty GOP Rep. David Almond whipped out his dick and assaulted a legislative assistant last week is from North Carolina, it doesn't mean that the only Republican sex perverts are from The South. New York City-- including Queens-- is far from The South. But Councilman Gallagher, a married man with two children and a lush, has been accused of raping a woman he picked in a bar, Dan Boy's.

The incident took place last weekend and Gallagher submitted DNA on Friday to try to prove that he didn't do it. Well, it sure wasn't Mark Foley. Before he became a city councilman Gallagher sold porn on the internet, although, when investigated, he claimed the magazines were sold as collectibles, not as porn. Hey, sounds like a solid Republican legal argument to me; I'm surprised he wasn't appointed to the Justice Department under Bush. I'm sure his pal Giuliani has an eye on him though.

“I’ve known this man for 15 years,” said City Councilman James S. Oddo of Staten Island, the Republican leader of the Council. “I know him to be a council member who is involved in the minutiae of every issue in his district. Very active, very engaged, very responsive. And I think that’s the reputation he has in the district.”

But he has critics in his district. “I would say that he is not fit for public office and probably never was,” said Robert F. Holden, the president of Juniper Park Civic Association, who has been bitterly feuding with Mr. Gallagher for some time over a number of issues in the district. “He is known for dominating people.”

H/T to my pal Mike for turning me on to this scandal-- and for his suggestion to the GOP about how they should handle their explosive little problem with sex and the single married wingnut.