Alabama governor, Robert Bentley, is currently embroiled in a sex scandal. This has become an all too common occurrence in politics. Whether it be Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Anthony Weiner, or Joe Morrissey, we are no longer allowed to be surprised by the behavior of our elected officials.
Rumors swirled for months surrounding Bentley’s relationship with his top adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, but it was not confirmed until a fired police chief brought it to light. After Officer Spencer Collier was fired, he turned to John Archibald of AL.com and provided incriminating evidence of a phone conversation between Bentley and Mason. Both have denied the affair, but Mason recently resigned while many are calling for Bentley’s impeachment.
New details were made available in the case that the governor was purchasing disposable “burner” phones last year to carry out his affair. Employees from a local Best Buy in Alabama discussed governor Bentley’s frequent visits into the store to purchase prepaid minutes and phones.
Gov. Robert Bentley spent $1,732.68 on "cell phones and prepaid wireless" at Best Buy last… https://t.co/xsyVUKCd4z pic.twitter.com/yXBuToEDuN
— Shihtzuman (@shihtzuman) April 1, 2016
When pushed for public phone records Bentley’s office provided fewer than a dozen texts claiming he didn’t text that much from that phone. This seems fishy, not only because it seems odd he would only communicate via text with his top adviser a handful of times, but that he also offered no other alternative records for phones he used. It’s hard to be trustworthy when transparency is thrown out the window.
Mason and Bentley’s relationship frequently drew the ire of his peers as it was evident she had massive influence over his decisions in office:
“At the end of 2014, Governor Bentley made it clear to me in no uncertain terms that from that point forward, anyone who questioned Rebekah’s influence would be fired,” Collier said last week.
A consensus agreement can be reached on the irony of politicians like this running on platforms of ‘family values’ as Bentley did in 2011 and 2014. Although that phrase incites policies of discrimination towards nontraditional family structures, at face value it belies the actual actions of the man using this expression to gain office.
Politicians won’t stop with the extracurricular activities nor will they stop getting caught. The public always awaits the strategy in which they try to pull it off. Robert Bentley’s use of disposable phones is a new twist. A bumbling stealth operation that’s more Leslie Nielsen than Jason Bourne, we’ll never be bored by what a man in office comes up with next.
Featured image via Shutterstock by Stoman L. Stine
