Republican Family Values: Focus on the Intern Edition

Sad news from the Land O' Instacracker:

[Tennessee] Republican Sen. Paul Stanley had maintained a low profile until his announcement late Tuesday that he was resigning from the state Senate effective Aug. 10, after his affair with a 22-year-old intern and a subsequent extortion attempt was revealed to the public.

Stanley, a 47-year-old evangelical Christian with two children, said in his resignation letter that he has "decided to focus my full attention on my family."

Alert Child Protective Services.

"Whatever I stood for and advocated, I still believe to be true," he told Memphis radio station WREC-AM Tuesday. "And just because I fell far short of what God's standard was for me and my wife, doesn't mean that that standard is reduced in the least bit."

Put it away and focus on your family, Paul. No one wants to hear from you.

The fun started when the intern's boyfriend, J.P. Watts, found the G.O.P.'s Funniest Home Videos:

Watts, 27, allegedly discovered a memory disc with explicit photos of [McKensie] Morrison that were taken in Stanley's apartment on a cell phone. "Watts communicated to Stanley if he did not pay the money, the photographs would be sent to other individuals, including the media," the document states.

"Good morning, sir. How are you this fine day? McKensie and I have been talking, and I feel that I have a video and some pictures you might be interested in seeing," Watts allegedly texted to Stanley, according to a transcript read aloud during the hearing, as reported by The Associated Press.

Sounds more like a Twitter than a text message.

Tennessee Republican Party Chair Simmons and Representatives Criss and Frehley had no comment. Stanley is expected to return to his second love, painting.

P.S. -- It's all those damn bloggers' fault! Says the Senator:

I guess with the blogosphere and just more people being engaged and the advent of the Internet, people get on the Internet or the airwaves or whatever and just say whatever, and I think they need to be more cognizant of they way they treated [sic] ...

'Twas not the intern, but the Internet, that brought the Senator down.