A former staffer to Rep. Blake Farenthold has come out with a story of behavior so disgusting, lewd, and downright nasty on the part of the congressman that he should immediately resign before he brings more disgrace on a Congress which cannot sink any lower.
CNN has the lurid details of former staffer Michael Rekola's time as Farenthold's communications director. According to Rekola, the environment was so toxic and stressful that he became ill with a stomach ailment that ultimately caused him to vomit daily.
"Better have your fiancée blow you before she walks down the aisle -- it will be the last time," Farenthold reportedly told Rekola just before his wedding. He would also routinely call the staff "f*cktards and idiots," something Farenthold has admitted to, saying that he intended those terms in jest.
It wasn't as though those terms were spoken in soft, joking tones. According to Rekola and confirmed by other staffers, Farenthold would routinely fly into rages, sweeping everything off his desk and leaving staffers to clean it up, while calling his staffers names.
"Every time he didn't like something, he would call me a f**ktard or idiot. He would slam his fist down in rage and explode in anger," Rekola recounted to CNN. "He was flying off the handle on every little thing. I couldn't find a way to control it."
And then there was just Farenthold's general demeanor as described in the report. He routinely made lewd comments about the appearance of women including reporters and lobbyists, Rekola said, remarking on the size of women's breasts and buttocks. There were references to the "redhead patrol," something which was also mentioned in the lawsuit Farenthold settled with taxpayer dollars. Apparently Blake has a thing for redheads, or so he would like us to think, anyway.
This is the same congressman who is the former owner of the domain "BlowMe.org," and who admitted in 2014 to "having wet dreams" about a staffer.
Farenthold must resign. This behavior is an unnacceptable abuse of power whether directed toward men or women.
