The married 62-year-old denies harassing the 20-something former aide, but says he considered her his "soul mate". Meehan later used taxpayer money to settle the harassment claim, and still says he intends to continue running for re-election in Pennsylvania's Seventh District, despite numerous calls for him to step aside.
With any luck, Pat Meehan will suffer a richly deserved humiliating defeat this November. Perhaps then he'll seek the professional help he seems in dire need of.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
U.S. Rep Pat Meehan said Tuesday he had developed a deep “affection” for a younger aide and told her that he saw her as “a soul mate” as they talked over ice cream one night last year, but in an interview with the Inquirer he said he never pursued a romantic relationship with the woman, who later accused him of sexual harassment.
Meehan, a Delaware County Republican, also acknowledged that he initially reacted “selfishly” when he found out the aide, decades younger than him, had entered into a serious relationship with another man, and shared a heartfelt, hand-written letter he wrote to her in May wishing her well, but also thanking God “for putting you into my life and for all that we have seen and experienced and genuinely shared together.”
He also said he intends to continue running for reelection in Pennsylvania’s Seventh District.
The comments were his first extensive response to a New York Times report Saturday that revealed that he had used thousands of taxpayer dollars to quietly settle a sexual harassment claim brought by the former aide, who was decades younger than the married, 62-year-old Congressman.
UPDATE: The New York Times has more from this douchebag tonight, Meehan saying he felt "emotionally wounded" by her complaint, and that she'd "invited" his overtures,
“That I would find later that that was not something that she was comfortable with, really hurts me,” Mr. Meehan said. “This was a person who specifically invited communication with me so that she would be able to have the ability to be there for me.”
And this bit is just insane:
He declined to specify the amount of the payment to his former aide, and also disputed that it was a settlement, instead calling it “a severance agreement with a valued employee who I felt a great deal of not only respect for, but concern for, and believed that that was a way to reward the work that she had done for me.”
