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After the, overly earnest Mark "She is my Soul Mate" Sanford Affair, it's nice to have a truly raunchy sex scandal to spice up a dull afternoon of web surfing: Assemblyman Quits After Scandal

An Orange County Republican resigned from the Assembly Wednesday after a videotape surfaced of the lawmaker bragging about his sexual exploits with two women, one of whom reportedly is a lobbyist.

Assemblyman Mike Duvall, R-Yorba Linda, resigned soon after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angele County) stripped him of his committee assignments and ordered an Ethics Committee investigation of the two-term lawmaker.

Duvall was recorded making lurid comments during an Appropriations Committee hearing in July when he apparently thought his microphone was turned off. The meetings are regularly recorded and archived by the Assembly.

The GOP is often derided as the Stupid Party, but Duvall really takes the cake. Give him credit for resigning promptly. But, that is more than matched by his monumental recklessness. Didn't he get the memo that Republicans have a permanent target on their backs in bedroom matters?

In the video, first broadcast by KCAL television in Los Angeles Tuesday night, Duvall talks with a Republican colleague about his sexual activity with two women, one of whom lobbies for Sempra Energy, a San Diego utility, according to other media reports. That company often has business before the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. Duvall was vice chairman of the committee until his removal Wednesday.

In the recording, Duvall bragged about having several sexual encounters with the women. At one point he makes explicit comments about their sexual activity, adding: "So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, 'I know you like spanking me.' I said, 'Yeah, because you're such a bad girl!' "

That is strictly the G-rated version. Dugvall could also be heard describing his girlfriend complaining about his ***** dripping from her ******. I can't believe anyone would willingly listen to this, but Duvall was obviously comfortable, ahhhh, unloading in public.

Duvall is a pig, of course, but let's take a moment to consider his girlfriend, a lobbyist with business before Duvall's committee. It's sure hard to take women seriously as professionals when they engage in this sort of made-for-TV sexxxy living.

And, I have bad news for all you social cons out there. This isn't the first time Duvall kept a mistress + a little piece on the side. Not only that, this isn't the first time he went on in lurid detail about his swordsmanship. His (male) Assembly colleagues knew. His business associates knew. His staff knew. In fact, I guarantee certain of his female staff members raised knowing eyebrows when this news hit the air. Duvall was obviously an incorrigible lout who couldn't shut up about his shtupping. And yet, the guy ran for office and won without anyone from the Orange County GOP saying, sorry, we've got other prospects in line.

Social cons rely on their claims of moral probity as the base of their appeal. But, at this point, I think there is a zipper crisis among social con politicians, at least among the men. The Left has long been adept at policing its ranks for apostates. The Right - at least the Social Con side - needs to begin doing the same. Duvall's friends and colleaguse undoubtedly knew about his sleazy personal life, even as he carried on about his strong family values. This is simply not acceptable for the simple reason that sex scandals among the morally superior are the easiest way to discredit the entire movement.

It could be that we need to simply start running more women on the socially conservative ticket. Whatever happens, the present situation where we simply wait for the next sex bomb to go off is untenable.