In a scandal notable only for its rapid denouement, U.S. Rep. Christopher Lee, R-NY, resigned Wednesday night just hours after the website Gawker reported that he had been trolling Craig’s List for dates.
Lee’s speedy departure is the latest in a series of hasty exits just as scandals are heating up, Politico reports. Ex-Rep. Eric Massa, a Democrat from another New York district, resigned in March 2010, just days after disclosure that he was under investigation for allegedly harassing male staffers. And ex-Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind, quickly stepped down last May after it was revealed that he had an extramarital affair with a staffer.
House Speaker John Boehner is said to have encouraged Souder and other Republican miscreants to cut their–and their party’s–losses and go home. Lee, Politico says, “was one of several junior GOP lawmakers that Boehner allegedly warned to ‘knock it off’ with regard to his partying with female lobbyists last year.”