Will the sex scandal of former GOP Assemblyman Mike Duvall make a difference for the California GOP? In that Duvall -- now known as Spanky -- had the good sense to resign 15 hours into the scandal, the answer would be: No.Orange County Republicans are like weeds. Cut off one and another will grow in its place. With any luck, Duvall's replacement will respect the position and not treat the Capitol like a frat house. True, Duvall comes across as another Republican family-values hypocrite -- but that's only because he proved to be one. The beefy lawmaker bragged in graphic detail before what he thought was a turned-off Capitol microphone about two affairs -- one with a Sacramento lobbyist with business before the energy committee on which he was vice chairman. Insiders, who wouldn't blink at the news of a lawmaker straying outside his marriage vows, were left dumbstruck at the Duvall's barrier-breaking stupidity.
The issue isn't that Duvall failed as a role model, because no one knew who he was until his chatter about spanking and lingerie catapulted Duvall from Sacramento obscurity into the limelight of international scorn.
GOP leaders did not lift a finger to defend Duvall for saying the indefensible. To the contrary, even before Duvall's resignation, Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh called on Duvall to quit.
Why does this keep happening to family-values Republicans? Probably for the same reason it happens to Democrats, like former Sen. John Edwards and former prosecutor and New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer: Because it happens. And because they get caught.
In a sense, Duvall's fall shows how too-big political egos are a problem that takes care of itself. Pols get arrogant, and that means sloppy.