By: Sarah JonesAug. 10th, 2012more from Sarah Jones

We found out why the #2 Republican in the Oregon House really stepped down this week. Now retired (sort of) Republican House Rep. Kevin Cameron of Salem, Oregon, told us he was stepping down from his leadership position last month for “business and family” reasons. It turns out that he didn’t really step down for family and business, but rather because he went to a strip club with his frat brothers of the Oregon Republican House. Yes, they’re a notorious gang of fratty boys only types.

Cameron, who served as an Executive Board member at Morning Star Community Church, was afraid that his colleague Matt Wingard– who has been forced to resign recently in a different sex scandal — was going to go public with the story of how Cameron went to a topless bar while golfing in Palm Springs with six other Oregon Republicans this past January:

The Oregon House Republican leader who abruptly stepped down last month says he did so in part because of concerns that the public would find out that he and a handful of other GOP lawmakers had visited a topless bar.
Rep. Kevin Cameron of Salem initially said he was giving up his role as the No. 2 Republican in the House due to personal reasons. The Oregonian reported Thursday (bit.ly/PI9MxP) that Cameron and six other Republicans visited a bar featuring topless dancers during a three-day trip to Palm Springs, Calif., in January.

You have to wonder why those other Republicans aren’t stepping down. It sort of suggests that this colleague, Matt Wingard, has something a bit more damaging on Cameron. The colleague might be in the mood to share, since it was Cameron who asked him to step down after Wingard’s sex scandal. Our boy Kevin told Oregon Live, “I made a phone call to Matt and said, ‘If you don’t step back from your candidacy, then I will have to publicly call for your resignation.’ That did not go over well.”

The AP reported:

After Wingard dropped his re-election bid, Cameron said, he heard talk in GOP circles that Wingard might go public about the lawmakers’ Palm Springs vacation.
“Matt never had any discussion with me directly about that,” Cameron said. “There were rumors that he would do that.”

Kevin’s colleague is former former Rep. Matt Wingard, R-Wilsonville, who was accused of sexual misconduct by a former aide. Or, as we put it in layperson terms, supplying alcohol to underage females and using your power to entice them to have an unwantned sexual relationship with you, though the young woman brought the allegations forward to state investigators. She “complained” about his behavior to the police (this translates from misogynist to English as “unwanted sex”). One doesn’t normally see the woman going to police in consensual relationships.

Cute, right? Luckily for Matt, investigators from both the state Department of Justice and the Clackmas County Sheriff “declined” to press charges. Ain’t it cool in the club? Matt is musing much about how he’s the “victim” in all of this.

To that end, I’ll let the following speak for itself: “In 2008, he (Wingard) acknowledged that he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of hitting his son in the head with a screwdriver.” And Republicans still kept him on. Oh, so family values.

Ironically, Wingard was replaced by a man even though a smart Republican woman warned the posse of Oregon Republican frat boys that it might be best if they had a woman in a leadership position. She wanted the position, but no go, lady. Presumably, they handed her their orders for food as they left to golf another round. The boys club of Republican leadership is still flourishing.

We got the “I’m leaving for my family because I don’t have time” excuse from Kevin in July, who although he stepped down due to alleged time problems, is running for re-election. Perhaps he’s got dibs on Romney’s retroactive machine.

Oregon Live reported:

Cameron, who owns a restaurant business, said he would continue to run for reelection to a fifth term. In the caucus meeting, according to a source who was there, he referred to the pressure of being gone so much from his family and his business and said it was time for someone else to take the job.
He reportedly made no mention of the pressures involving the handling the scandal involving Wingard as a reason for his departure, and he was reportedly not asked to resign.

Well, now we know differently. What exactly happened at this topless bar in Palm Springs? We know Palm Springs is the destination for the gays, but since when did Republicans start going there to oogle topless people?

Married Kevin Cameron is the same guy who announced that women are too confused to pick their own last names. We get the man’s last name, and they can’t take ours, according to Kevin.

Here he is back in December 2008, telling us that only women should be able to take their husband’s last name, not the other way around. He’s distressed about the “implimications” (yes, sic) of either party being able to take the other’s last name, as it might “cause confusion”.

Here’s the real catch. While your medical care is their business, and your last name is their business, what is personal?

Why, their strip club vacay; aka “personal vacation with friends”. When asked about the strip club excursion, Republican colleague Hanna said, “Asking me a question like that would be like me asking you what you wore as swimwear or not on your last vacation and how that affected your ability to do your job.”

And then, not to be outdone, “Several of the legislators told The Oregonian that the whole thing is personal and nobody’s business.”

Perhaps. But then, we’re not running on family values platforms while sticking our noses into the majority of the country’s personal decisions. If our last names and our medical decisions are their business because of their alleged “Christian” values, then their personal sex scandals are our business. That is the risk of assuming moral superiority and divinity over others.

To put this in terms these boys will understand, given where they hang out, the implimications of their declaring our vaginas their business is that their penises are our business. Clearly, they need governing, no?