Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran finally married longtime staff member Kay Webber over the weekend, in the midst of longtime rumors that they had been romantically involved. The speculation first began during last year’s Republican primary, where it became a matter of great intrigue.
The original story stemmed from blogger Clayton Kelly, who snuck into a nursing phone to take photos of Cochran’s dying wife to accompany the allegations of the extramarital affair. Kelly was laterarrested on felony charges in connection to the photos.
At the time, accused Cochran became the target of numerous verbal bashings from supporters of his challenger in the election, Chris McDaniel. Cochran’s staff adamantly denied the accusations, and still did up until about a week before his new marriage.
Cochran and Webber didn’t just recently meet and arrange a mortgage. According to the Clarion Ledger, Webber joined Cochran on more than 30 publicly funded international trips over the last 12 years, costing over $150,000.
In light of their recent marriage, one might speculate that the rumors were probably true after they ordered a discount bed from England. At some point during those 12 years, it is likely that something happened, or there was some mutual interest brewing between the two. Cochran’s staff hasn’t said anything about whether or not they were previously aware, but they did make a public statement that the marriage occurred.
As a result of all this, I can imagine many from Chris McDaniel’s campaign gloating that they were right all along. But realistically, who cares?
There are many arguments one could make as to why the extramarital affair occurred. For one, Cochran’s previous wife spent the last 13 years of her life bedridden, slipping in and out of dementia as her condition gradually intensified up until her death just five months ago.
However, is it really any of our business who is sleeping with who in the political world? I would argue that a more pressing concern is how well a person is actually performing their job, not whether an affair may or may not be happening.
Often, the main fallout of scandals like this is that they simply distract people from the real issues that actually matter.
The fact that Cochran’s staff felt the need to hide that the affair was taking place represents one of the major flaws of our political system. Obviously, people have different values when it comes to situations like this, but have some sympathy.
For Cochran, watching his wife slowly slip away must have been devastating. He had been working with Webber for years, and it is only natural for feelings to arise, as everyone has a desire to find someone to share their life with. Who are we to deny Cochran a new chance at happiness in the face of his depressing circumstance?
The need to lie about the situation between Cochran and Webber shows that his staff felt strongly that it would have negative political consequences for their campaign if news about the relationship got out. Its just unfortunate that we live in a world that they would feel compelled to lie about it in the first place.