Michigan Reps. Todd Courser, 43, no longer smiling.
In the end, these two lovers, who had been locked in an extramarital affair, chose two different paths, with the same results.
Yes, they're done.
As Dean Vernon Wormer in Animal House told the guys at John Belushi's frat house after reviewing their grades: "You're out... finished... You're expelled."
After many hours in session, the state House voted just after 4 a.m. Friday to expel state Rep. Cindy Gamrat, who had been desperately trying to hold on to her job, Chad Livengood of the Detroit News reports.
The vote came an hour after Rep. Todd Courser abruptly resigned from office, realizing he was cooked, done, finished, the News reports.
Livengood reports:
Courser resigned from the Michigan House of Representatives just after 3 a.m. Friday before lawmakers could make a third attempt at expelling him from office.
Just as House Republicans appeared to have secured enough Democratic votes to oust Courser from his seat, the Lapeer Republican signed a handwritten resignation and walked off the House floor after just more than eight months in office.
"I felt like it was the appropriate thing to do as I've been sitting there tonight," Courser told reporters. "I just felt like the hour is late and ... it was the appropriate moment to do it."
Earlier in the day, a special House committee voted 4-0 to expel both lawmakers. Two Democrats abstained from voting, saying they wanted more information. The vote then went to the House, which reached an impasse at first on Thursday, unable to gather enough votes to expel the two.
Livengood wrote:
Prior to Courser's abrupt resignation, the House had been mired in a political impasse over expelling him for misconduct and misuse of taxpayer resources in covering up the affair with Gamrat, R-Plainwell.
Twenty-seven Democrats had withheld their votes in protest of how the GOP majority had investigated and sought the ousters of the two freshmen Republicans.
“We have gridlock in Lansing, and we can blame the House Democrats who refuse to vote tonight in violation of the House rules,” said Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth. “I have to think that Courser has got to be loving this.”
The stalemate caused the House to start a new legislative day just after midnight Friday.
-- Allan Lengel
