The 'Pat' response

You can call it the "Pat" response.

Congressman Pat Meehan, who's been under intense scrutiny since a weekend story indicating he used taxpayer dollars to settle a harassment complaint from a former female staffer, yesterday went public with his side of the story.

Meehan, the incumbent Republican who has represented the 7th District since 2011, wanted to make a couple of things clear: - There was nothing sexual about the situation. He never harassed the woman.

- And he did not consider the payment to be any kind of hush money. He believes it was more like severance for a person leaving his office. He points out he abided by all rules of the House Ethics Committee and the payment was approved by the Congressional Budget Office.

Meehan, a married father of three, admitted that he had a deep affection for the woman who is decades his junior. He referred to her as his soul mate, but insisted there was nothing sexual or untoward about the situation.

Meehan did say he probably did not react the way he should have when he learned his longtime aide was entering into a relationship with another man.

The woman filed a complaint, and the two sides settled before she left the office.

"I never in any way made any kind of pass towards her, I never discussed anything about wanting any kind of a further relationship," Meehan said.

He exchanged a series of texts with the woman, invited her out for ice cream to talk things over, and sent her a note when she left the office. All of it was strictly above board, according to the congressman.

As for the hostile atmosphere in the office the woman alleged in her complaint, Meehan chalked it up to the pressures of the office and crucial votes on the Affordable Care Act last spring.

You can read all the details of Meehan's side of the story here.

The attorney for the woman involved in this situation is not thrilled with Meehan's decision break the confidentiality agreement - that he insisted on - and talk about the case. Meehan believes it was the woman who actually broke the deal.

Of course, the eventual arbiters of all this will be the voters in of the 7th District. As you might have heard, that may or may not be the same voters who have voted overwhelmingly for Meehan the last couple of elections, when the Republican routinely rolled up 60 percent of the vote.

That's because the state Supreme Court this week tossed out the state's Congressional map and ordered the Legislature to draw up a new one, agreeing with those who filed suit that the redistricting process was "gerrymandered" to protect Republican incumbents like Meehan.

The 7th District was Exhibit A in the case, wickedly twisted and contorted to take in parts of five different suburban counties.

Meehan already was likely looking at a stiffer challenge in the wake of the anti-Trump fervor that Democrats rode to huge wins in November, taking two seats on Delaware County Council for the first time in decades, and sweeping all three county row offices up for grabs.

Now add in what many people are still going to have trouble accepting: The use of public money to settle this case, despite Meehan's claim that it was little more than severance, much like any other employee would get when leaving a job. And there is the fact that all this happened while he was sitting on the House Ethics Committee, in judgment of other members who had gone astray when it comes to harassment cases.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., immediately removed Meehan from the committee and ordered an investigation into the case. He also suggested Meehan repay the money, which the congressman said he would if the committee finds that he did harass his aide.

So far Republicans have taken a somewhat tepid response to Meehan's plight, saying they would wait for all the facts to come out. It will be interesting to see if the party stands by their man, since Meehan made it clear that he has no plans to resign and intends to seek re-election. Could he possibly face a challenger in the Republican primary.

Of course, Democrats and others have not been nearly as lenient. Many of the slew of challengers seeking the Democratic nod to take him on in November immediately called on him to step down. So did Gov. Tom Wolf. Not among them was the one-time Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Daylin Leach, who had his own problems with claims of inappropriate behavior in his office.

The real judges in this case will be the voters of the 7th District.

Forget a tossup. This race just turned into a barn-burner.

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