[UPDATE]: It has just come out that apparently Ms. Brink is Rep. Cohen’s… daughter. Which certainly does put a somewhat different spin on things. For one thing, it makes the entire exchange non-creepy. …Sorry about that.

They call that “Jeffrey-Tubing*” where I come from… well, no, they don’t. They should, though.

Anyway, background: Steve Cohen is a miserable little suckweasel of a Congressman from Tennessee’s Ninth District who somehow manages to find primary challengers who are worse than he is, which is saying something. Victoria Brink is, and I am quoting the Hill on this one**, “a Texas State University blonde bombshell featured in a college co-ed calendar.”

[pause]

…Yessss. This will no doubt end well.

Anyway, yesterday night and this morning these two Tweets went out from the former to the latter:

pleased u r watching .ilu

nice to know you were watchin SOTU(state of the union).Happy Valentines beautiful girl. ilu

‘ilu,’ as the Hill helpfully tells us, is short for ‘I love you’ (or ‘I like you,’ but the first one is more fun). It’s kind of entertaining to contemplate that Cohen didn’t have to explain THAT acronym while telling Ms. Brink what “SOTU” stood for, though.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. You’re thinking Geez, Mr. Lane: who among us has not regularly corresponded with out-of-district hot bikini coeds who are one-third our ages? Why, you’re a political blogger, Moe! They must throw themselves at you by the dozen! …And it’s true: they do. It’s quite inconvenient, at times. But I have this rule about being a bachelor Congressman who goes around sending probably-meant-to-be-DMs to the “the daughter of a longtime friend;” yeah, I don’t do any of that.

Because it’s CREEPY, that’s why. Especially from the member of a party which is theoretically supposed to be against powerful old men being creepy towards young ladies.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*After Jeffrey Toobin, who started the practice when he allegedly knocked up a professional colleague’s daughter, then allegedly tried to get her to have an abortion. Because, you know, the media is there to safeguard our morals for us.

**Well, the Hill’s gossip blog. …Yes, Western Civilization is doomed.