Story Archive

Leading by Example

“God I want you right now,” John Diehl texted. “I wish you could have me right now,” Katie Graham said in reply. Diehl said he “will have my way with you” and “leave you quivering.” On the other hand, Diehl tells her later, “You have always been disappointed” when she asks him to “take care of me.” Diehl, 49, was the Republican speaker of the Missouri state House of Representatives, and Graham, 19, is a college freshman — and was working as an intern at the state capitol. In screen shots of the texts, it can be seen that Graham changed the legislator’s name in her phone from “John” to “Frank Underwood” — the name of a fictional Congressman on the TV show House of Cards who has an affair with a younger woman. When the Kansas City Star published the messages, Diehl, a “pro-family values” Republican who is married and has three children, resigned; Missouri Southern State University had already pulled all of its interns out of the capitol. (RC/Kansas City Star, KCTV Kansas City) ...Why is it that so many politicians who work to legislate morals can’t live up to their own edicts?