You take money from a colleague. You spend the money. You find out the colleague is a child predator. The next decision isn't very hard. Watch video
You'd think that a sitting congressman who took campaign money from a serial child molester, even if it was out of ignorance 10 years ago, would have the sense to give it back.
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th) didn't know his donor was an abuser at the time of the transaction, of course, but it doesn't seem to matter to him anyway. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who knew something about keeping his nose in the political trough - his personal wealth grew from $270,000 to estimates as high as $17 million during his time in Congress - gave Garrett a total of $15,000 over the years, according to FEC contribution records.
Yet when state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) called him out on it a few weeks ago, Garrett's response was so dismissive it was troubling.
The North Jersey congressman is, as Vitale and others view it, demonstrating that he is comfortable "putting the interest of sex offenders before the safety of our community." It's not hard to support the point: Garrett's grim record on victims' issues stretches back to his days in the Assembly, when he voted against mandatory minimums for repeat sex offenders under Megan's Law, and he voted against creating rape crisis centers.
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Garrett didn't evolve much by the time he reached Congress. In 2013, he was one of only 9 of 435 members of the House to vote against a bill that strengthened and reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act.
So he is being consistent in refusing to reject support from Hastert, who is in federal prison for his own child abuse scandal, after sexually molesting four boys and then paying $3.5 million in hush money.
You'd think that Garrett would be ashamed to have any association with a child predator, and give his money to charity, as other Republicans did. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) gave $11,000 he received from Hastert to a group that fights child abuse. Rep. Eric Paulsen (R-Mn.) gave $1,000 to help domestic violence victims. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) redirected $11,000 to a nonprofit that provides afterschool programs.
But Garrett, whose last donation from Hastert was in 2008, just dug in.
According to The Record, Garrett issued a statement that calls Hastert "repugnant," but adds that the money was spent a long time ago, and that his opponent in the upcoming election, Josh Gottheimer, has failed to "denounce the DCCC and House Majority PAC for hundreds of thousands of dollars" they have taken "from a man they knew at the time to be a convicted wife beater."
That's a desperate, if not ludicrous, false equivalency.
The "convicted wife beater" was Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid, a billionaire adviser to the Saudi royal family, who pleaded guilty two years ago to a domestic assault charge. After the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee redirected $2,000 of Al-Rashid's money to his campaign, Gottheimer donated it to Center for Hope and Safety, a shelter for abuse victims in Hackensack.
So Gottheimer responded swiftly and appropriately.
It's hard to know what's keeping Garrett from doing the same, other than some cringe-worthy principle that he can't take responsibility for money already spent. His campaign didn't respond to inquiries.
"He's either spectacularly ignorant or stubborn," Vitale said. "There shouldn't be a personal or political statute of limitations to stand up for victims of child sex abuse and against the abuser. Returning the money, even long after it's been spent, sends a message of support to them and tells Hastert he is a disgrace."
We agree. Because only in Scott Garrett's alternate universe should one be allowed to condemn a man's crime, but accept his gifts.
More: Recent Star-Ledger editorials.
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