Tennessee Congressman's Alleged Twitter Love Is Actually His Long Lost Daughter

[cali]

freepwads and other wingnut types have been waxing high indignant over this.

Rep. Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, attracted unwanted attention during the State of the Union address, when press reported on what appeared to be flirtatious tweets sent to a very pretty 24-year-old blonde. It didn't help Cohen's case when he then deleted the tweets just a few minutes. Oh no, it's another Weinergate only not as exciting because there's no penis photo, the conservative media crowed. Turns out Rep. Cohen actually has a very pretty 24-year-old daughter, a fact that has been kept secret from the public for, well, 24 years. Scandal dodged. Sort of.

t's actually pretty sweet story. Cohen told NBC News the whole thing on Thursday. Yes, Brinks has a secret daughter. Her name is Victoria Brink, and she appears to have had some sort of career as a bikini model. The congressman only found out about her three years ago. "I googled her mother, found out she had a child and the math looked pretty accurate," he said. "The mom told me we had a lot of catching up to do." Since then, Cohen's done his best to be a good dad. He's given her a tour of the Capitol and even took her to the White House Christmas party, where he asked the official photographer to take two pictures — one with him and Brinks together and one without Brinks — since nobody else knew about the situation. After that, Brinks took a trip to Memphis, Cohen's home district, though it's unclear if she hung out with dear old dad.


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http://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-congressmans-alleged-twitter-love-actually-long-lost-020703866.html

[BlueStreak]

1. Since when is it a "sweet story" when a man fathers a child and takes no responsibility?

Only in the "Republican family values" world could this be pitched as a wholesome thing.

Hey, I understand that we all make mistakes. And maybe it is true that this guy had absolutely no reason to ever suspect his mistake had such consequences. But that doesn't change the fact that he irresponsibly fathered a child.

And we all noticed that he never acknowledged this to his constituents until the tweets brought it out into the open. the fact that he deleted them quickly indicates he intended to keep this covered up.

[Melinda]

2. "Only in the "Republican family values" world: - except this guy is a Democrat

She's 24, he found out about her when she was 21. It appears he was irresponsible when young, now he's taking responsibility. Non-story, non issue, wrong outrage.

[BlueStreak]

5. My mistake. But I feel the same way. it is irresponsible -- not a "sweet story"

[Fawke Em]

3. Um... sounds to me like he didn't even know about the child until

she was a 21-year-old adult.

How could he take responsibility for someone he didn't know about?

[BlueStreak]

7. You don't think it is irresponsible to get a woman pregnant and then disappear?

If he didn't disappear, then he would have known about the pregnancy.

[Fumesucker]

15. How do you know he's the one who "disappeared"?

A congressman is not exactly a low profile position.

[upaloopa]

26. I had a few relationships in the early 80's

And since they did not last long I could only know if I am father by them telling me.
No one has so I assume I am not .
I don't think I am irresponsible because it takes two to get pregnant and I never raped anyone.

[Qanisqineq]

4. he didn't know about her until three years ago

when she was about 21.

[SoCalDem]

6. If Mom never told him, he did not shirk responsibility

casual "encounters" probably have created a LOT of offspring since..well forever..

If Mom does not follow through (for whatever reasons) the men ARE off the hook for support as long as that situation continues.

When a guy finds out that he has an adult child, it's often too late to "repay" financially, but a relationship as two related adults, where one (the parent) chooses to be in the other one's life, and to potentially help them, is about the best case scenario.

[BlueStreak]

8. "If the mother doesn't follow through, the man is off the hook"

I'll have to remember that. That was not what I previously understood as the definition of "responsibility".

[cali]

9. people have casual sex, one night stands.

and they don't follow through- whatever that means. I certainly didn't. I'm a woman.

[Puzzledtraveller]

21. I admit the thought has crossed my mind before a time or two

Though I have always been a good partner and was never one to sleep with persons I didn't atleast have some relationship with there was a time or two this could have happened and I would not know about it.

[SoCalDem]

11. How can you be financially responsible for a child you don't know you have?

The ball was in Mom's court and she chose NOT to tell him..

If anyone was "negligent". it was Mom.

[BlueStreak]

12. They were both negligent. That's the point.

It isn't a "sweet story". It is a case of people making mistakes and covering them up. And fortunately it seems, on the surface, like it will turn out OK for all parties. But I object to calling it a "sweet story". It is only sweet in comparison to the initial suspicions, which were that an old man was chasing after a hot 23-year-old.

[SoCalDem]

13. I never called it a "sweet story".. your beef is not with me

I commented with a fact-based "interest"..

[BlueStreak]

17. Agreed. YThe OP cited an article pitching this as a "sweet story"

using the headline "Tennessee Congressman's Alleged Twitter Love Is Actually His Long Lost Daughter".

The other side of "long lost daughter" is an irresponsible father (and possibly mother).

I am not arguing with you. I am simply objecting to the spin of this as some kind of magnificent, heroic story of family reunited. We should not be celebrating irresponsible parenting, regardless of whether the father or mother was more at fault.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. A man can't "take responsibility" for a child he doesn't know about.

What are you, 11?

Her mother kept his identity secret from her for 21 years. Knowing that, It is unsurprising that he wouldn't put her photo on his campaign literature.

[BlueStreak]

14. Do you think it is responsible to knock up a woman and then never have enough contact

to even know what you did?

I do not think that is responsible. I'm not saying we should throw the guy in jail, or even that he is unqualified to continue to hold office. That is up to the voters of Tennessee.

I am simply saying this is not a "sweet story". It is a story of "youthful indiscretions".

[Fumesucker]

16. Do you think it is responsible to get pregnant and then never have enough contact

to tell the father that he is in fact a father?

[BlueStreak]

20. Definitely not.

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. Her body, her choice.

People hook up every single day. That hookup does not make him responsible for her decisions.

For reasons entirely of her own, it was her choice to not inform him that he was going to be a father.

Yeah, I think it's awful. He was denied the opportunity to participate in his daughter's life.

[cali]

19. I think you're being silly.

not to mention that irresponsible and sweet aren't mutually exclusive. the sweet part of the story, I assume, is that he found his daughter and they developed a relationship.

[sufrommich]

22. Most people have had sex with people

they haven't actually had a "relationship" with,there is nothing odd or irresponsible about that. What was he supposed to do ,call her nine months later and say,"hey,I didn't get you pregnant,did I?"

[HappyMe]

23. People have sex that doesn't

involve a relationship or undying love. For whatever reason, this woman chose not to contact him. She also chose to have the baby. He didn't know about his daughter until she was 21. There isn't much he could have done because he didn't know about her.

I think it's nice that they have a relationship now.

[Sheldon Cooper]

24. Your reaction to this seems to be really over the top.

How can he possibly be responsible if he never knew he'd fathered this child? Women sometimes get pregnant from one-nighters or short-term relationships and don't tell the father, and there can be many reasons why they do so. Some may have a good reason and some may not, but it doesn't necessarily make him irresponsible.

And furthermore, unless she had a very good reason for keeping it a secret, I would be critical of her choice to deprive her child of its father - I think that's cruel.

[CreekDog]

28. So what we need to do is decide if this man was a responsible person in 1987?

Am I hearing this correctly?

We can talk about a lot of things here, and we do.

I'm just wondering if I'm supposed to be outraged based on what I know (that he didn't know about the child until recently).

If I don't know enough to be justifiably outraged, am I supposed to stop paying attention to other news until I have enough information to be outraged about the fling he had in 1987?

Is that what we do now?

[indepat]

27. This, imo, maybe drops Congressman Cohen a notch or two in my book, maybe toward

the bottom among the tier of the five best Congressmen in Washington. How I wish he were my Congressman. Let those who have never had sexual relations outside of marriage be the first to cast stones.

[Lochloosa]

25. And this post is useless without a Pic....

[Lint Head]

29. I wish the private lives of people was more private. All people can do is speculate when things

like this happen.