David Harris under investigation

It pains me to report that David Harris is in some serious trouble with the military.

Harris, an Iraqi war veteran challenging 11-term Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Arlington, is accused of "conduct unbecoming an officer" for maintaining a "close and continuing relationship" with a female Army sergeant from 2003 though 2005, a military investigator said.

Military regulations forbid such relationships.

Maj. Frank Torres, the Army Reserve officer who investigated the allegations, said military officials are still deciding whether to proceed with a court-martial against Harris, who is a major. The complaint that sparked the investigation was filed by Jennifer Vaughan, 33, of Arlington, who was demoted by her commander after she acknowledged that she had an affair.

[...]

Vaughan transferred from the Army Reserve to the Air Force Reserve after returning from Iraq. She said she lodged a complaint because she was demoted in her new assignment from staff sergeant to senior airman while no action was being contemplated against Harris.

Her supervisors in the Air Force Reserve had already been alerted to the affair, but they had no authority over Harris.

"Why do I, as an enlisted person, have to lose a stripe over this while nothing happens to the officer?" Vaughan, who served as Harris' driver in Iraq, told the Star-Telegram. "I'm doing it because I have been treated so bad as an enlisted [person]. And as an officer, he's getting away with it, and now he's running for Congress."

Vaughan said that she and Harris ended their relationship in 2005. She turned over e-mail correspondence between her and Harris to Army investigators. She also provided copies to the Star-Telegram.

Vaughan has also sent a letter to Barton seeking his office's help to transfer to another Air Force Reserve unit. Murphy said Barton's office forwarded the letter to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to avoid any appearance of partisan politics. Hutchison's spokeswoman said the senator typically does not discuss correspondence with constituents.

Torres, the Army investigator, said he interviewed Harris and "a dozen or so witnesses" during his six-week inquiry and found nothing to contradict Vaughan's assertions about her relationship with Harris. Torres declined to discuss the specifics, saying only that his report has been turned over to his superiors.

"All I can say is that I did a thorough investigation into the allegations," Torres said. "This is something the military takes very seriously. The military has very specific guidelines as it relates to relationships between officers and enlisted personnel."

I am quite fond of the Harris family. After seeing a blog post last year saying that we were preparing to evacuate for Hurricane Rita, Michelle Harris wrote me to offer their house as a refuge for me and my family. Though we had other arrangements in place, I remain very touched by their generosity. I consider David and Michelle to be good people, and I'm very sad to see them go through this.

Having said that, this is a mess that's entirely of David Harris' making. As the story notes, these allegations first came up some months ago. Jennifer Vaughan emailed me (among many other people) back then to draw attention to them. I was told by the Harrises that this was a minor issue and that it had been dealt with. I chose to believe them. Clearly, that was not the case. They're paying the price for that now.

If this were just a matter of infidelity, I wouldn't care very much. Lord knows, there's way more adulterers in Congress - hell, in every level of government - than there are publicly known adulterers. We've managed to survive as a republic somehow. Some well-known adulterers have done and are doing pretty well after their doings became unsecret - Bill Clinton, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, etc etc etc. As is so often the case, it's the coverup that's worse. Add in the possibility of military sanctions for fraternization, and it gets uglier.

Texas Kaos has more. I wish the Harris family well in putting this matter behind them. I wish even more that David Harris' actions had not put himself, his family, and the voters of CD06 who want better representation, in this position.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 01, 2006 to Scandalized! | TrackBack