Posted by Michael Bryan
Color me shocked. Seriously: shocked. Senator Abusive douche-bag Scott Bundgaard has resigned.
I was sure that the fix was in for Bundgaard, but apparently he got the word during the lunch break just before he was to testify that the votes were actually lining up – both on the committee and in the body as a whole – to convict him and expel him.
Apparently, the testimony was just so well-corroborated, and so damning, that not even jiggering the evidentiary standard was going to save his bacon. He recognized that he was about to be expelled and slunk away like a beaten dog.
He certainly didn't do it with any grace or sincere shame; he did it like a serial abuser.
First, he abused his girlfriend. Probably many times, as well as many others before her. Then he abused his position trying to avoid responsibility. Then he abused the legal system trying to keep the case out of the Senate Ethics Committee and then getting the evidentiary standard changed just for him. Then he abused the dignity of his office by attempting to slime his victim before the Senate, dragging this whole mess into public in the most high-profile way, hoping that his sick self-justifications would help him abuse whatever common sense the Arizona Senate has left.
He hasn't stopped being an abuser. He still shows classic signs of self-justification and narcissism that are characteristic of people who habitually use violence and intimidation in their personal relationships. He still believes he got a raw deal, not justice.
His mouthpiece delivered this shit sandwich after Bundgaard's resignation.
"As you know, Senator Bundgaard attempted to avoid facing a hearing contaminated with procedural infirmity, bias and prejudice. That effort failed. Senator Bundgaard participated in the hearing hoping against hope to have the opportunity to present his case in a fair and impartial forum. After a day and a half of the hearing, it became clear from the way in which the hearing proceeded and was presided over that the presentation of Senator Bundgaard's case would be pointless. Senator Bundgaard appreciates Senators Biggs' and Yarbrough's efforts to inject fairness into the process."
He blames a biased and prejudiced hearing process for his downfall, not what he clearly did to disgrace himself and his office. He is still pointing fingers at anyone and anything other than his own fucked-up, ego-maniacal self.
It is terribly sad, and sadly typical of abusive people like him, that Bundgaard failed to do the introspection and self-reevaluation necessary to make himself and better person as a result of being called on his illegal and unethical behavior. Bundgaard might have salvaged some grace from this situation had he attacked his own failings with the vigor with which he fought to avoid the consequences of his actions.
Get help, Mr. Bundgaard. It's you that is the problem.