The Murphy Thingy
It’s the New York Post, and so there are pictures. One shows Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy canoodling with “Courier Newsroom publisher Tara McGowan, 39, last Monday by the bar at the Red Hen, located just one mile north of Capitol Hill.”
?
?
The canoodle occurred one day or night prior to Murphy’s well-advertised absence from President Donald Trump’s recent Joint Address to Congress. ?Murphy has said attendance at what was essentially a “campaign rally” involving the whole U.S. Congress – though Democrat congresspersons signaled their displeasure at the event by stonily sitting on their hands during the applause lines – was inconsistent with his dignity as a significant part of the permanent opposition to Trump.
?
?
Reaching for his moral Glock Murphy recently told the Hartford Courant that Democrat Party opposition to President Donald Trump should be unrelenting and unforgiving: “I think people won’t trust you if you run a campaign saying that if Donald Trump is elected, he’s an existential threat to democracy, [and a fascist as well] and then you retreat. If he’s such a threat to democracy, then you need to be fighting every day… I haven’t been shy about my belief that the Democratic (sic) Party is pretty broken as a brand. We also have to do some hard work to make sure that people know we are the party that actually stands for the breakup of concentrated power, increasing wages, and the pushback against the corporate control of our economy. So this can’t be all resistance. We’ve got to do some work to rebuild who the Democratic Party is and what we stand for.”
?
?
The headline on the Post story reads “Dem Sen. Chris Murphy caught ‘cuddling’ on date with progressive media publisher — amid separation from his wife.”
?
?
One picture shows “Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) … ‘cuddling’ with Courier Newsroom publisher Tara McGowan last Monday by the bar at the Red Hen. Obtained by The Post.”
?
?
“McGowan,” we are told. “was until last year married to Michael Halle, a fellow Dem strategist and former senior adviser to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He also served on the presidential campaigns of Buttigieg, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The Courier founder and publisher filed for divorce in May 2023, citing “irreconcilable differences,” and the marriage was dissolved the following year in April, Rhode Island state court filings show.”
?
?
McGowan’s Courier and Murphy have in the past, according to the Post, been politically intimate: “The for-profit news organization — funded by the liberal billionaires George Soros and Reid Hoffman — is also one of several lefty pop-up groups that McGowan has founded since the first Trump administration.
In 2017, she co-founded Lockwood Strategy, a political campaign firm that helped Virginia Democrats retake the state legislature within two years. Digital ads rolled out by Lockwood also helped clients such as Planned Parenthood and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.”
?
?
There is a witness, unnamed, to the cuddle quoted by the paper, “The source said Murphy wrapped his arm around McGowan’s shoulder at one point, and the two were ‘being cutesy’ while scanning the menu together for rustic Italian fare.”
?
?
According to the Post, “The cozy outing took place the night before President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, which the senator sat out. The Democratic lawmaker is apparently still married to his wife, Cathy Holahan, a lawyer based in Washington, as neither has filed for divorce in Connecticut or DC, per public court records. The couple announced they were parting ways last November.” And then the crusher follows: “A DC Dem insider told Semafor that McGowan is having a love affair with the senator — and shared a selfie of them on her private Instagram last week with the caption ‘not postponing joy.’” The selfie and titillating note has since been removed from McGowan’s Instagram page.
?
?
Murphy’s separation from his wife of (11) years was jointly announced in an email to their close friends published soon after the 2024 election by the Hartford Courant: “After much reflection and discussion, we have decided to separate as a couple. We do so with deep care and respect for each other, and with a focus on continuing to be friends and loving, collaborative parents to our boys whom we adore. This was a difficult decision, but we believe that it is right for us, and we are going to move onto this new path the right way. We will continue to support each other personally and professionally. And we hope you all will stay connected with both of us.”
?
?
These revelations, if true, may not be conducive to a smooth divorce, but will they adversely impact Murphy’s political future? Wives and husbands looking forward to a separation and possible divorce that will end in “mutual support” on both sides are sometimes put off by such disclosures. Need one mention that Murphy’s possibly distressed wife is a lawyer in Washington D.C.? who in the past has smilingly supported her husband’s thus far successful political career.
?
?
Putting aside moral questions, there are limits to the sturdy approbation of politically faithful wives.?