by Judson Phillips
On Wednesday evening, the rumors that had been percolating through downtown Nashville all day were finally shown to be true.
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry admitted that she had an extramarital affair. But it was not just any extramarital affair. She was having an affair with a Nashville employee who was paid to protect her.
Metro police sergeant Rob Forrest was assigned to protect the Mayor and traveled with her extensively. According to media reports, Barry traveled with Forrest at least nine times alone. According to other media reports, in the last two years alone, Forrest made $135,000 in overtime. That overtime is in addition to his regular salary and for the trips he took with the Mayor on the taxpayer’s dime.
Neither Barry or Forrest are giving details, such as the time frame of the affair, presumably on the advice of their lawyers. Until there is evidence to the contrary, sane people have to assume they were having their affair while he was on duty and they were traveling together.
Megan Barry used tax dollars to help pay for her affair. And she had that affair with someone who works for the city.
All of this belies a more serious question. Why does Megan Barry have a body guard? She is the Mayor of Nashville. She isn’t the President of the United States. Unless there is a real threat, the Mayor of Nashville or for that matter any other American city, does not need a bodyguard.
Bodyguards and police details have become status symbols among the liberal politicians that rule America’s big cities. With protective details, the mayor does not need to drive any more. Annoying media? No, the bodyguards will chase them away. Waiting in line? That is for the little people, not Mayors with bodyguards. They immediately move to the front of the line.
On Tuesday, January 23rd, I flew from Nashville to Washington DC on Southwest Airlines. Who else was on the flight? Megan Barry and bodyguard. Because of a tight schedule on arrival, I paid for business select and I was A1 on the boarding list.
Who boarded first?
You guessed it. The Mayor and her body guard.
When I complained to the Southwest gate attendant about this, I was told it was a “security” issue and Barry was allowed on the plane first because of that.
There was no security issue. Everyone at the airport had been through TSA security checkpoints.
Barry just wanted to board first with her bodyguard. After all, the powerful liberal elites don’t wait with the rest of us mere citizens. They get special privileges.
Barry and the fawning, liberal Nashville media are trying the Clinton defense. It was just a personal matter. If Barry was carrying on an affair with someone down the street, who did not work for the city, that would be a plausible argument. She misused government funds for her own personal benefit and the benefit of her paramour.
For that, she needs to resign.
How can anyone, let alone the city of Nashville, ever trust her again? I want my taxpayer dollars back. She should have no recourse but to resign or we, the people, should physically remove her from office.
Dinglebarry “I knew the affair was wrong, but I did it anyway”, “God will forgive me, but the people in Nashville don’t have to”…. What a joke!
Here’s a few words that are synonymous with Megan Barry: Slut, cheater, liar, narcissism, crooked, bribery, hypocrite
exactly the values I want to see in a mayor…
You’re right. Those aren’t mayoral values. Those are presidential ones.
Mr. Phillips’s observations might be the just the beginning. Imagine how many other people have observed transgressions by the mayor, and didn’t realize it. Now that the provebial “cat is out of the bag”, let the games begin! Also, how many others of her “security detail” saw stuff?
Regarding the comment, “she’s an attractive lady”…. she ain’t no lady and the only thing she attracts are flies!
Mayor Moonbeam Barry is a cloned and predictable California liberal replete with hypocrisy. Her (and most of city council’s) goal is to swiftly destroy what remains of Nashville and have the city re-named to Nash Francisco. She idolizes the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi and may be one of the most destructive and abusive mayors that Nashville has ever seen. Hopefully she will come to her senses and do the right thing by resigning within in the coming days.
Why do Nashvillians continue to vote the liberals in? Nashville has been run by the left for many years and where has it got you? But you continue to vote for the liberal! I moved from Metro Nashville in 2000 because the handwriting was on the wall.
Her and her lover need to pay the funds they misappropriated back to the city of Nashville. They should both be terminated from their positions!
As a heterosexual male I must admit Megan Barry is an attractive lady. However, she’s far left and I crook to the right.
Attractive? That’s a laugh!
Isn’t this a case of sexual harassment on her part? Of course, we know that if the genders were reversed and it was a male who had inappropriate sexual contact with a female who worked for him, or if she were a Republican, the cries for a resignation would be deafening.
In my humble opinion, this blow up came from the security officer’s wife, who threatened to go to the media if Barry didn’t fess up to the affair. Barry figured the only way that she could stay in power was to contritely go to the media first.
Judson Phillips makes some excellent points.
1). I agree that having a body guard has become a status symbol among the lib/left elites. And Mayor Moonbeam definitely fits that category.
But, 2). if the Police Commissioner told her that she needs a security guard at all working times, I want to know why. Why would a mayor of a middle sized city have such a need?
If there is a problem about the safety and security of the mayor of Nashville Is there something that Homeland Security and the Metro Police know and aren’t sharing with us?
If your husband can’t trust you, neither can the voters of Nashville.
Perhaps Bill Boner can loan her his harmonica.
Jud,
Don’t hold your breath until she does resign.
It’s not in the DNA of a liberal to quit,
Hillary is still running for President a year after she lost.
I agree, Mayor Barry should resign immediately. She compromised her own integrity, what else has she compromised for this city in lieu of ethics? This connection she has with a Metro Police Sargeant as her “body guard” at tax payer expense makes me wonder in what other ways has she used our city’s resources for her personal interests. And in what ways has our city’s security been compromised by special favors and special interest for her lover who holds an influential position himself- that kind of connection can be at odds with our Mayor position. Our Mayor is one part of our check and balance system to maintain our city’s best interests, growth and protect our civil liberties. As Mayor Barry spoke at the Women’s March did she think to herself “if they only knew”? Let’s face it, if she were a man in this position there would be no question that HE should resign.
I agree with you 100%.
Did anyone see any tears from Dinglebarry yesterday? She smiled and almost laughed a few times. She is only sorry she got caught.
Contrary to what you think of yourself, but you are not a beauty queen, Megan!!
We need a way to correct mistakes, Steve.
Democrats don’t resign. You have to physically remove them from office as they hang on by their fingernails.
As a sidebar here, DeCosta Hastings has been a vocal defender of Barry since this broke. He was the former CEO of the Nashville Electric Service. Is this what he permitted there? I observed him there on a few occasions and I’d like to see how they handled boss-employee screwing on the job during his reign of error.
You have one DeCosta confused with another DeCosta.
DeCosta Jenkins is the NES CEO.
Her entitlement and hypocrisy is brazen. Time for her to go.