I posted this diary last night regarding a conspiracy theorist, gay-hating teabagger's victory in Tennessee's Dem primary this past Thurday. I thought that was bad. But it gets worse.
In the comments section a truly disgusting fact about one of the losing candidates was brought to light.
While he came in last, Thomas Ken (T.K) Owens, who had been arrested for soliciting oral sex fron a 7 year old in May 2011, apparantly decided that was not reason enough to keep him from running for one of the nation's highest offices. And apparently the party has no background checks in place to catch this kind of shit.
East Tennessee candidate for U.S. Senate faces child sex charge
Authorities say the alleged incident occurred in Carter County in May 2011, when a seven-year-old girl riding her bike in front of the apartment of Thomas Ken "T.K." Owens was invited inside.
The 36-year-old then allegedly hugged the girl, unzipped his pants, and asked her to perform a sex act. The girl ran home and told her mother, who notified police.
Owens told investigators the girl had been in his apartment. As for the allegation, he said, "I have a problem with that," but did not elaborate.
How the hell was this guy allowed on the ballot? What the hell is going on with the Tennessee Democratic Party and/or the DNC? It doesn't matter that the guy lost or that he never had a chance. We cannot be having sex offenders on our ballots. We just cannot. Surely there must be steps that can be taken to make sure this doesn't happen in the future. Perhaps Tree Climbers might have some suggestions.
It seems the Democratic Party should implement a policy in every state that all candidates, at minimum for all federal office, preferably for all offices period, must submit themselves to a criminal background check.Time to take a basic step toward getting our house in order. The least we can do is not run fucking child molesters for god's sake.