Paul Stanley
On Monday, his last official day as state senator from District 31, Paul Stanley shared some of his thinking about the foibles of public life with a small group of established local political and governmental figures. The occasion, at the Crescent Club in East Memphis, was not political; rather, it was spiritual — this month’s installment of the prayer breakfasts held monthly by Dave Perdue, a CPA who has been a player in several major local politicians’ campaigns.
According to reports from those who were there, Stanley, who was this month’s keynote speaker at the breakfast, spoke on the theme that human conduct consistently falls short of Biblical ideals but that it is important all the same to pursue those ideals. The former senator was pressured to resign from the senate following disclosures of a blackmail plot relating to his sexual relationship with a legislative intern.
Owning up to his own shortcomings, Stanley reportedly said that politicians as a group are all “only an eighth of an inch from ending up in the newspapers” for this or that moral imperfection.
Among those attending this month’s gathering were state Representative Brian Kelsey and financial adviser/county school board president David Pickler, two of the declared candidates in the forthcoming special election to succeed Stanley in a Senate district that includes portions of East Memphis, Cordova, and Germantown.
Other attendees included state Representative Ron Lollar, Shelby County commissioners Mike Carpenter and George Flinn, and Memphis mayor pro tem Myron Lowery.
