I had said that this affair was the end of Mayor Megan Barry's political career.  I was not sure if she would resign or would finish out her term and move onto some other path.  I don't see this as a redemption thing a la Gavin Newsome who rode out a similar path to the Lt. Governor gig in California and a Governor run which is likely he will get given his popularity. I have always thought when I first met Gavin he was a sharp cookie and the fact he is laser handsome doesn't hurt.  We always forgive handsome men for their indiscretions and apparently fat ugly ones too clearly as Trump has shown.

However for women the bar is higher and thinner.  We have to be attractive and smart not too smart but charming.  We can't be angry, childless or any kind of Lesbian as that again makes people just a little uncomfortable. And let's never go past age 40 cause the vadge is dry and well no one likes  a dry hole.

Barry's major mistake was she is attractive in that Nashville way and she had an equal as a husband and her son's death due to drugs just made her more real in that sort of we love a fallen soldier kind of Jesus way they have here.  She was liberal but not too liberal and she had one agenda - Transit - which is desperately needed and very bi-partisan, well as much as that could be here.

But this affair was all they (whoever "they" are) to swoop in and tear the plan apart.  There is a story why suddenly at this moment this affair ended but I am not past anyone here investigating their enemy in order to get one up. This is one place where Christianity is a hypocrisy wrapped in a lie.  I kid not here when I say that lying while talking is a professional sport and the idea that anger is best turned outward.

So Barry's career is over. Redemption is for the Church not the streets and when I found out this woman was going on overseas trips, personal family memorials with a security "detail" I thought this is weird.  In Seattle the Mayor who had molested boys in the past, been investigated for such and had a very hostile relationship in the State Congress where he served for years.  No one I knew liked him and yet he was elected and I doubt he would have been re-elected as his term was already full of strum and drang but hard to know. But that all changed when the allegations emerged and I used to see him and his husband on the streets, in Nordstrom all the time.  He never had security detail and given this you think he would but no.

Other Mayor's have had some but this traveling overseas nonsense was one step too far.  Sorry but who the fuck is after the Mayor in Athens Greece?  And why is she going there at all?  Again all of this was odd and should have been red flagged way earlier on but again this is Nashville and self importance and delusion are all taught in the Church and reinforced in the home. Barry is from Kansas but really all of this is part of the brush of living here.

And sure enough the facts of the truth which is again challenging here are being revealed and sure enough these trips are under question.   To that I say, really?

Mayor Megan Barry routinely traveled without security prior to affair, records show

Dave Boucher, USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee Published Feb. 6, 2018

Despite previous statements from Mayor Megan Barry about needing to travel with a police officer for safety, records released Monday show the mayor routinely went on trips without security from her inauguration in September 2015 to June 2016.

Last week, Barry acknowledged the affair with Sgt. Rob Forrest, a police officer and head of her security detail. She said the affair began in the spring of 2016 and the affair is over, although she would not say when it ended.

Forrest, who formally retired Jan. 31, traveled with Barry on out-of-town trips beginning in June 2016, including nine trips in 2017 during which he was the only city employee to accompany the mayor.

In her first nine months in office, Barry, a Democrat, took nine out-of-town business trips, according to travel records. On six trips she went by herself or with other city employees who were not police officers.

On three trips during that time period she traveled with other city employees and security, twice with Forrest. The first travel with only Barry and Forrest was a Chattanooga trip from June 30 to July 1, 2016.

In a statement Monday evening, Barry's spokesman explained the change in security traveling with the mayor.

"This was based on the recommendations of the police department that Mayor Barry have police detail on all official business trips, increases in terrorist attacks and mass shootings both domestic and international, and because we had an opportunity to learn what worked best in terms of logistics for travel," Barry spokesman Sean Braisted said in a statement released with the travel records.

Opinion Editor and Engagement Director David Plazas discusses the reactions that Nashville had to the news of Mayor Megan Barry's affair with former Metro Nashville Police Sgt. Robert Forrest Jr.

The day she admitted to the affair, Barry said, “when I came into office, (Police Chief Steve Anderson) said that you are always the mayor and you should be secured appropriately.”

Last week, Anderson said the affair was "improper," but he did not see any immediate violations of department policy.

Police spokesman Don Aaron said Anderson believes the mayor needs security but added that the chief never spoke with Barry about having security on specific trips.

"We are prepared with contingency plans in place for a variety of scenarios that may occur at any time," police spokeswoman Kris Mumford said.

"Events/persons of concern are monitored/evaluated on an ongoing basis to ensure the mayor’s safety in these challenging times."
Records show no security threats against Nashville mayors

Nashville police have no records of investigations into any security threats against a city mayor in at least 19 years.

"We do not have a record of investigations into specific security threats for this administration or the previous two. Any issues that may have occurred in the field were handled in the field," Mumford said in an email.

Late Monday, Braisted said he did not know when the conversation with Anderson referenced by Barry occurred. Braisted provided no new details when asked about the police department's statement that there were no investigations of any security threats against the mayor.

Aaron also said, "the MNPD has not received any communication from U.S. Homeland Security, the FBI, etc., concerning mayoral security outside of Nashville."

Full event of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry addressing the media Michael Schwab

The lack of previous police investigations and security incidents could be an issue in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation inquiry into whether Barry or Forrest misappropriated public funds or engaged in official misconduct.

A specific, known security threat would bolster the necessity of Barry taking security on out-of-town trips.

Karl Dean, mayor from 2007 to 2015, and Bill Purcell, mayor from 1999 to 2007, did not travel with a security detail on trips that required a flight.

The mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, does not travel with security but the mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, does. Both mayors are women and lead cities roughly the same size as Nashville.

Female mayors of three other cities smaller than Nashville said they never or rarely travel with security.

Barry and Forrest flew in 2017 to Kansas City, San Francisco and Athens, Greece, for conferences and other events.

The city said Monday that Barry and Forrest remained a total of four extra days in those cities combined. Taxpayer money paid for Forrest's room for the four additional nights when the mayor had no events on her schedule.