Adrian Smith's Disappearing Act

"The Threesome" - Schelske, Evans, and Smith at happier times

For months, 3rd District Congressional candidate Adrian Smith had dedicated an entire section of his website to his reception with country music star Sara Evans and her husband Craig Schelske. At www.joinadrian.com/sara.htm, Smith had photo after photo of himself, Evans, and Schelske posing with supporters and contributors who'd paid for the opportunity.

Well, today, that site has vanished, available only with the pictures removed thanks to the magic of Google.

Why would Smith remove this page? What could he possibly be hiding? Let me go out on a limb and guess that it has something to do with the following report from ABC News:

Country singer and "Dancing With the Stars" contestant Sara Evans is alleging in divorce papers filed Thursday that her husband, Craig Schelske, cheated on her, drank excessively, was verbally and emotionally abusive, and often watched pornography in their house.

The 35-year-old Evans alleges that Schelske has photographs of himself having sex with other women, and that he has at least 100 nude photos of himself "in a state of arousal."

Evans also says that Schelske watched pornography on the couple's computer and made requests online for sex with multiple partners.

She alleges that their oldest child confronted Schelske while he was watching porn on their TV.

On Thursday, Evans dropped out of "Dancing With the Stars" and announced that she was filing for divorce....

Evans and Schelske, 43, married in 1993 and have three children, ages 7, 3 and 2.

In 2002, Schelske ran for Congress as a Republican in Oregon.

Schelske, as was recognized on Smith's website, is also the chairman of his own Political Action Committee, the humbly-named CRAIG PAC. Before their site disappears as well:

Craig Schelske is the Chairman of CRAIG PAC, a national political action committee dedicated to electing Republicans at the federal and state level....

Professionally, Craig is a business executive who has enjoyed great success as a marketing and career strategist. He is currently the President of Gingerdog, Inc., specializing in guiding the entrepreneurial aims for Sara Evans' entertainment career.

I guess they don't make "social conservatives" like they used to. It's not my place to judge Schelske, Evans, their sexual habits, or the conditions on which their marriage was based. But these folks are pretty clearly out of line with the common Third District conception of family values. Also, as an observer of Nebraska politics, I'd be remiss if I hadn't noticed how quickly Smith tried to erase what had clearly been one of the highlights of his campaign.

Smith should be getting used to this constant game of damage control. Between the friendly relations with Schelske and his standing behind the Republican leaders who covered-up Congressman Mark Foley's sexual abuse of teenaged boys, voters are bound to start asking questions about Smith's character and about the company he keeps.

Unfortunately for Smith, not everything can be covered-up by simply deleting it from a website.