Illinois Congressman's Aide Arrested For Run-In With Lindsay Lohan

There are two things Illinois political scandals don’t have enough of: sex, and movie stars. It’s always some fat guy taking a bribe from some other fat guy. Now, finally we have some glamour. An aide to Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, a congressman no one has heard of, was arrested Sunday morning for assaulting Lindsay Lohan, an actress everyone has heard of and seen nude in Playboy.

According to the gossip website TMZ:

Christian LaBella was busted early this morning after he allegedly attacked Lohan following a dispute over a picture he took of the actress on his phone.

LaBella was arrested following the alleged run-in with Lohan on two misdemeanor counts of assault and two charges of harassment.

LaBella, a Californian who works part-time in Shimkus’s Washington, D.C., office, ended up in a hotel room with Lohan and some other friends after a night of clubbing in Manhattan. When Lohan discovered he’d taken pictures of her with his cell phone, she grabbed the phone. Lohan claimed that LaBella threw her on the bed and scratched her when she wouldn’t return it.

The New York Daily News reported that “the assault charge was to be tossed hours later because Lohan refused medical attention and did not appear to be seriously hurt, sources said.” LaBella and Lohan “filed harassment complaints against each other — but the charge is so minor they won’t even have to appear in court, sources said.”

It sounds as though LaBella will have to face an angry boss -- if indeed he ever returns to work after embarrassing Shimkus by getting his name into a story that transcended politics and made the celebrity scandal sheets.

"While no one from Congressman Shimkus' office has been contacted by Mr. LaBella following his arrest, he has been an employee in the Congressman's Washington office,” a spokesman for Shimkus said. “Obviously, the Congressman does not condone his actions.”

Lohan stars in the upcoming Lifetime movie Liz and Dick as Elizabeth Taylor, whose celebrity advanced a politician's career. In 1978, Taylor helped her sixth husband, John Warner, win election to the U.S. Senate from Virginia.

 This month, Ward Room blogger Edward McClelland’s Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President will be available on Kindle for $9.99. Tracing Obama’s career in Chicago from his arrival as a community organizer to his election to the U.S. Senate, Young Mr. Obama tells the story of how a callow, presumptuous young man became a master politician, and of why only Chicago could have produced our first black president.

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