Air Force Major General Christopher Finerty, the branch’s chief liaison to Capitol Hill who had something of a reputation of a sex machine until he was removed from the job for about five too many liaisons, apparently liaised with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, ProPublica has determined.

The investigative reporting outfit’s sources also believe that Ernst liaised with the Finnerty’s Naval counterpart back in 2019. In case you weren’t following “liaising” is euphemism for “fucking” here.

Anyway the thing with Finerty isn’t terribly scandalous given that both he and Ernst are single and, though ProPublica identifies the officer as a “lobbyist,” and quotes from a former officer who worked for Finerty who said the perception in the office was that the liaising “absolutely gave the Air Force undue influence,” which sounds like bullshit. What corrupt dimension could be found to such a relationship? “Oh Finnerty liaised Ernst all night long and talked her into an NDAA amendment putting more money towards books and computers for kids at Air Force base schools!”

But yeah, obviously the problem was with Finerty’s reputation and probably conduct unbecoming and what not. And the actual possible scandal was pointed out by DecisionDesk’s Nick Field, who tweeted “Gee, I wonder why Joni Ernst dropped her opposition to Pete Hegseth’s DoD nomination. Good thing there wasn’t an embarrassing story that someone could use to threaten her…”