If you’ve been following Tennessee politics the past few days, you’ve probably heard about the supposed “scandal” involving alleged “pantless” photos of Julia Hurley, seeking the Republican nomination for the state house from Tennessee’s 32nd district. The story caught my attention as I live in the 32nd district.

Hurley, it should be mentioned, is a model by profession.

Blogger extraordinaire David Oatney has obtained the the photos in question, requests for which I’m sure have been burning search engines that last couple days. I won’t post them here because I’m not sure about copyright issues, but if you want to see them, head over to David’s blog. But I have to tell you, you’ll probably be disappointed. They’re completely work safe.

David Oatney sums up my views on the matter:

I’m sorry, but these pictures just aren’t scandalous, especially considering Ms. Hurley’s line of work. Neither of them show Hurley naked, despite the efforts by some people to pass them off as nude photographs-they are not, and it is a disservice both to Julia Hurley and to the voters to pass them off as such. It can certainly be argued that the pictures are “suggestive,” as some might say, but they are modelling pictures. Any man or woman who has ever seen a copy of the Victoria’s Secret catalogue has seen pictures that are far more suggestive than this.

Apparently it was a slow news day at the Roane County News, which ran a really over-the-top article about the matter. Hurley’s primary opponent offered this response to the photos: “I’m speechless right now… I’m surprised,” indicating he’s never seen a PG-13 movie before or spent very little time looking at photos on Facebook.

At the end of the day, I doubt this whole brouhaha will have much impact on the primary, other than perhaps discouraging good people from seeking elective office, lest some otherwise innocent photo be portrayed as evil by the media and her opponents. It’s a shame that campaigns (and newspapers) can’t focus on issues instead of tabloid-worthy non-stories.