Why Is Obama’s “Body-Man” Reggie Love Leaving?

First Posted on November 16, 2011 by Dr. Eowyn | 53 Comments

On Nov. 10, 2011, the New York Times (NYT) reports that Reggie Love, Obama’s 30-year-old “personal aide, shadow, caretaker, basketball buddy and roving diplomat” and all-around “body man” made “what friends and colleagues called a painful decision to leave the president’s side” at the end of this year.

Barry and his 6'5" "body man" Reggie Love

Reggie began working for Barry after he graduated from Duke University (where he played basketball) with a B.A. in political science/public policy and won what the NYT calls “a low-level job” in Barry’s Senate office. Wikipedia, however, calls his job “deputy political director.” Reggie was then promoted to be Barry’s “personal assistant” during the 2008 presidential campaign.
NYT says Reggie says the reason why he’s leaving his 6-figures-salary job is his “packed” schedule. According to Wikipedia, the reason is to complete his Master of Business Administration degree at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
But in his exclusive-to-subscribers report of November 14, 2011, investigate reporter Wayne Madsen wrote:

“The fallout from Penn State has universities and colleges across the nation checking their records for indications of child abuse and other sex scandals. The Citadel is now embroiled in a scandal involving child sexual abuse by a summer camp counselor. Past gay-oriented sex parties at Duke and the University of North Carolina involving then Duke basketball and football player Reggie Love reportedly cost him his job as President Obama’s ‘body man.’ De facto White House chief of staff Pete Rouse, upon hearing of potential problems regarding Love at Duke and UNC and on the heels of the scandal at Penn State, forced Love to leave the White House staff immediately, even over the objections of Obama.”

Yesterday evening when I began a draft of this post, I had seen on Wikipedia’s entry on Reggie Love a reference to him “overcoming” an un-named “scandal” when he was at Duke University to secure a job in Obama’s Senate office. This morning, however, that reference has disappeared from Wikipedia.
Booker Rising, a website that describes itself as a “news site for black moderates and black conservatives,” has the dirt on Reggie Love.
The website says that Love “passed out drunk at a University of North Carolina frat party” and was “teabagged” (a gay sexual practice wherein one man dips his testicles into the mouth of another) by “white frat boys.” Love also was kicked off the Duke basketball team because he had a “drunk-driving charge,” although he “didn’t get a sentence as his blood alcohol level was slightly below the limit.” He was reinstated back onto the basketball team a year later.
Booker Rising has links to two photos from the frat party.
The first photo shows Love passed out on the floor:

A second photo shows the tea-bagging. First, a WARNING!

Remember, you were forewarned!
Here’s the pic:

By all accounts Barry and Reggie have a close relationship. The NYT calls Love “an exception to the rule for a private, solitary president who allows few people to grow close to him…and growing so familiar that Mr. Obama would floss his teeth in front of him.” Barry even refers to Reggie as his personal “iReggie”, a play on Apple’s iPad.

Reggie and Barry

Other accounts, however, claim even a closer relationship — that Barry and Reggie are lovers.
In a July 2009 issue, the tabloid Globe claims that “President Barack Obama is embroiled in yet another gay sex scandal – this time accusers are making incredible charges involving his hunky personal aide Reggie Love! GLOBE uncovers the outrageous claims about the 28-year-old who is the Commander-in-Chief’s “body man” – and the First Lady’s fury.”
A year later, on May 24, 2010, Wayne Madsen had a blockbuster report for subscribers only, which claims that Obama is a long-time member of a gay man’s club in Chicago, of which his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is also a member. In it, Madsen writes that Reggie Love “is also reportedly one of Obama’s regular gay sex partners.” Madsen also discloses that Love received a salary of $109,000 a year as Obama’s “body man.”

Nick Colvin, Obama's first body man

It turns out Reggie is not the original, but the second, “Obama body man.” Reggie had a predecessor, Nick Colvin, who was sent packing when reports came out that he was involved in sexual relations with then Senator and presidential candidate Obama.
In 2006 Colvin gave an interview to The Michigan Daily titled Alum’s job: Be friends with a senator where he described his job duties as Senator Obama’s personal assistant. They included waking up Obama every morning.
Where does Michelle Obama sleep?
~Eowyn