Alabama Governor Sex Scandal: New Evidence, But Bentley Won't Resign

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said Monday that he would not resign his position, even as calls for him to do so grow louder and louder and new evidence continues to emerge that he had an affair with one of his top aides.

Members of the state's conservative government and many Alabama residents agree that Bentley should step down. Rebekah Caldwell Mason, the aide with whom Bentley was caught on tape making dirty talk, has resigned. And employees of a local Best Buy say they saw Bentley buying "burner phones" on several occasions.

The state's former top cop, Steven Collier, brought the scandal two weeks ago after Bentley fired him for misappropriation of state funds. Collier says Bentley asked to lie under oath as part of a corruption case against Alabama's house speaker Mike Hubbard.

• FULL STORY: Alabama Governor Scandal: Sex, Lies And Leaked Audio Tape

Even as his deeply conservative constituents call for him to step down, Bentley is pushing ahead.

"I've asked God to forgive me because that's the most important thing," Bentley, who divorced his wife of 50 years last year, told reporters Monday. "I want back in His fellowship. And so I asked God to forgive me."

One thing he hasn't asked for: Someone to accept his resignation.

A poll on AL.com, the state's largest news source, showed 89 percent of more than 30,000 voters said Bentley should step down.

Many of the state's lawmakers, including his fellow Republicans, believe the same thing.

“It was brought on by Gov. Bentley and his senior adviser, and they have to be responsible for stopping this mess, and straightening it out, up to, and including, being gone," state auditor Jim Zeigler said.

And even though the full audio recording has been released — showing Bentley making more awkward sexy talk with Mason — Bentley continues to maintain that it was just talk and no action.

"I have humbly opened myself up to the people of this state and I have asked them to forgive me and let me continue to do the things they elected me for twice, and that's to try to make their lives better," Bentley said. "And that's what I'm going to do."

In the full, unedited audio tapes, published by Yellowhammer News, Bentley makes more comments to Mason over the phone that only a creepy, 73-year-old Southern governor could.

He talks about how much he misses her, then, once the two switch to Face Time video chat, says, "Take your earring off and let me kiss your ear."

He tells her that when someone knocked on his door unexpectedly that morning they "got to see my boxer shorts." He continues: "Hey, you’ve seen those."

He says that once his secretary moves to part-time, he should rearrange the furniture so that she can't hear everything that goes on in his office.

"And it doesn’t have anything to do with you and me," he says. "Well, part of it does."

Mason resigned her post as the governor's top advisor last week.

"My only plans are to focus my full attention on my precious children and my husband who I love dearly," she said in a statement released by the governor's office. "They are the most important people in my life. Thank you for your prayers for our family."

Officially, Bentley faces two state ethics complaints.

The first questions Bentley's use of state funds and resources to further his alleged affair with Mason. The second one alleges that Bentley used state security personnel to escort Mason, who was an employee of his campaign but not the state.

Two employees at Best Buy in Tuscaloosa, the town where Bentley went to school and practiced dermatology, said Friday that they saw Bentley buying "burner phones" on several occasions. AL.com

Yes, the most powerful man in the state bought disposable phones in broad daylight — $1,732.68 worth of them, AL.com reported.

Bentley has even been ostracized from his own church, First Baptist Tuscaloosa, where Bentley had been a deacon and taught Sunday school.

"It is not (affecting my job)," Bentley said Monday. "This has been addressed a long time ago. It really has. It's all been clarified, it's all been addressed. I have put it in the rear-view mirror. Others have not because it's obviously been brought out now.

"It's one of those things that I take full control of. It's me. I did it. I did it. And that's why I ask the people of this state to forgive me because they are a forgiving people and they know God's grace."