I don’t particularly care about Congressman Mark Souder’s affair and I’m not convinced he should resign over it, but this (Dave Weigel and TPM) takes brass ones:
As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources when Republicans held the majority in Congress, Souder was a warrior for abstinence-only sex education and a critic of other forms of sex education, and he repeatedly intervened to make sure abstinence advocates were represented — even to the inclusion of other experts — on panels about sexual health. This is an embarrassing moment for the cause Souder spent 16 years advocating for.
[….]TPM, loving it, grabs a video from 2009 of Souder talking about sex education — interviewed by Tracy Jackson, who according to Fox News is the unnamed “part-time staffer” with whom he’s now admitting an affair.
There’s your punchline — “congressman shot pro-abstinence video with his mistress.”
dmsilev
Dullest sex tape ever.
dms
Comrade Darkness
The rules are always for someone else. Period.
Jamie
reality in Washington outstrips fiction yet again.
Roger Moore
The thing I found worst about that video is that it was clearly intended to look like a serious news segment. The staffer was identified as such, but it was for a short enough time that you could literally blink and miss it. It’s just an incredibly sleazy way of producing a propaganda piece.
MarkusR
They waited until marriage to have the affair, right? So it’s all cool.
DonBoy
It’s abstinence before marriage. Souder was married, so he’s not a hypocrite!
ETA: God DAMMIT!
DougJ
@DonBoy:
Very good point.
limniade
Somebody upstairs sure has an awesome sense of humor. The more outspoken these guys get about how they want everyone to behave, the worse the shenanigans for which they get busted. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Comrade Dread
If there’s one bible verse I think I would like to have inscribed on the doorway leading into the Senate and House voting chambers, it would be Matthew 7:4:
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”
I would hope even the most anti-religious atheist could see some value in reminding politicians about that particular Christian teaching.
Maude
Speaking of abstinence, we are minus a picture of Tunch and tuna after that pix of him at that mean old vet’s.
Poor baby.
Cat Lady
Hypocrisy, projection, ignorance and hate. Way to go GOP.
artem1s
@MarkusR:
you so got there first!
cervantes
He should resign over it according to his own standards. Yours are beside the point.
This hypocritical clown made his own bed, so to speak.
Citizen_X
Joe Scarborough’s comment was, “It’s not like she ended up dead in his office, so who cares?”
.
.
.
Too low a blow, or not low enough?
artem1s
@Comrade Dread:
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the
speckpenis out of youreyemouth,’ when all the time there is aplankpenis in your owneyemouth?”fixt
jibeaux
I swear he held on to that resignation until Jon Stewart went on vacation.
Punchy
So he hiked the Indiana Dunes?
Stooleo
I dunno, at least this fucker has the decency to resign, which puts him a few steps above Vitter and the washroom Riverdance guy.
Martin
@limniade: You’ve never considered that they come up with these rules because they assume their own failings are endemic in everyone else?
Napoleon
@jibeaux:
The way you can tell a lot of strange shit is going to happen when Stewart and Colbert are on vacation, and even more so when it is a 2 week break.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Face? Rim?
Ash Can
@Citizen_X: I lol’d.
Politically Lost
Dad’s hat pin:
Celibacy Makes The Church Grow Fondlers
OriGuy
Steve Benen pointed out that The Daily Show is on break. You don’t suppose that had anything to do with the timing of the announcement, do you?
Edit: Napoleon and jibeaux beat me to it.
Violet
An affair has nothing to do with abstinence. It’s okay to have sex once you’re married. Duh.
RSR
And that is the overarching issue of the GOP; let us impose our morals upon you, even though we don’t actually live them ourselves. Do as I say, not as I do…
dj spellchecka
bonus: his staffer has a fantastic job title: “intercourse expediter”…just joshin’…she was actually his “Special Assistant/Communications:” emphasis on “special”….the jokes really do write themselves with these folks
licensed to kill time
Abstinence makes the heart go wander, methinks.
georgia pig
I guess all that sex talk made ’em horny, like teenagers.
Mumphrey
Every one of these Republican assholes is a two-faced liar. Every one of them. I swear, if there’s a Republican who seems to be faithful, it’s only because nobody has yet caught them having an affair, or living in the closet, or molesting his stepdaughter, or wearing diapers in a brothel. What is it, like every other week that something like this comes out? 2 weeks ago it was the rentboy guy; now this creep.
If these people had any shame at all or any decency, they’d give up their offices and go away, but we know how likely that is…
New Yorker
@Comrade Dread:
Oh yeah. All atheists will freely concede that there are numerous good teachings in the Bible, it’s just that there’s a lot of other…not so good stuff.
I’m also fond of Matthew 19:23-24, which many of our good Christian zillionaire businessmen who helped bankrupt this nation should pay heed to.
GregB
Maybe Souder can get on the Bristol Palin gravy train and score 30K a speech to lecture about adultery.
Those Palin’s are fine examples of meritocracy.
Allan
@Comrade Dread: Time for the obligatory Gandhi quote:
New Yorker
@GregB:
Yeah, I kick myself sometimes for trying to follow the honest way to a good career and comfortable existence: college, grad school, hard work, etc. only to be tripped up (hopefully only temporarily) by this job market.
The real money is in dropping out of high school and then blaming all the problems in the world on lib’ruls. I wish I had known to go join the wingnut media brigade and made a fortune doing so. I don’t think it matters that I don’t believe that crap. I don’t think it takes much intellectual honesty or heft to be able to write the crap Palin (or Hannity, or Limbaugh, or Levin, or Coulter, or zzzzzz…..) does.
ksmiami
But did his affair involve a hike on the Appalachian trail, bathroom tap dances, or a wetsuit? If not, SNORE.
PS What is with these women that they are attracted to such ugly hateful hypocrites????
Bill E Pilgrim
I still think we should look for an abstained dress. No one on the right really seems to get too worked up about scandals until there’s one of those, then they love it.
aimai
@Comrade Dread:
You know, Comerade Dread, I think they read that verse as an exhortation to be even more unforgiving and hypocritical. We read it as an admonition against arrogance, a reminder to be humble. They read it as a “how to hector” people lesson. If you want to beat up on the other guy, they think, you’d better make sure to look like you don’t have the same problems.
aimai
Joshua Norton
the Bristol Palin gravy train
Ever notice how the Paliln’s are raking in the big bucks by condemning other people who do the exact same things they do/did/will do?
The only people on earth who are stupider than the Palin clan are the ones who can’t wait to give them their money.
Martin
@New Yorker: Nothing in the Bible is bad, any more than anything in Beowulf or the Iliad is. It’s all the crazy-ass evolving, yet always ‘originalist’ interpretations and the pathological need to tie all morality back to the Bible. Wondering if the new Facebook rules are moral? The Bible will tell us!
Eric U.
@New Yorker: With my current level of unemployment, I have considered becoming an ex-liberal for TV. Seems to be a reliable way to make a living. Problem is, I have a face made for radio and a voice made for silent movies.
Who needs Colbert or TDS on this one, the story is hilarious as told by TPM
KCinDC
I was wondering what else there was to the sex scandal that meant it required a resignation. That doesn’t normally happen for Republicans unless homosexuality or children are involved. Ensign, Vitter, Sanford, and others are still going strong, long after a Democrat would have been forced out. Maybe a sufficiently hypocritical video is enough?
JGabriel
@Stooleo:
Yes, given the hypocrisy we’ve seen from GOP polititians staying in office after being caught in extra-marital dalliance despite their “family values” campaigns, I have to give Souder a nod of respect for resigning.
It tells you how low GOP standards have fallen, though, when even resignation over blatant sexual hypocrisy requires a respectful acknowledgement instead of mere expectation.
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IndieTarheel
@Punchy:
and his life became a joke.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Eric U.: And sexual impulse control made for the United States Congress?
Ailuridae
So here is the text of his original letter via GOS. The ALL CAPS are his own doing and make him seem particularly unhinged
“IT IS WITH GREAT REGRET I ANNOUNCE THAT I AM RESIGNING FROM THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AS WELL AS RESIGNING AS THE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR CONGRESS IN THIS FALL’S ELECTION.
I BELIEVE IT IS THE BEST DECISION FOR MY FAMILY, THE PEOPLE OF NORTHEAST INDIANA, AND OUR COUNTRY.
I WILL SUBMIT MY RESIGNATION TO SPEAKER PELOSI EFFECTIVE THIS FRIDAY.
I CAN NEVER FULLY THANK ALL THOSE WHO HAVE WORKED SO HARD, GIVEN SO MUCH AND SUPPORTED ME THROUGH EIGHT CONTESTED PRIMARIES AND EIGHT GENERAL ELECTIONS.
ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN THE RECIPIENT CAN YOU REALLY FEEL THE HUMBLING POWER OF SUCH GENEROSITY.
IT HAS BEEN A PRIVILEGE TO BE A PART OF THE BATTLE FOR FREEDOM AND THE VALUES WE SHARE.
IT HAS BEEN A GREAT HONOR TO FIGHT FOR THE NEEDS, THE JOBS, AND THE FUTURE OF THIS REGION WHERE MY FAMILY HAS LIVED FOR OVER 160 YEARS.
IT HAS BEEN ALL CONSUMING FOR ME TO DO THIS JOB WELL, ESPECIALLY IN A DISTRICT WITH COSTLY, COMPETITIVE ELECTIONS EVERY TWO YEARS.
I DO NOT HAVE ANY SORT OF “NORMAL” LIFE – FOR FAMILY, FOR FRIENDS, FOR CHURCH, FOR COMMUNITY.
TO SERVE HAS BEEN A BLESSING AND A RESPONSIBILITY GIVEN FROM GOD.
I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER EXAMPLE.
I SINNED AGAINST GOD, MY WIFE AND MY FAMILY BY HAVING A MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH A PART-TIME MEMBER OF MY STAFF.
IN THE POISONOUS ENVIRONMENT OF WASHINGTON DC, ANY PERSONAL FAILING IS SEIZED UPON, OFTEN TWISTED, FOR POLITICAL GAIN.
I AM RESIGNING RATHER THAN TO PUT MY FAMILY THROUGH THAT PAINFUL, DRAWN-OUT PROCESS.
DIANE AND MY FAMILY WERE MORE THAN WILLING TO STAND HERE WITH ME.
WE ARE A COMMITTED FAMILY.
BUT THE ERROR IS MINE AND I SHOULD BEAR THE RESPONSIBILITY, NOT ONLY AM I THANKFUL FOR A LOVING FAMILY BUT FOR A LOVING GOD.
MY COMFORT IS THAT GOD IS A GRACIOUS AND FORGIVING GOD TO THOSE WHO SINCERELY SEEK HIS FORGIVENESS AS I DO.
BUT I AM SO ASHAMED TO HAVE HURT THOSE I LOVE.
I AM SO SORRY TO HAVE LET SO MANY FRIENDS DOWN, PEOPLE WHO HAVE FOUGHT SO HARD FOR ME.
THE IDEAS WE ADVOCATE ARE STILL JUST AND RIGHT.
AMERICA WILL SURVIVE AND THRIVE WHEN ANCHORED IN THOSE VALUES.
HUMAN BEINGS, LIKE ME, WILL FAIL, BUT OUR CAUSE IS GREATER THAN INDIVIDUALS.
IT IS BASED UPON ETERNAL TRUTHS.
BY STEPPING ASIDE, MY MISTAKE CANNOT BE USED AS A POLITICAL FOOTBALL IN A PARTISAN ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE THE CAUSE FOR WHICH I HAVE LABORED ALL MY ADULT LIFE.
I LOVE THIS AREA.
THIS IS MY HOME.
IT HAS BEEN SUCH AN HONOR TO SERVE YOU.
FOR SIXTEEN YEARS, MY FAMILY AND I HAVE GIVEN OUR ALL FOR THIS AREA.
THE TOLL HAS BEEN HIGH.
AS I LEAVE PUBLIC OFFICE, MY PLANS ARE FOCUSED UPON REPAIRING MY MARRIAGE, EARNING BACK THE TRUST OF MY FAMILY AND MY COMMUNITY, AND RENEWING MY WALK WITH MY LORD.
I HUMBLY ASK YOU, FOR THE SAKE OF MY FAMILY THAT YOU RESPECT OUR PRIVACY IN THIS DIFFICULT TIME.
I HAVE NO FURTHER COMMENTS.”
Joey Maloney
The correct quote is “abstinence makes the font grow harder”.
Joey +5 erev Shavuot
Martin
@Ailuridae: The Jesus Key is strong in this one…
Chat Noir
The guy just looks like a douchebag. I could only stomach the first minute of the “interview.”
licensed to kill time
__
Well, thank God for that.
Bill E Pilgrim
@jibeaux:
Another comedy emergency. We need to get Jon Stewart a pole and a bell.
JGabriel
KCinDC:
Fixed that for you.
And I’d like to stress that it’s not affairs or homosexuality that are the problem here; it’s the hypocrisy of campaigning against homosexuality, and/or the unforgiving attitude towards sexual indiscretions, while engaging in them, that is the issue. Except, of course, for the people who molest or groom children; that’s just revolting, and the behavior is just as much an issue as the hypocrisy in those case.
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Allan
This is why Rick Warren never allows himself to be alone with a woman who is not his wife.
Vaginas fling themselves continuously at Christian male penises. Bibles are pussy magnets.
Martin
@JGabriel: Ah, see, but it’s not hypocrisy, it’s a catch-22. If there were better chastity laws in this country, none of these events would have happened. I mean, really, what sexual deviant decided that men’s room stall walls shouldn’t go all the way to the floor? How many men would have been spared the temptation of homosexuality with that one change alone?
Eric U.
@Bill E Pilgrim: is lack of sexual control a requirement for conservative bloviators? The main problem with my plan is that most of the ex-liberals I see on TV were never Democrats in the first place. Some Democratic pol made the mistake of hiring them, thus cementing the ex-Democrat schtick for them
darms
If he resigns. Maybe we’ll see this Friday…
Bubblegum Tate
@Joshua Norton:
Agreed, though let’s give Palin credit for having a pretty good grifter game. Sure, she’s a big ol’ bucket of fail otherwise, but when it comes to griftin’, she’s got some skills. Look at how she’s bringing Bristol into the scam as well, first positioning her as a “political consultant” (niiiiiiiice), and now this $30K speechifyin’ business. Not bad at all.
Poopyman
Already been done.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Eric U.: No I was referring to Congress. Both sides of the aisle really. Just following on your radio/film line, which was funny.
Well, some of those on TV were actually Democrats. Carville and Begala, for instance. Mark Shields ran Bobby Kennedy’s campaign. And so on. Then there are the ones who fit your description, including Mark Penn and the mold from Hell that they stamped him from AKA Dick Morris.
flukebucket
@licensed to kill time:
I had always heard abstinence makes the hard go wander.
Allan
While we await a ruling on my prior comment, I’ll add that in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal, and will not by itself result in any significant re-ordering.
It’s just nice, and timely, that Republicans continue to pop up periodically to remind voters that while they hate all politicians, they especially hate the hypocrites most of all.
And there’s the reinforcement of the perception that, “Gee, it seems that the people who rant and rave the most about a particular ‘sin’ are usually guilty of same.”
It’s good when the Rekers of the world get outed, for example, because people can see that here was a man who hated his own gayness so much that he devoted his life to eradicating it in himself and others, yet failed on all counts. Thank you for proving for the rest of us that you can’t fix teh ghey.
Since voters apparently have short memories, it’s really helpful when your opponents build and reinforce their own negative stereotypes for you, and do so continuously.
Allan
@dmsilev: Oh and BTW, nice job of winning the thread with Comment One.
JGabriel
It seems a little odd that this is getting pushed out on the same day as the primaries. Did the GOP think the political narrative wouldn’t go their way today, and decide it was better to have a sex scandal up front instead? Or did Souder think his scandal would get buried in other news if he resigned today?
Or is it just one of those unrelated, weird-ass, minor coincidences? I’m leaning towards coincidence, as there’s so many GOP sex scandals that it’s hard not for them to fall on the same day as other major news stories once in a while, statistically speaking.
But it seemed like someone should at least ask the paranoid conspiracy questions, if only to tweak wingnut expectations.
.
JGabriel
@Roger Moore:
Actually, the identification just said “Office of …”, meaning it could easily be mistaken for a place identifier rather than a job title. Which, of course, makes it even more ambiguous and slimy.
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Eric U.
I’d just like to thank the Congressman for a nice hearty laugh this morning. I usually have mixed feelings about Republican sex scandals, but this one was genuinely funny.
patrick II
Instead of having the preacher Harry Powell’s “Love” and “Hate” tattooed across the back of their hands to signify their internal struggle, all of these family research council types should have an “abstinense” and “adultry” tattoo instead. So we could see them coming and hide the wives and children.
Remember November
and yet they were willing to impeach a President over a bj.
Oh Hypocrites! Oh Hypocrites
Follow well in order, have your filibusters ready,
Have you your rhetoric, have you your sharp-edged false outrage
Hypocrites, Oh hypocrites!
kommrade reproductive vigor
Let us all give thanks that they shut the camera off before the second part of the interview because … ugg.
Calouste
@KCinDC:
It’s probably just that Congressmen are somewhat more expendable than Senators and Governors.
Punchy
God damn you……uh…..er…..democrats?
Liberal plants! In eastern KY….of..uh…..course. suuuuurrre.
DBrown
@New Yorker: Your real problem was being born at the wrong time – if you started looking for work after WWII, you’d be living on easy street and now own multi-homes which all would be worth ten to twenty times what you paid (even after interest!) – see, having most countries destoried by a vast war – and having only one country suffer most the death and destruction as they, single handedly won it (no, not the US who had mostly stupid assholes commanded its forces but Russia under that pig stalin who also killed more Russians than that monster hitler.) This allows the only major country that suffered almost zero damage and few deaths to take over 50% of the world’s economic output and make a killing.
kid bitzer
he looks like jabba the hutt.
but to my sixty-year-old eyes, she’s darned good looking.
and if she really has a thing for creepy old fat guys with piggy eyes, well–i could make her happy!
i could even moan “family values! family values!” at strategic times. but i’m sorry: i draw the line at pretending to be a republican. if that’s how she gets her freak on, then it’ll never work.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@kid bitzer:
Only if you’re a Congressman…or wealthy. Who was it that said that power is the biggest aphrodisiac? Spend 10 minutes on the Hill and you’ll see that in action about every 10 seconds.
Joshua Norton
I’m wondering just exactly how many of these intern-diddling, hooker-hiring, pill-popping hypocrites do we have to go through before they realize that this abstinence-only, god-fearin’ gay-bashing proselytizing isn’t a platform, it’s a psychological condition?
Politician, heal thyself.
kid bitzer
@71–
every ten seconds? some hot chick with some fat old congressman? eeewww….
JGabriel
@kid bitzer:
Somehow, this reminds me of a Craigslist ad I came across once (I think they had it in their “Best Ads” section) from a liberal performance artist dom who was looking for a submissive Republican to perform in one of her acts.
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kommrade reproductive vigor
I also love how the crap stains of the Manly Mantastic Party are so willing to use the wife and kids as human shields.
IN THE POISONOUS ENVIRONMENT OF WASHINGTON DC, ANY PERSONAL FAILING IS SEIZED UPON, OFTEN TWISTED, FOR POLITICAL GAIN. /I AM RESIGNING RATHER THAN TO PUT MY FAMILY THROUGH THAT PAINFUL, DRAWN-OUT PROCESS. /DIANE AND MY FAMILY WERE MORE THAN WILLING TO STAND HERE WITH ME.
Yep. And the poisonous environment made him stick it up an employee. And the biggest source of pain for his family right now would be the people snickering at yet another neo-con hypocrite. Also2! Oh well, better sheltering behind the wife in kids than standing out in front where they can kick your ass and stick a knife between your ribs.
Seriously, I’m surprised these loons don’t subject their nearest and dearest to blunt force head trauma in order to knock the inconvenient memories from their skulls. Too bad lobotomies for unhappy ladies are no longer an option.
Odd distinction. Nah, I’m sure it was just a slip o the tongue.
Shell Goddamnit
@flukebucket:
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.
–Robert Benchley IIRC
JL
Of course he should resign. Not because he had an affair but because his actions belie his rhetoric and what his voters thought they were voting for.
There is more and more evidence that declared membership in the Republican party is cover for lifestyles and choices that its membership aims to hide or gloss over. Have a bunch of divorces but you still want to win an election? Run as a Republican and no one will dig any deeper (cuz you clearly respect religion and marriage being a Republican and all). Want to have an affair and keep your political job? Be a Republican and everyone will assume you stand for family values. Are you gay but come from a “red” district? Be a Republican and introduce anti-gay legislation and no one will be the wiser.
The issue is never about the affair, the divorces and it’s certainly not about being gay (who cares about any of that any way?) As usual, it’s the lying, hypocritical, insidious cover-up.
artem1s
Mutual Relationship? WTF?
Glen Tomkins
@dmsilev:
You hit upon the underlying consistency of Souder’s position that the more superficial analysts among us have missed.
Souder made the supreme sacrifice of breaking his marital vows just so the spectacle of someone of his personal magnitude having sex would put kids off the whole idea of having any sex, ever, for a good long time. I can just speak for myself when I say that the thought of Souder having sex of any kind, with any kind of living creature, has been an excellent aid to my own personal abstinence.
Whether I wanted such help or not. And isn’t that the most effective sort of abstinence promotion, the totally unwanted kind?
Fern
@artem1s: I guess it would have been worse if she was full-time?
Mnemosyne
@artem1s:
I think he’s trying to emphasize that he’s not a nasty sexual harasser like Eric Massa.
stuckinred
Rand Paul is gutting Grayson from asshole to earlobe with a dull deer antler.
stuckinred
@stuckinred: Wow, how do you do that?
Mike Kay
@Citizen_X: Win!
Booger
Let’s see: “…She worked on his staff in a number of positions.”
God, that line never gets old.