Family Values!
Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), a champion of abstinence education and family values, will resign today after an affair with a female staffer in his district office, Fox News is reporting.
He is, of course, another big family values proponent. In fairness, I don’t think he is on record stating which family he values.
May 18, 2010 9:42 am
Posted in: Republican Stupidity
40 Comments
40 Responses
Steaming Pile - May 18, 2010 | 9:52 am · Link
At least he had an affair with a woman. That’s almost boring nowadays, if you think about it.
MikeJ - May 18, 2010 | 9:52 am · Link
Families are great. Everybody should have two or three.
MattF - May 18, 2010 | 9:53 am · Link
It’s time that people realized that this is no surprise. Just imagine—as a kind of ‘thought experiment’—spending a significant part of your life and energy in judging and trying to control other people’s sexuality and sexual behavior. Do you see why this might be an itsy-bitsy signal that you’ve got some, ahem, ‘issues’ of your own?
Michael - May 18, 2010 | 9:54 am · Link
From wiki:
Randy P - May 18, 2010 | 9:55 am · Link
OK, so if I understand this press release, he’s going to have a press conference during which he has an affair with a female staffer, in the office. At the end of which he will resign.
Well, that should be interesting.
cleek - May 18, 2010 | 9:55 am · Link
they identified him as a Republican ?
i’m impressed!
New Yorker - May 18, 2010 | 9:56 am · Link
District office? But all the hot 23-year-old blonds work in the DC office, from what I remember.
cmorenc - May 18, 2010 | 9:59 am · Link
Don’t be so hard on Rep. Souder! He does sincerely believe in sexual abstinance, before marriage, and family values, but just got confused about proper word order and started practicing sexuality before marriage with his staffer and abstinance from family as his values.
beltane - May 18, 2010 | 9:59 am · Link
Did they use birth control? If so, he is guilty not only of adultery, but of attempted infanticide as well.
Maybe he and Bristol Palin should go on a speaking tour together. Promoting abstinence sure sounds like the best way to get paid while getting laid. Way more lucrative than prostitution.
QuaintIrene - May 18, 2010 | 10:01 am · Link
Don’t forget, he’s a champion of family values….because he says so!
Keith G - May 18, 2010 | 10:01 am · Link
@New Yorker:
Now, don’t knock those corn feed farm girls.
cmorenc - May 18, 2010 | 10:02 am · Link
@Cleek
That’s only because Fox realized that even the willfully gullible Fox audience would be strongly suspicious that Indiana would have any democratic congresscritters, the retiring Sen. Evan Bayh notwithstanding.
Waldo - May 18, 2010 | 10:05 am · Link
I see no hypocrisy here. He waited till he was married to have his affair.
David - May 18, 2010 | 10:06 am · Link
The only question that remains is what will the wife wear to her Stand By Her Man appearance. My favorite was Vitter’s wife who wore a leopard print wrap-around and was visibly pissed off the entire time.
The Moar You Know - May 18, 2010 | 10:09 am · Link
Huh, female staffer. Unusual.
I guess the GOP is really the party of change after all.
fucen tarmal - May 18, 2010 | 10:09 am · Link
no no, he pulled a blumenthal, he meant to add “aadams” to family values every time he mentioned family values, its the sequal to the aadams family movie made from the tv show. he loves that movie because christina ricci almost has boobs in it. its just a shame he wasn’t ever asked to clarify that he was just making a movie recommendation.
Shalimar - May 18, 2010 | 10:13 am · Link
If he honestly believes that Jews are “God’s chosen people”, then I don’t understand why he hasn’t converted. More likely, he’s one of the Armageddon-lovers who think the Jews have to take over the holy land before he and his kind can get raptured.
Ash Can - May 18, 2010 | 10:22 am · Link
LOL! I love how he blames “the poisonous environment of Washington” for his decision to resign. Translation: “I’m not important enough to the GOP for them to go through the trouble of covering for me, so I’d better cut my losses while I can still get myself a slice of wingnut welfare.”
Paris - May 18, 2010 | 10:24 am · Link
“which family he values”
the Manson family?
Third Eye Open - May 18, 2010 | 10:36 am · Link
If you click through the links to the Journal-Gazette, you will find this headline: Southern Indiana county has had years of cougar sightings.
Win? Yeah, its gots it
slackjawedgawker - May 18, 2010 | 10:42 am · Link
Frankly, this is a stunner.
Republicans are virtually never forced to actually resign over scandals like this.
I’m not familiar with this guy’s record. Surely he has something much more damaging hiding in his closet, like a vote in favor of environmental protections or funding a homeless shelter or something.
jimBOB - May 18, 2010 | 10:52 am · Link
TPM has a video of Souder touting abstinence-only while being interviewed by the staffer he had the affair with. Primo-grade hypocrisy.
c u n d gulag - May 18, 2010 | 10:52 am · Link
@slackjawedgawker:
Yeah, wassupwiddat? A Republican resigning over and affair with a FEMALE? In the Republican Party that’s about as incriminating and damaging as picking your nose in public.
There’s more to it. There’s a dead girl or a live boy there somewhere else in his background. Bet on it!
IndieTarheel - May 18, 2010 | 10:54 am · Link
Yeah, I’m betting there’s someONE or someTHING else at play here. Anyone know if Indiana has any laws covering marital aids and/or diving apparel?
Bill E Pilgrim - May 18, 2010 | 10:54 am · Link
Okay I’m finally realizing that “Family Values” was meant more in the “bargain basement”, “lowest ever”, “everything must go” sense rather than what I thought they meant.
This really is funny, it turns out that he did a video with the staffer about “abstinence”. Talk about bad porn movies.
“Okay Senator, let’s talk about not having sex. Do you have any particular places that you like to not have sex?”
Do you think there will be an abstained blue dress?
OriGuy - May 18, 2010 | 10:59 am · Link
Actually, four of nine of Indiana’s Representatives are Democrats. Also, this isn’t one of those races where the Democrats don’t have a candidate. Blue Indiana says that Souder was getting challenged in the primary, and had Tom Hayhurst waiting for him in the general.
The front page of Hayhurst’s website says:
So he’s being upfront about that, hopefully he has no slips of the tongue.
Kirk Spencer - May 18, 2010 | 11:11 am · Link
Souder won his primary about 2 weeks ago. If I’m reading Indiana law right, this means the party chairman gets to appoint the Republican candidate.
What I’m having more trouble in reading is whether Indiana will have a special election. By my reading, since he’s resigned more than 30 days prior to a general election a special election is required.
All that noted, his district is R+14 or R+15 (don’t recall which), so barring something extreme it’s unlikely this district will elect a Democratic congressman in replacement.
comrade scott's agenda of rage - May 18, 2010 | 11:14 am · Link
@slackjawedgawker:
This. It’s a Repup thing, never resign, never, ever, ever. They still think Nixon could have survived and look at his resignation as a mistake.
Vitter is a Repup poster child for this sort of thing. He didn’t resign and will get reelected.
OriGuy - May 18, 2010 | 11:18 am · Link
Dave Weigal just tweeted this:
(via Steve Benen)
But why couldn’t it have been Mike Pence?
Persia - May 18, 2010 | 11:27 am · Link
@Steaming Pile: I know, it’s just another day! Why’s he resigning?
RedKitten - May 18, 2010 | 11:31 am · Link
I guess it must be easy to tell everybody else to keep their legs closed when your own legs close less frequently than McDonald’s.
bemused - May 18, 2010 | 11:31 am · Link
Good grief, what is it that some women find so attractive about guys like Souder, Gingrich, Ghouliani, Fred Thompson, Ensign & so many more unappealing characters? Many of these women are younger & definitely better looking. Haven’t they heard that women outnumber men so they could have been a little more choosy.
feebog - May 18, 2010 | 11:40 am · Link
Souder may have seen the handwriting on the wall here. Hayhurst got 46 percent of the vote last cycle in a very Republican district. And I would not be surprised if there was another shoe. er, mistress to drop.
kommrade reproductive vigor - May 18, 2010 | 11:46 am · Link
He needs to deploy the Hatch Defense:
“I hated having an affair. I’m just really good at it.”
Have some win, amigo.
Tom - May 18, 2010 | 11:47 am · Link
I figured he had to be some sort of Family Values guy from the amount of times he mentioned “The Lord” in his statement.
Silver Owl - May 18, 2010 | 11:53 am · Link
Souder is an immature asshat. He chose to have an affair, he got busted and he’s resigning because he does not want to deal with people calling him a hypcrit, liar and cheat. Has nothing to do with protecting his family. I wish these immature nut jobs would man up for once.
Silver Owl - May 18, 2010 | 11:56 am · Link
@bemused:
LOL! I don’t understand the attraction to ugly asshole phenomenon either.
Tom - May 18, 2010 | 12:02 pm · Link
I love watching the Family Values crowd shoot themselves in the foot.
Personally, I don’t think pols should have to resign if caught in an affair—and often times they don’t (most notably Clinton). But the family values folk get elected by pretending to represent all that’s “good” in this country and pandering to people who squeeze their bible extra tight whenever a “sinful” urge comes their way. Live by the sword, die by the sword I guess.
Congressman shoots abstinence only video with his mistress - E.D. Kain - American Times - True/Slant - May 18, 2010 | 12:33 pm · Link
[...] posts this video of Representative Mark Souder (R-Florida) who is resigning after revelations of an affair he had with a part-time staffer surfaced. I’m not at all [...]
bemused - May 18, 2010 | 12:38 pm · Link
@Silver Owl:
What really blows my mind is younger women marrying guys a lot older, out of shape, unattractive, absolutely no personality whatsoever & nowhere near wealthy. I’m talking about people who are not famous or in the public eye at all. The old farts usually leave a wife they’ve been married to for 20-30 years. Very peculiar.