Exclusive: Indiana Rep. Mark Souder to Resign Amid Allegations of Affair With Staffer

www.foxnews.com...

Eight-term Rep. Mark Souder will announce his resignation Tuesday after it came to light that he was conducting an affair with a female aide who worked in his district office, Fox News has learned.

Multiple senior House sources indicated that the extent of the affair with the 45-year-old staffer would have landed Souder before the House Ethics Committee.

Elected as a family
values conservative as part of the Republican revolution in 1994, Souder survived a tough re-election challenge in 2008 and survived a contested primary two weeks ago.

Souder was absent from Washington most of last week, missing multiple votes and only voting on Thursday. While the rumors had been flying, Souder claimed that he was at home tending to his ill wife.

All the way through his election, Souder tried to knock down the affair story, calling it revenge politics at play. But the backroom chatter in Indiana and among the GOP on Capitol Hill became too much to survive. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was informed as late as Monday night that Souder would give up his post.

Souder's resignation would make him the second lawmaker to step down in less than two months. In March, former Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., resigned amid allegations that he sexually harassed male staffers. Massa's case is now before the House Ethics Committee.

Personally I could care less about any adults sexual proclivities, But when a member of the party that claims the moral high road and the party of "family values" ....perhaps they should live by their own tenets or STFU!!! The GOP actually tries thru legislation to force "their" ideas of what they think the ideal family should look like on people that may not want their Judeo/Christian values forced down their throat.

Yesh, the dems do it too, but they don't fly the pious white flag of purity. How could they after Clinton?




[edit on 18-5-2010 by whaaa]

reply to post by whaaa


I had a "rendezvous" with a very conservative couple this weekend! Republicans, Pro-Lifers, Tea Partiers, and Masons! And, guess what....they enjoy sex just as much as my wife and I, and we all enjoyed it even more together!

When are these politicians going to stand up for themselves and say, "Ya, I did her, it was great, probably inappropriate and opportunistic, but what can I say. I am still working for the people and representing my constituents, and what happens in my bedroom is none of your business."

If a politician had those kind of brass cahones, he would be a true leader in my opinion! I do not honestly believe that there is any masculine figure out there with the gumption to lead a country that would not take some opportunistic sex now and then. They may feel guilty afterwards, they may not want their wife to know, but if they are operating on enough aggression and testosterone to be an effective leader, then they are going to slip up in this regard every now and then. It happened to the best of the best with Kennedy. It happened many times to Clinton. It happened to Clarence Thomas. Ben Franklin was infamous for it. Every man that I know has been guilty of it.

The real issue is which men are responsible, honest, and confident enough to own up to it, take responsibility for their mistakes, make amends with their wives, and keep their head up and keep doing their jobs. That is the true marker of a man. Those politicians and public figures that stick their head in the sand, hide from the press, and claim some silly azz excuse like "sex addiction" are LOSERS, and deserve what they get!

While I am on the subject....Sex Addiction is a real ailment. It affects every male of every species on Earth. It is ingrained into their genetics and is the single strongest instinct known in the animal kingdom. Many males go into certain death just to reproduce. Often they are killed by their very mates. Sex is certainly an addiction, and I hope it stays that way! Nature programmed us in such a way that our species will continue through adverse times.

SIGH...

UPDATE: Fox News has identified Souder's mistress as Tracy Jackson, an aide in his Indiana district office. Video has surfaced of Jackson conducting an "interview" with Souder about a hearing on abstinence education.

Another Newtie "family values" Congressman. .

i got 2 words:

bill clinton

bill porkin monica and jennifer


liberals have no ground to stand on bringin this crap up

we have bigger problems in this country than whose porkin who.


i am from indiana and i dont give a crap.

Good another lying sack of crap out of office, if a man cheats and lies to his wife do you really think he is trustworthy enough not to lie and cheat on those he is supposed to represent. I dont care what party they are in they should all be run out of office.

Originally posted by neo96
i got 2 words:

bill clinton

bill porkin monica and jennifer


liberals have no ground to stand on bringin this crap up

we have bigger problems in this country than whose porkin who.


i am from indiana and i dont give a crap.

I just have a problem with the hypocrisy, and his "family values" rhetoric:

While liberal blogs like The Huffington Post point to Mark Souder's commitment to the idea of one man and one woman, technically, Mark Souder didn't say he was opposed to having a mistress in a marriage for himself, just Democrats.

Souder attacked then-President Bill Clinton and called for his resignation after the Monika Lewinsky Affair, but not Clinton's impeachment.

zennie2005.blogspot.com...

there is hypocrisy on both sides but the only ones who cant get away with it are republicans? and the democrats can do no wrong ?

Another politician bites the dust in classic style. Neither party is immune to these antics

That being said, I have to say that the John Edwards scandal is by far the worst in my recent memory when you consider all of the factors that were present in his life at the time of his long lasting affair. The idiot was counting down the days until his wife's death for God's sake.

Let's not forget the common denominator in all of these deplorable scandals... These idiots in office have wives and children that will ultimately bare the scars of their behavior.

I agree that the hypocrisy is bad. The Sexual Affair I am a big fan of, but not the hypocrisy.

When I finally run on an Independant ticket out of North Florida for a US House seat. I will run on a Conservative Ticket, but I will not dictate what anybody else ought to do, and I will come clean about any accusations I am faced with. Lord Knows I have A-L-O-T of skeletons! My wife is fully aware of the ones I remember, lol. When some new ones pop up, I will address them one by one, and all the while I will campaign on actually providing representation to my district! I will vow to never look at a poll, and always trust my conscience and the will of the constituents contacting my office. All in all, I will be exactly opposite of our current Rep. Allen Boyd, and more honest than those slick suited and religious Republicans!

HOw is that for a precursor to a platform?

The old Republican vote getters of gays and family values (especially when attached to God) have been replaced (temporarily?).

The next generation of voters is more tolerant of gays and gay marriage. The hypocrisy of the Republican Party in their authoritarian style of governing, Do as I say, not as I do, in regards to running on "family values", has made them a lesser authority.

The Palin wing of the party has been bequested guns and God (and gays if need be, via religion). Sometimes there is an overlap with the TPM, but notice how the GOP has nurtured the TPM to try out the new vote getters, the Constitution, 10th Amendment, Marxist/Socialist/Nazis/etc liberals (anyone to one's left). To cast a wider net for votes is "immigration reform", i.e. kick out the illegal worker but do nothing against the illegal workers' employer (more hypocrisy!).

At this point in time, however, Souder is just one more politician to be picked off because of Cupid's arrows. Maybe in the future, we'll finally see elected officials asked to resign because they support corporate coffers over citizen/national welfare, but until then, I'm enjoying another connubial cheater's comeuppance.