Anti-gay “family values” Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN) will be resigning from Congress after it was revealed that he’d been having an affair with a staff member:
Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), a champion of abstinence education and traditional family values, will resign effective Friday after an affair with a female staffer in his district office, he announced today.
He said in a statement that he “sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff.” And he blamed the atmosphere in Washington for forcing him to make the move:
“In the poisonous environment of Washington, D.C., 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.”
I wasn’t even planning on writing about this because Souder was mostly unknown … plus, finding out that a self-proclaimed “family values” Republican congressmen has been having an affair barely even qualifies as news these days.
But in this case, the hypocrisy is especially glaring as last year Souder produced a video on the importance of abstinence education … with the very woman with whom he was reportedly having the affair:
Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) had an affair with a part-time staffer named Tracy Jackson, Fox is reporting. Jackson played the role of interviewer for a Souder Web video show on the issues of the day — including one on the value of abstinence.
Dubbed “Congressional Update with Congressman Mark Souder,” the show hit on issues like intelligent design and fencing the border.
In the November 2009 abstinence video, Jackson introduces Souder this way: “You’ve been a longtime advocate for abstinence education and in 2006 you had your staff conduct a report entitled ‘Abstinence and its Critics’ which discredits many claims purveyed by those who oppose abstinence education.”
