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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."
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Conservative Sex Scandals]
But, Fox News, which first reported the development, suggests that there may be ethical impropriety of some kind:
Multiple senior House sources indicated that the extent of the affair would have landed Souder before the House Ethics Committee.
The eight-term Indiana congressman is, of course, a vocal proponent of traditional family values. He has been married since 1974 and has three grown children.
"I believe that Congress must fight to uphold the traditional values that undergird the strength of our nation," he says on his official website. "The family plays a fundamental role in our society. Studies consistently demonstrate that it is best for a child to have a mother and father, and I am committed to preserving traditional marriage, the union of one man and one woman."
Souder adds: "I am committed to fighting the assault on American values."
Here's video of Souder talking abstinence education and "the failures of condom distribution" in an interview with a staffer. He also issued a report (.pdf) called "Abstinence and its Critics."
(Late Update: The interviewer in this video, Tracy Jackson, is reportedly the woman who had a relationship with Souder.)
Investigating agencies are scrutinising the bank accounts of Madhuri Gupta, the Indian diplomat who was arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan, have found no no unusual transactions. During her interrogation Madhuri said that she liked to live a good life and wanted the best of everything. This led the investigators to believe that she was paid in kind by her handlers in exchange of whatever little information she revealed.
Madhuri was upset about the alleged humiliation she suffered at the hands of her superiors. When the Inter-Services Intelligence got wind of this, they started to trail her. When Gupta was approached by her handlers, she thought of putting this opportunity to best use. The entire operation has been carefully planned and both parties were aware that monetary transactions would leave a trail and hence they decided to avoid this.
Madhuri revealed that she felt lonely and yearned for company. She said that she always wanted to live a good life. These statements are an indication that she could have been paid in kind.
Investigators hope to gather more information once they finish scrutinising her computer, which they believe was a vital part of her espionage operation.
At the Daily Beast, John Avlon has a strong round-up of reactions to Comedy Central's decision to censor images and references to Muhammad in the latest episode of South Park, including Islam-reform advocates Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji, and South Park Conservatives author Brian Anderson. They reinforce the same messages that NewsReal has been discussing all week—the un-American nature of censorship, the barbarism of radical Islam, and the futility of appeasing thugs.
In particular, Avlon highlights Manji's petition against death threats, which you should all sign:
"It's ridiculous enough that extremist thugs put Islam's human prophet on some pedestal, engaging in idolatry of their own," she told me. "But the fact these arrogant fools operate from New York City reminds us that open societies need to be defended—for everyone's freedom to believe as they choose. When I and fellow writers got a similar death threat from ummah.com, a site run out of Britain, we created a petition promoting human rights and secular values for all. To date, it's got thousands of signatures from both Muslims and non-Muslims. Readers can still sign their names and cities. It's a fast way of telegraphing to radical Islamists that their death threats won't chill our consciences. There's strength in numbers."
The main substance of the controversy has already been skillfully explored by others here at NewsReal, but there are two further observations I think are worth making.
First, a minor disagreement with John L. Work: as pathetic as Bill O'Reilly's squishiness on the issue is, I have a hard time believing Saudi money is dictating the opinions of Fox personalities. These days Fox is still getting bashed by the usual suspects for "anti-Islam" propaganda as much as they've always been—just last moth, Sean Hannity ran a brutal interview with Mosab Hasan Yousef, the ex-Muslim son of Hamas' founder, and today Fox has a candid report on the American Muslim who originally posted the latest threat against Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
O'Reilly's milquetoast reaction to this latest flare-up from the Religion of Perpetual Outrage is entirely consistent with, and better attributed to, his long-standing shtick of playing the centrist, "non-partisan" populist who's supposedly above the fray of lesser "ideologues."
The larger point I want to make is this: the Left's reaction to Islamic fanaticism completely puts the lie to their broader hostility toward religion as a whole. Violent, authoritarian, bigoted, irrational, self-righteous, arrogant—Islam as practiced by Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee and his ilk actually is everything leftists routinely accuse American Christianity of being. Yet it is Islam, and not Christianity, that they bend over backwards to interpret with "nuance" and "understanding": How dare the Right malign a religion of peace?
The reason is simple: the Left's crusade against religion has nothing to do with concern for rationalism, personal liberty, or freedom of thought and conscience, and everything to do with the centrality of traditional Judeo-Christian values to the America that they seek to transform. Indeed, it is precisely because Christians by and large aren't dangerous that leftists feel they can get away with saying they are. Never mind that Islamic radicalism poses the far greater threat to left-wing notions of traditional morality in the long run; traditional Christians are the more immediate foe. As Avlon points out, the censored episode also depicted Jesus watching porn. And the uproar from Christians and the mainstream media over that blasphemous depiction of a religious leader is…where?
I'd like to thank Comedy Central for unwittingly exposing the Left's true priorities, better than any of us ever could.
_____
Hailing from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Calvin Freiburger is a political science major at Hillsdale College. He also blogs at the Hillsdale Forum and his personal website, Calvin Freiburger Online
Geronami: Trinity University in Texas recently came under the attack from secularist students who wanted to remove 'in the year of our Lord' from their diplomas. But University took a stand for Christ. Good news for today. Please read the full story below.Trinity University's board of trustees announced Thursday they will not grant a student group's request to drop the phrase "our Lord" from diplomas, saying that while Trinity welcomes all religions, it is right to honor its Christian roots.
"The board's decision reflects its desire to continue a Trinity tradition, and the words 'in the year of our Lord' are appropriate for the diploma, given Trinity's history and heritage," said Walter Huntley, vice chairman of the board and an Atlanta businessman.
The Trinity Diversity Connection, which requested the phrasing be dropped, issued this statement:
TDC "respects the decision the board of trustees made and appreciates their time and concern on this issue. While this was not the decision many of us were hoping for, we realize that this is a complicated issue. (TDC) will continue to represent, and advocate for, diversity on our campus."
Trinity was founded in 1869 by Presbyterians; its name signfies joint efforts of three Presbyterian synods in the name of the Holy Trinity. Since 1969, the university has been governed by an independent board of directors, maintaining a "covenant relationship" with the church.
In the past decade, school officials have sought to diversify the student body, recruiting more international students and fostering a campus environment that's accepting of all backgrounds and faiths.
The TDC requested last year that officials drop the reference to "our Lord" from diplomas, arguing that a degree is a personal document and that not all students believe in Jesus Christ.
The student government and a commencement committee backed the TDC's request, but university and diversity group leaders encountered a national backlash after the San Antonio Express-News ran a story on the debate that was picked up by news outlets around the country.
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