Heavy stuff from disgraced Third District Congressman Mark Souder, who just can't seem to stop talking about his career-ending marital indiscretions. His cover story for the conservative Christian "World" magazine is chock-full of introspective musings, and offers no shortage of head-shaking moments. To wit:
Trying to figure it out, Souder wrote, "One of the biggest dangers-which is partly why intimacy is desired-is loneliness. Loneliness doesn't mean being alone as much as it means being around hundreds of people but not really knowing them. It's a job that results in hundreds, even thousands of friends, but not much closeness." But he knows that explanation is insufficient: "Bottom line, however, is that the problem is sin. . . . The problem is getting the will subordinated to the Holy Spirit early enough that the Spirit is not squelched."
Oh, Third District. You're really a bottomless well of fun these days, aren't you?
The latest development in the Mark Souder affair and resulting Republican replacement caucus cluster is a series of Facebook messages sent by Souder to two individuals who promptly released the contents to the media. Stay classy, Northeast Indiana GOP:
The message predicts that Stutzman will win the caucus, although it says newscaster Ryan Elijah is pressing him. It calls Fort Wayne City Councilwoman Liz Brown a sleeper pick, but doubted she would get 10 percent of the early vote.
When talking about his affair with Tracy Jackson, a former staff member, Souder seems to offer contradictory statements. In one paragraph he says that Stutzman knew nothing of the affair and therefore couldn't have blown the whistle. In another paragraph, it mentions that Stutzman or a political consulting firm leaked information of the affair to Fox News after getting information from Jackson's husband, Brad Jackson, a Kosciusko County commissioner.
While the message was sent directly to Clouse and Kirkpatrick, they both said they believed it important to release its contents so voters in the Saturday caucus have all the information they can get before making a decision.
It's been no secret that Stutzman is good friends with the offending staffer's husband, and this whole sordid web of lies and half-truths seems to be leaving no conservative politico unscathed.
Dr. Tom Hayhurst, for his part, is still squarely focused on what's best for the Third District. And while the Republican Party cannibalizes itself in a fiery ball of infidelity and distrust, the door may be opening for a strong Democratic challenge come November.
At this point, you almost have to feel bad for soon-to-be-ex-Rep. Mark Souder, who in just a week has gone from a primary election victor to an easy punchline for the state and national press. Almost.
Souder told The Journal Gazette he also planned to withdraw from his re-election campaign because it would let a new northeastern Indiana Republican become part of what he expects to be a wave of GOP victories in November.
He said he decided to withdraw from the race two days after the May 4 primary election victory in which he received fewer than half of the Republican votes.
However, he decided to speed up his exit after he admitted his affair with part-time staff member Tracy Jackson to a few people and learned it would trigger a House ethics committee inquiry, he said. He turned in his resignation Friday.
[...]
Souder also said he calculated Gov. Mitch Daniels would not call a special election before the November general election because the cost would be too great. That way, 19 remaining staff members -- Jackson also resigned -- could keep their jobs while they look for other work. They will report to the House clerk until a new representative is elected.
At this point, Souder would do himself a big favor by not giving these sorts of interviews. His bizarre "I meant to do that" attitude and genuine lack of people-skills are indicative of why his political career was in trouble anyway -- he's just not that likable.
Of course, the question at this point is whether Souder will get his wish and return one of his local Republican friends to Congress in his place. In a year of outsider love, Dr. Tom Hayhurst's disconnect from any and all things D.C. (and Mark Souder) mean that he may have a leg up going into a special/general election.
Here's an interesting wrinkle in the saga of Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), whose pending resignation after an affair with a staffer is sort of being lost in the news cycle. At a short news conference Wednesday (on a subject I'm writing up next), Luke Russert of NBC News asked Mike Pence (R-Ind.) when he learned about Souder's affair.
"I was approached by a journalist I think Wednesday of last week who asked if I had heard anything about my colleague," said Pence. "I indicated that I hadn't. But I did approach Mr. Souder on Thursday on the House floor to inform him of that inquiry, and it was at that point that he shared the fact that he had been involved in an extramarital affair.
But wait, there's more...
Pence's staff emails this statement:
"In response to a general media inquiry, Mr. Pence confronted Mr. Souder on Thursday. Mr. Souder confessed to an affair, but did not mention that it was with a part-time staff member. It was not until Sunday evening that Mr. Souder called Mr. Pence to inform him that the affair was with a part-time staff member. Mr. Pence encouraged Mr. Souder to resign immediately and notified ethics on Monday."
I suppose on the one hand you at least have to hand it to Rep. Mike Pence for walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to morality and all that jazz. On the other, not allowing Souder himself to come forward prior to reporting the transgression doesn't indicate a lot of warm feelings among Indiana's Republican delegation.
Via TPM, the story gets better and better and better and...
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."
Eight-term Rep. Mark Souder will announce his resignation Tuesday after it came to light that he was conducting an affair with a female staffer who worked in his district office, Fox News has learned.
Multiple senior House sources indicated that the extent of the affair 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.
More as information becomes available.
Quick analysis: Does this make Dr. Tom Hayhurst the presumptive front-runner in this race? Yes. Yes, it does. Go and throw him a few coins, folks.
Update: Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has more, including quotes from Souder himself:
"It is with great regret I announce that I am resigning from the U.S. House of Representatives as well as resigning as the Republican nominee for Congress in this fall's election," said Souder.
"I sinned against my God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part time member of my staff," added Souder. "I am so shamed to have hurt those I love."
The revelations regarding Souder come two weeks after he survived a serious primary challenge from car dealer Bob Thomas who spent considerable sums of his own money on the race. Souder won the primary with less than 50 percent of the vote.
How Souder will be replaced on the ballot remains to be seen. State Republican officials suggested that a replacement could be chosen at the state convention next month.
I'm a little late to the show on all of this, but after recovering from finals (and more vitally, recovering from the recovery) I am finally easing back into the saddle. For those that missed this SurveyUSA poll from last week, here's the skinny:
4/22-26 -- MoE: +/- 5%
Dan Coats (R): 36
John Hostettler (R): 24
Marlin Stutzman (R): 18
Don Bates (R): 6
Richard Behney (R): 4
Undecided: 13
The general election match-ups still don't look pretty for Congressman Brad Ellsworth, but it's worth noting that at this point, these polls don't amount to anything other than a Generic R v. Generic D test. And with every Republican candidate still polling at sub-50%, the GOP has every reason to worry about what will happen when Brad starts to get his message out to the entire state.
Elsewhere, Rep. Mark Souder may have some extra time to devote to his fantasy football addiction, as the same poll showed him locked in a primary battle against self-funder Bob Thomas.
MoE: +/- 5%
Mark Souder (R-inc): 35
Bob Thomas (R): 29
Phil Troyer (R): 19
Greg Dickman (R): 2
Undecided: 16
Democrat Tom Hayhurst has built up a campaign war chest of nearly $234,000 for his second run at northeast Indiana's congressional seat held by Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd.
If Souder wins the GOP May 4 primary, it will be a rematch between the two; Hayhurst challenged Souder in 2006, a race Souder won with 54 percent of the vote.
In that race, Hayhurst raised and spent $708,000; Souder raised $622,000 and spent $642,000.
Souder has traditionally been a piss-poor fundraiser, but expect him to raise a decent amount of coin in the next few months in an effort to ward off the self-funded primary challenge of Bob Thomas. Unfortunately for Souder, he'll likely have to spend most of what he banks, which should give Hayhurst an advantage heading into the summer months.
Well, we can't say he didn't warn us. When Bob Thomas told us all that we would know who Bob Thomas is, that was probably a hint that fun times were just around the corner. Sylvia A. Smith brings us the opening salvo in what will probably be the most entertaining primary of the cycle:
In a radio ad that began airing this week, Souder jabs at Thomas, who owns car dealerships in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, lived in an Indianapolis suburb for 25 years and recently leased a home on Fort Wayne's north side.
Souder refers to Thomas as "rich Bob" because in an interview last month Thomas said he is prepared to spend at least as much as Souder during the campaign and has "enough money to put on a very, very serious campaign."
Aside from the fact that Souder is already running negative ads against an opponent who only announced his candidacy a few weeks ago, Thomas's response makes it even more clear that Souder is in trouble.
Are we talking about the same Mark Souder who instantly supported Dan Coats for his bid for the Senate seat who was still living and had been living for 12 years in Virginia? And is this the same Mark Souder who had lived in the Washington, D.C., area for 10 years until about two or three months before coming back here and filing for the same seat we're talking about? ... If that's the same Mark Souder, he's an incredible hypocrite," Thomas said.
Souder, who grew up in Grabill, worked for Coats on Capitol Hill until mid-1993, when he returned to Indiana and six months later became a formal candidate for the congressional seat he won in the 1994 election.
Rep. Mark Souder isn't having the best of weeks. Although he's been attracting primary challengers for months now, the last few days have brought forward what can only be described as a credible threat to his incumbency. And car dealership tycoon Bob Thomas isn't shy in talking about his potential intra-party coup.
"We're going to define the issues in this campaign," Thomas said in a 45-minute interview prior to Saturday's Elkhart County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner. "People are going to know about Bob Thomas."
[...]
Thomas said he will finance his campaign personally, at least through the primary. If he wins, he's confident he won't have trouble raising additional campaign funds.
If Thomas remains a financially viable candidate, the primary could become quite expensive for Souder, who was first elected in 1994. If he survives, that early spending could be troublesome in the general election, as likely Democrat nominee Dr. Tom Hayhurst outraised Souder in 2009 by more than $5,000.
Souder has just over $150k cash on hand -- a total that doesn't seem like much when considering that even if he emerges unscathed from a costly primary battle, Democratic candidate Tom Hayhurst will have been banking coin unabated.
Thomas is rumored to have placed a $500k target on the primary contest.
In CD 03, you need to keep your eye on the second challenger of U.S. Rep. Mark Souder (R) to the right, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis car dealer Bob Thomas (R). We're hearing that the former head of the national Ford dealers council, a Princeton and Harvard alum, has assembled an impressive cadre of handlers and is budgeting $500,000 to be spent between now and the first week in May.
That's a serious amount of coin, especially against a habitually bad fundraiser such as Souder. I'll be keeping an eye on this contest as it develops.
Kudos to Ed Feigenbaum for another great scoop. If you haven't considered a subscription to one of his great publications, you should do so today.
Rep. Mark Souder has always been a poor fundraiser, but to fall behind in the money race this early in the cycle has to be a bit worrying for GOPers in the northeast corner of this state.
Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that on Dec. 31, Hayhurst's campaign had $170, 949 in cash, compared to Souder's $165,697.
Souder may have to spend some of his money in a primary fight. He faces opposition from Phil Troyer of Fort Wayne as well as two DeKalb County residents, Rachel Grubb of Auburn and Charles Newman of Garrett.
You can check out Dr. Tom Hayhurst's campaign at www.tomhayhurstforcongress.com. Head on over and help him keep his cash advantage.
From Sylvia A. Smith, we get this hilarious zinger from Rep. Mark Souder:
"So he turns on them. He goes, 'Well, they must be my enemy, then. It couldn't be possible that they would disagree with my policies. They must be my enemy.' The only person I've seen (like that) since I've been even moderately active in politics was Nixon.
Souder then noted that yes, in fact, he had been in a coma for the eight years preceding the election of President Barack Obama.
And just to keep things in perspective, this was after Souder said Obama pals around with terrorists and has abandoned free people all over the world who share American values.
In related news, Democratic challenger Tom Hayhurst raised nearly $100k in his first six weeks on the campaign trail, nearly equaling Souder's cash-on-hand total. Feel free to head over and drop Dr. Tom a dime or two.
The administration has now stopped using the word "terrorism." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that at Homeland they were focused on natural disasters and manmade disasters, of which terrorism would be one. What? Homeland Security was created for one, and only one, purpose: stopping terrorism. Other FEMA, Coast Guard, Border Patrol and Customs/Ice missions existed BEFORE the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
After steadily backing away from radical Muslim terrorism, the Obama administration, has issued a report about the threat from "domestic rightwing terrorists." It will come as somewhat of a shock to most Americans that, according to the report, it is not the radical Muslims who constitute the terrorist threat. It is our returning veterans. Osama Bin Laden has mellowed out, I guess, but watch out for those returning Indiana National Guard troops. What is the Obama administration thinking?
Right-wing extremists, they claim, are playing on the fears of having our first African American President, fears about our jobs, fears about gun control, and fears about illegal immigration. They didn't even mention "fears that the Department of Homeland Security is focused on the wrong enemy."
I don't suppose the Congressman will issue a statement any time soon admitting that "domestic rightwing terrorists" have murdered two people in the last week, one victim a law abiding doctor and today a security guard. These men were killed in the name of hatred, the kind of hatred the DHS warned about, a warning that Congressman Souder expressed great offense over in the above mentioned column. I doubt he will care to revisit his remarks. He's not the type of man to admit he's wrong. The bodies will continue to pile up and Souder and his ilk will continue to ignore the hatred that brings about such violence.
Congressional goofball Mark Souder had the following to say about President Obama's most recent move to reform the ailing auto industry:
He also criticized Obama's move to ask GM's chief executive, Rick Wagoner, to step down.
Souder said Wagoner made mistakes, but he has a Harvard Business School degree and worked for decades in the industry.
Yes, because if there is one thing the last eight years of Republican-dominated government has taught us, it is that putting all of our faith in a Harvard MBA graduate is a great path to inescapable success.
It's never too early to start pontificating on the next election cycle, especially if you make your money, uh, pontificating on the next election cycle. And thus, with little fanfare, the Cook Political Report released their initial race ratings for the 2010 cycle. Indiana is, at least at the moment, a real snoozer.
IN-1 -- Solid D IN-2 -- Likely D IN-3 -- Likely R IN-4 -- Solid R IN-5 -- Solid R IN-6 -- Solid R IN-7 -- Solid D IN-8 -- Solid D IN-9 -- Likely D
The only real things of note here are that Brad Ellsworth is now recognized as beyond mere mortals in an Eighth District that he has quickly made his own, and Baron Hill has effectively consolidated his political strength in the historically tight Ninth District. Oh, and Mark Souder is a really, really lazy campaigner, but somehow keeps winning.
While communicative genius Mike Pence runs around with his warmed-over John Birch Society talking points, it turns out that the adults in the room have decided to lead by example.
A week after he was sworn in, Obama arrived Tuesday on Capitol Hill to meet privately with all Republicans in Congress.
"I assumed we'd be just pictures on the wall," said Souder, R-3rd. "But he really engaged. ... He showed us he was willing to do a give-and-take."
It's nearly unprecedented for the president of one political party to meet with the entire caucus of lawmakers from the other party, and Republicans said they were grateful for the gesture.
Pence, R-6th, chairman of the GOP House conference and host of the hourlong meeting, said he told Obama, "the door of this conference will stay open to the president."
And yet, something tells me that they won't remember any of this the next time a television camera is rolling and the all-talk socialist rhetoric starts flowing.
Indiana's Third Congressional District has been blessed (cursed?) with a seemingly endless supply of nonsensical thoughts, courtesy of ol' Mark Souder.
Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, noted that Obama's speech offered "no red meat" for liberal activists because he didn't mention abortion, gay rights, guns or the war.
Souder said that as a result, "he never really got the crowd worked up," but it also signaled Obama's intention to work with Republicans.
The swearing in of President Barack Obama was the red meat, you idiot. And two million Americans seemed more than worked up after standing hours in the frigid cold of January.
How in the world did I miss this hilarious mess? With a tip of the ol' hat to Pharyngula, and courtesy of Sylvia A. Smith of the Journal Gazette, may I present Mark Souder:
I personally believe that there is no issue more important to our society than intelligent design. I believe that if there wasn't a purpose in designing you - regardless of who you view the designer as being - then, from my perspective, you can't be fallen from that design. If you can't be fallen from that design, there's no point to evangelism.
As an evangelical Christian, I believe the premise of a fall being at the core of reforming lives. I believe the concept of grace and forgiveness comes from having fallen from something.
Now, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on our society, but I will go out on a limb and say that among the various problems and crises currently facing us at home and abroad, the (non-existent) "scientific" fight over intelligent design doesn't make the top ten list. Or the top one-hundred list. Hell, I think it is safe to say that it doesn't make the list, and anyone who says it does has such a bizarre, misguided sense of priorities that they themselves are likely to line up higher on the "List of Things Holding Society Back" than the straw man of a debate over this conjured-up political issue.
Now, how that occurred - whether you believe in the young earth theory, gradual evolution, or whatever - is disputed. Those become religious. But whether there was a fundamental designer who developed a complex DNA molecular structure is critical. Since I view that as the most important thing in the world, yes, being in a movie that advanced that cause was the personal highlight of the year.
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