The "Family Values" Class Of '94 Strikes Again...

[KharmaTrain]

I consider Dana Milbanks a major doochenozzle, but as with a broken clock, this article highlights the long term results of the "Contract on America"...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/18/AR2010051803985.html

In his downfall, Souder appears likely to join classmates Mark Foley (lewd text messages to House pages), Mark Sanford (hiking the proverbial Appalachian Trail with his Argentine mistress) and John Ensign (whose parents paid the family of his ex-mistress $96,000) in the sex-scandal hall of fame. Another of their classmates, Bob Ney, did prison time for his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal.


As Eric Massa, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer can attest, scandal can visit any party or any political body. But the House Republicans of '94 stand out: No fewer than 15 of the 73 elected in the landslide that year have entertained the nation with flaps that include messy divorces and a suspicious car accident.

In his hasty farewell, Souder took the well-worn path of blaming his departure on Washington. "In the poisonous environment of Washington, D.C., any personal failing is seized upon, often twisted, for political gain," he complained. "I am resigning rather than put my family through that painful, drawn-out process."

Yet millions of people live in the Washington area, and relatively few of us have adulterous relationships with married subordinates we have hired to assist us in broadcasts for Christian media outlets. That, and not this town's "poisonous environment," is why Souder is resigning.

In the 90's, I used to joke that "Family Values" was a drug store chain in Indiana, guess they either went bankrupt or moved. :rofl:

Discuss...

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Northeast Indiana has its own poisonous environment

I lived for 15 years in rural Steuben County, Indiana, in the district that gave the world Dan Quayle, Dan Coats, and (long after my departure) Mark Souder. My in-laws were very active in county Republican politics; my mother-in-law held a fairly high elective office.

At one time, the area was being studied for a doctoral dissertation, and information was gathered regarding the frequency with which family members were kept at home, undiagnosed and untreated for a variety of developmental disabilities and/or mental illnesses. The author of the dissertation had discovered that for some reason -- and I do not know what his ultimate conclusion as to a cause was -- northeastern Indiana seemed to have a much higher incidence of this behavior than just about anywhere else.

I had personal direct experience with at least two individuals who probably should have been under more supervised care than they were, and in both cases it was because the family did not want the "stigma" of admitting there was a problem.

I was also personally acquainted with at least four individuals who, though quite prominent in the community, carried on extra-marital affairs almost openly, yet professed public and excessive "remorse" when forced to confront their behavior. It was as if something in the air or the water or whatever made them totally oblivious to what they had been doing. They were aware of it while it was going on, and almost arrogant about it, but as soon as it became "public knowledge," their whole attitude abruptly changed.

Mark Souder grew up in that environment; he was poisoned long before he ever went to Washington.



Tansy Gold, happy to have escaped
(edit: typo)