Mark Souder

For "pro-family" Republicans, hypocrisy is the gift that keeps on taking. If it's Tuesday, this must be Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN)'s day to disgrace himself.

Souder has resigned for the following reason:

I sinned against God, my wife, and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff.

In the poisonous environment of Washington D.C., any personal failing is seized upon, often twisted, for political gain.

Note the shifting of personal responsibility, something of which Republicans love to accuse others. Not also the reference to the "poisonous environment of Washington D.C.," for which socially conservative Republicans can take a little (all right, most) of the blame.

But isn't his adultery mutual relationship strictly a matter between himself and his wife? Ordinarily, yes, but in the case of a "pro-family" Republican, no. Ayn Rand's view of self-defense applies perfectly: "I merely grant him his choice, destruction, the only destruction he had the right to choose: his own."