You Chose a Good Day to Resign, Mark Souder

Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN-3) is resigning from office because of an affair with a female staffer, according to Fox News. I applaud him on his great timing—in the middle of an election day—to try to prevent yet another tale of Republican infidelity from topping the headlines.

Multiple senior House sources indicated that the extent of the affair with the 45-year-old staffer would have landed Souder before the House Ethics Committee.

"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. I believe it is the best decision for my family, the people of northeast Indiana and for our country," Souder plans to say, according to the statement obtained by Fox News.

Today is probably the biggest primary election of this cycle with several high-profile Senate contests. Those elections should dominate the news this evening and tomorrow. The breaking story about Connecticut Democratic Senate hopeful Richard Blumenthal falsely claiming to have served in Vietnam is also getting a lot of press coverage. It would be hard to imagine a better day to announce that you are resigning in disgrace and see the story quickly buried. Rep. Souder, you chose well.

Having Souder's story lightly reported and quickly replaced by bigger news is the best the GOP can hope for. What Republicans don't want is for the media to connect the dots and start pointing out how several prominent Republicans have gotten into trouble recently because of infidelity, such as Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC). Souder's seat is as red as his face, and should easily remain in Republican hands.