Posted on 05/04/2005 7:42:35 AM PDT by Born Conservative
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. representative was accused of choking a woman, 29, to whom he was giving a back rub in his Washington apartment.
WASHINGTON – Three days after it was reported he was involved in a domestic dispute that triggered a 911 call from a 29-year-old woman in his Washington apartment, U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood apologized for causing his family and supporters “pain and embarrassment.”
“I’m truly sorry. Now, I have work to do. I’m going to continue to work hard for the people of the 10th Congressional District, and to begin the healing process with my family.”
Sherwood, 64, did not explain his relationship with the woman or say why she was in his apartment. He has called her a “casual acquaintance.”
The woman, Cynthia Ore of Rockville, Md., says Sherwood has been her lover since 1999.
“When I met him he told me he was getting a divorce,” Ore has said.
Last week, the Times Leader exclusively reported her story about calling 911. She said she made the call on Sept. 15 after Sherwood “choked her for no apparent reason” while giving her a back rub at his apartment on D Street, according to a police report.
“He never did get a divorce,” Ore has said. “He said he has to stay married to get elected.
“For me to start to go back to that day is very painful to deal with all the suffering I went through.” Ore said Tuesday. “I loved him. He always told me he loved me and I believed him.”
Police did not file charges after responding to Ore’s 911 call. The responding officer did not arrest anyone, “based on interviews with both parties and no physical evidence of injury” to Ore, the police report said.
But the officer also noted “both parties have left out significant information or are not willing to discuss in detail what actually happened.”
Ore said she was assaulted and then “changed the subject and said nothing happened,” says the report, which contains a notation that Ore “did not seem to be of sound mind.”
Ore told the Times Leader she became intimidated by police at Sherwood’s apartment; she says she didn’t feel like police found her credible.
“Do you think they (police) are gonna protect me or protect him?” she said. “He’s a member of Congress.”
Sherwood says the failure by police to file charges shows they believed his account that he did not choke Ore.
Still, he apologized in general for the incident in a statement reported by The Associated Press.
He has declined to respond to calls from the Times Leader since Friday.
As a congressman, Sherwood has been a loyal supporter of conservative family values since he was first elected to the 10th Congressional District seat in 1998.
While the Tunkhannock Republican has hardly led the conservative charge on social issues, GOP leaders in the House have come to rely upon his vote when bills pertaining to “traditional family values” come to the floor.
The Christian Coalition of America, which touts itself as “the largest and most active conservative grassroots political organization in America,” gives Sherwood an 84 percent rating for voting with the coalition’s positions on legislative issues. The American Conservative Union rates him at 88 percent.
The American Family Association gives Sherwood a perfect 100-percent rating. The organization’s Web site claims to be “America’s largest pro-family action site” with nearly 2.2 million members.
The organization has state affiliates around the country, including one in Pennsylvania. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania’s Web site, www.afaofpa.org , includes this statement of purpose for the organization:
“To make a positive difference in our community by standing up for traditional Judeo-Christian values. To encourage the faith community to break the silence on controversial issues and be a voice for pro-family values. To provide leadership in defending the Biblical ethic of decency. To educate the public on the negative effects of pornography and violence in the media. To do what we can to encourage, promote and defend families. To protect children from those who would seek to commercialize or propagandize them.”
Among the votes that helped earn Sherwood his 100 percent rating with the family association was his support of the Marriage Protection Act of 2004, which would limit the federal courts’ jurisdiction over the issue of whether a ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional. Sherwood also voted in favor of a failed proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as an institution between a man and a woman.
Sherwood also has supported the elimination of the so-called “marriage penalty” tax, which costs some married couples more in taxes than if they were single taxpayers.
In a 2000 news release supporting the elimination of the “marriage penalty,” Sherwood said: “In this day and age, we ought to be doing more to support marriage instead of penalizing married couples.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
No different from banana republic pols (my background) they all have mistresses.
As an adulterer who voted for a measure that supposedly protects the sanctity of marriage, Rep. Sherwood is in illustrious company. Then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich helped move the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) through the House of Representatives in 1996 while simultaneously conducting an adulterous affair with an aide. His counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, left his first wife for another woman, whom he gave a do-nothing job on his Senate staff. Additionally on DOMA, Rep. Bob Barr, who drafted the legislation, has been married three times. Rep. Bob Livingstone, who was tapped to take the Speakership from Gingrich, lost the position when it was revealed he had been involved in multiple kink-filled orgies, to which his wife was not invited, while supporting the GOP “values” agenda.
When asked about the political future for Rep. Sherwood - who allegedly physically abused his girlfriend and appears to be a typical hypocritical adulterous GOP sleazebag - Marge Matisko, an activist with the Luzerne County [PA] Republican Party said: “The congressman is a family man. When I think about family values, I think about the Don Sherwoods and Rick Santorums of the world.”
The Don Sherwoods and Rick Santorums of the world certainly are peas from the same pod -- crooks and liars, making them good members of the Republican Party!
If he actually voted for that defence of marriage thing... and didnt get divorced... I would say he is walking the walk...:o)
Principles at work ...LOL.
On the gay marriage kerfuffle in Massachusetts, "State Sen. Diane Wilkerson, in an unintentionally hilarious moment during the debate, broke down in tears. She compared anti-gay discrimination with her prosecution for, and conviction on, charges of tax fraud."
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