W.Va. Governor Admits to Being 'not Faithful' to Family (Yep, It's a Democrat)

Yecchh! He's such a snake, I can't imagine having an affair with him!

Yecchh is right! I can't imagine being in the same room as those teeth!

Thanks for the pic!

And Sheets Byrd is famous for, among other things, playing his fiddle and the state has a Supreme Court Justice famous for his yodeling. West Virginia is so cultured.

This is a Non Starter!!! Doesn't make it right, but it won't amount to squat in WV.

WV is democrat state.... the two biggest employers in the state are the State and Federal government, and third place belongs to Wal Mart! WV will never vote for anyone or anything that cuts services or shrinks government nearly 2/3 or all WVirginiance receive some sort of assistance (if memory serves). Everyone is on the take, the state has NOTHING in terms of economic growth potential other than more government programs and gambling.... No one cares.

As to it being a Democrat, lets face it, people cheat, like it or not the letter beside their names does not mean they don't. Infidelity is definately not a product of any 1 party.

hahaha well don't worry baby, they are in a glass at night!

Update: Well, Gov. Wise sent a representative to our part of the state today, as he was occupied with his family problems. He was supposed to be here to hand out PROMISE scholarships at two schools.

I met someone from Charleston today, who told me that he knows folks who work in the same office as Wise's girlfriend, and they've known for months about the affair. Apparently, the Daily Mail is being accused of misquoting the husband (W.Va. National Public Radio had the editor on this afternoon, and she defended her reporters).

Tuesday May 13, 2003; 12:45 PM

The story of Gov. Bob Wise’s apology for unfaithfulness involves a marriage between a bass guitar player and repairman from Eastern Kanawha County and a Swiss-born economics and art major who speaks five languages.

Wise on Monday admitted being unfaithful to his family after the Daily Mail contacted him about allegations made by the woman’s husband, Phillip Frye. Below are some short profiles of the people involved.

Phillip Frye
Phillip Frye, from Hugheston in Eastern Kanawha County, confirmed Monday that he has filed for divorce and Wise is the man referred to anonymously in the court papers as having had an affair with his wife.

Frye did not immediately return calls today, and his lawyer says he will no longer be talking to the press.

Frye has played bass for several bands, including the Dirt Road Band, which was headed by Billy Boggs’ father. That’s how Boggs, who plays in the band Southern Mix, first came to know Frye.

Boggs said he has been a friend to Frye for years and was surprised to hear the news about the alleged affair.

Boggs had only good things to say about Frye, other than he sometimes might show up late to events.

“He’s a good friend of ours,” Boggs said. “He’s one of those people you can always count on if you need something. He wouldn’t do anything bad to anybody.”

Frye fixed amplifiers and other electronic equipment on the side, Boggs said, to make extra money. Frye also worked part time for Charleston Newspapers in the mailroom during the 1980s, while working as a musician.

Angela Mascia-Frye
Mascia-Frye was born in Switzerland and earned two bachelor degrees from the University of Basle, one in economics and another in art. Mascia-Frye speaks German, French, Italian, English and Spanish.

From 1987 to 1989, she worked for the Swiss Bank Corp., according to a short biography from the Leadership West Virginia program, which Mascia-Frye attended in 2003.

She then worked for a pharmaceutical company as a controller in Basle, Switzerland, until 1996, when she came to America and filed for a marriage license with Frye.

He was 34 at the time; she was 29. They both lived in Hugheston.

From October 1997 to December 2000, Mascia-Frye worked at West Virginia University Institute of Technology, and then started working for the state with the West Virginia Development Office.

In her current $43,920-a-year position, she is responsible for working on overseas trade missions, including some that included meetings with Wise.

Fellow employee Jan Dickinson, spokeswoman for the Development Office, said Mascia-Frye is a good worker.

“Personnel records are confidential, privileged information,” Dickinson said. “However, I can tell you that Angela is a very hard worker and an excellent employee.”

Gov. Bob Wise and
first lady Sandy Wise
The couple met in 1983, shortly after his first election to Congress.

Sandy Wise is a Minnesota native and was a subcommittee lawyer with the House Ways and Means Committee when they met. The two have been married since 1984 and have two children, Robert and Alexandra. Wise was elected governor in 2000.

Wise, 55, admitted Monday to being unfaithful to his family and now is requesting privacy.

“This is a very personal issue for my family, and I ask for privacy during this time,” Wise said in his statement Monday. “I particularly ask that the privacy of my wife and children be respected.”

Spokeswoman Amy Shuler Goodwin said Wise’s admission will not affect the governor’s political future.

“The governor is absolutely not going to resign,” she said. “This statement does not affect the governor’s re-election plans.”

Joseph C. Cometti, Frye’s lawyer

Cometti also has become a part of the story, saying his client never said certain statements that were published in Monday’s Daily Mail. Cometti said Frye denies telling Daily Mail reporter Chris Stirewalt the following items:

That his wife was having an affair with the governor;

That he had “private detectives all over this thing;”

That he discussed with the Daily Mail his “supposedly failing music career;”

“Mr. Frye did not say many of these things. We take offense,” Cometti said Monday. “This attitude of overly aggressive newspapers does not serve the public welfare and the public need to know.”
This morning, Cometti told MetroNews “Talkline” radio show host Hoppy Kercheval on air that Frye did tell Stirewalt that he didn’t like Wise and did make a comment referring to Wise as a “little weasel-faced bastard,” as was reported.

But Cometti said his client was referring to the governor’s stance on cigarette taxes and said that Stirewalt and the Daily Mail were “fabricating” quotes.

“Who knows who the governor is sleeping with, whether it’s Mrs. Frye or whether it’s other people,” Cometti said on air. “The story is predicated on a lie.”

Cometti said Monday he thinks the divorce between his client and Mascia-Frye is a private matter.

“Personal affairs should be left personal,” he said.

The Daily Mail stands by Stirewalt’s reporting.

Editor Nanya Friend said the paper received a tip “so detailed we felt we had to check it out.”

“We just put a call into the governor’s office and left it to him to respond,” Friend said. “I stand by my reporter and our story. We were very careful throughout the morning as we put the story together.”
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2003051325/

W.Va. Governor Admits to Being 'not Faithful' to Family

Yeah, but does he gamble?

-PJ

Yes her husband is claiming he has been misquoted and never named Wise.... of course in a state like WV, do you want to be the named guy the Governor's gunning for? Whole state's pretty much one big hick town... he's got a target painted on his chest now and he knows it.

Hope this husband is looking for a job and life outside of WV, because he's gonna be crushed by the machine I suspect in short order, and he knows it.

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 14, 2003; 8:48 AM

Just what the country needed: another Democrat who can't keep his zipper zipped.

And who was dumb enough to be messing around with a woman on the public payroll.

What was Bob Wise, the former congressman turned governor of West Virginia, thinking?

Does he remember Bill and Monica and what that did to the country, or did he somehow sleep through 1998?

Does he even remember Paul Patton, the Kentucky governor who last fall admitted an affair with a nursing home operator who said state regulators cracked down on her after she ended the relationship?

Of course, some Republicans do it too, as we saw when Rudy Giuliani very publicly strayed from his first lady back before 9/11 turned him into a national hero.

Why do politicians keep thinking they can get away with this sort of thing?

In any other situation, we'd say it's between Wise and his wife and his, uh, friend. But when your wife is the state's first lady, the situation is dramatically different.

And to fool around with someone getting taxpayer dollars – thereby opening yourself up to both official and journalistic scrutiny – is not too swift.

In a flash, the first-term governor – who's up for reelection next year – has put his career under a dark cloud. The only thing he seems to have learned from the Bill Clinton debacle is to fess up right away – not that he had any choice, since he was named in divorce papers filed by the Other Woman's husband.

The revelation seems to be sparking the same debate in West Virginia as we had during impeachment – whether or not this is just about sex, or a deeper public betrayal.

Here's how the Charleston Gazette covered the story:

"In a potentially catastrophic blow to his political career, Gov. Bob Wise released a statement Monday admitting he 'was not faithful to my family,' in response to allegations he had an extramarital affair with state employee Angela Mascia-Frye."

The Swiss-born woman is the $43,920-a-year director of European operations for the West Virginia Development Office. We didn't know the state had a foreign policy.

Now comes the blame-the-press part: "Yesterday the Charleston Daily Mail reported that [Philip] Frye's divorce petition alleges that his wife had an affair with another man. Frye confirmed that the man was Wise, the Daily Mail reported.

"In the article, Frye was quoted as referring to Wise as a 'weasel-faced bastard' and a 'typical Democrat.'"

Which is worse, by the way?

"Frye's attorney, Joe Cometti, later said Daily Mail reporters had made up many of Frye's quotes, including an assertion by Frye that he has pictures and other evidence of the affair collected by private investigators. 'Mr. Frye did not tell [the newspaper] that the governor had an affair with his wife, or committed adultery with his wife,' Cometti said. He accused the Daily Mail, which traditionally favors Republican politicians, of trying to bring down a Democratic governor. Daily Mail Editor Nanya Friend told The Associated Press on Monday that she stands by the story and the reporter."

The Charleston Daily Mail has this reaction piece:

"Gov. Bob Wise's apology for being unfaithful to his family became the talk of the town – and state – as people watched television news, listened to radio reports or read newspapers.

"Some said Wise's personal life is separate from his political career and should remain that way. 'We got our own Bill Clinton here,' said Travis Hill of Madison, who heard the news Monday evening on the way to a Charleston Alley Cats baseball game. 'That's his business. It's wrong, but a lot of people do it.'

"One state employee who did not want to give her name also compared Wise's actions to Clinton's. 'I couldn't care less when Clinton did it, and I couldn't care less now,' she said. 'As long as he's running government, that's all that matters.'

"Others believe the governor should take more responsibility than just admitting his unfaithfulness. Jack Jones, 68, said Wise should resign."

The Gazette follows the money:

"Mascia-Frye billed for overnight lodging in several cities seemingly within drivable distance from Charleston, including at least two nights at the Holiday Inn in Huntington, on Aug. 21 and Sept. 3. Wise's travel schedule shows that he was in Hancock and Greenbrier counties on Aug 21. On Sept. 3, he was scheduled to attend the Robert H. Mollohan Charitable Foundation reception and dinner in Bridgeport, but canceled the trip on the day of the event."

Maybe Wise, like Clinton, is just following in the footsteps of JFK:

"In an 815-page tome that dissects the Cuban missile crisis and assesses John Kennedy's record as a congressman, scholar Robert Dallek has tucked away history of another sort: JFK's presidential dalliances included an affair with a White House intern," says USA Today.

"A 'tall, slender, beautiful' college student worked in the White House press office for two summers, he writes in An Unfinished Life, though she couldn't type and had no discernible office skills.

"An account of the alleged affair was included in personal recollections recorded by Barbara Gamarekian, an aide in the Kennedy White House who later worked for The New York Times. . . .

"Such an affair would hardly have been out of character for Kennedy. Previous biographers have recounted Kennedy's womanizing over the years with, among others, his wife's press secretary, the mistress to a mob boss, a suspected German spy and various Hollywood stars and starlets."

Where did he find the time to deal with things like the Cuban missile crisis?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53818-2003May14.html

"Mascia-Frye billed for overnight lodging in several cities seemingly within drivable distance from Charleston, including at least two nights at the Holiday Inn in Huntington, on Aug. 21 and Sept. 3."

"Seemingly within"? It's a 45-minute drive! I know the morons at the Gazette don't comprehend there's a world west of Nitro, but GEEZ.