POSTED: 06:25 PM ET, 10/14/2008 by Derek Kravitz
The brouhaha surrounding Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) and a former female staffer is exacerbated by the fact that he only won his congressional seat in West Palm Beach, Fla., after former Rep. Mark Foley was forced to resign amid a sex scandal of his own.
Mahoney (and Foley) join a growing number of politicians in similar straits. The Post Investigations blog keeps you up-to-date with this helpful list of recent incidents:
Edwards Admits Affair With Videographer
Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, told ABC’s “Nightline” in August that he had an affair with a filmmaker working for his campaign and repeatedly lied about it. The National Enquirer had followed the story — and Edwards — for nearly a year before Edwards’s admission.
Edwards has denied being the father of Rielle Hunter’s 5-month-old baby, who was born Feb. 27 without a father listed on the birth certificate. An Edwards fundraiser, Andrew Young, has publicly said he is the girl’s father. Hunter said she will not pursue DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter.
DWI Leads To Revealed Secret For Congressman
After a May drunken-driving arrest in Alexandria, Va., Rep. Vito J. Fossella (R-N.Y.) told police that he was going to pick up his daughter.
Problem was his children live in Staten Island.
The slip-up led Fossella, a married father of three, to admit to a long-standing affair with Laura Fay, a former liaison officer for the Air Force who accompanied congressional delegations to Europe — trips that Fossella attended. Fay is the mother of their 3-year-old daughter.
Fossella announced later that month that he would not seek re-election in 2009 and the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct formed a subcommittee to investigate him.
Spitzer Resigns After Hook-Up With Prostitute
Former New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer, who advocated cracking down on prostitution as the state’s attorney general and was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, resigned in March after federal investigators discovered he had used a high-end escort service to arrange for a call girl named “Kristen” to meet him for a Feb. 13 tryst at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.
Today, Spitzer is still the target of a continuing probe by New York’s ethics commission into his administration’s handling of travel records and government prosecutors are deciding whether to charge Spitzer in connection with his involvement in the prostitution ring, The New York Times has reported. Spitzer is working at his father’s real estate firm, and has discussed undertaking charity, environmental or free legal work.
‘D.C. Madam’ Case Catches Louisiana Congressman
As the high-profile “D.C. Madam” prostitution case began to unfold in July 2007, a list of phone numbers of the service’s proprietor, Deborah Jane Palfrey, was released.
Among the numbers that a reporter from Hustler magazine called was that of Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).
Vitter immediately apologized and then went silent.
Palfrey, 51, went to trial on racketeering charges for running a prostitution ring out of homes and hotel rooms in the Washington area. She was convicted in April. Vitter was on the witness list but did not testify.
Palfrey committed suicide days later.
Bathroom ‘Tapping’ Leads To Scandal
For Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), his problems started in a Minneapolis airport men’s room in June 2007.
An undercover police officer said Craig tapped his foot “as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct.” He was arrested and charged with interference with privacy and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.
He pleaded guilty to the disorderly-conduct charge and paid a $500 fine. The incident became public months later.
Immediately, GOP leaders told Craig to resign, but the long-time senator resisted. Pressure for him to resign mounted.
Craig announced in September 2007 he would resign, saying that his arrest had made it impossible for him to serve his constituents. But he reversed course a few days later, saying he wants to stay in the Senate if he can get his guilty plea dropped.
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