2006 Election: The Year of the Scandal

Oct. 19, 2006 — -- Fighting for every last Republican congressional seat, President Bush campaigned today for a congressman who may lose because his former mistress has accused him of assaulting her.

"I'm please to be here for Don Sherwood," Bush said. "He is the right man."

Congressman Don Sherwood's former mistress sued Sherwood, the married father of three daughters. They settled, but after the story broke none of it went over too well in his conservative northeastern Pennsylvania district.

It is a fact exploited this year by Sherwood's Democratic opponent, Chris Carney, in myriad television ads that cite voters claiming that while "Sherwood campaigned on family values, he has no family values."

Sherwood has apologized for the affair, while denying the assault charge, in his own TV ad. The unusual televised mea culpa features the silver-haired man chastened, saying, "I made a mistake that nearly cost me the love of my wife Carolyn and our daughter."

It's a year wracked with scandals and the fate of the Congress in no small way could hinge on human frailties -- who took bribes, cheated on his wife or creeped out congressional pages.

It seems like every day there's another grim story involving allegations of corruption, sleaze, or human weakness.

Today the House Ethics Committee continued its investigation into the page scandal involving ex-Rep. Mark Foley and who, if anyone, in the Republican leadership knew about Foley's inappropriate behavior with pages.

This week, the FBI conducted raids on offices and homes looking into whether Congressman Curt Weldon improperly steered overseas contracts to his daughter; Weldon denies any wrongdoing.

In the past year alone four senior Republicans have been forced out of Congress under ethical clouds: