Pro-family Senator acknowledges son from extramarital affair 30 years ago
Huffington Post reports that former Republican U.S. Senator Pete Domenici has disclosed that he fathered a secret child in the 1970s with the 24-year-old daughter of one of his Senate colleagues. This is a startling revelation for a politician with a reputation as an upstanding family man, who voted for the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton in 1998 after Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Domenici had cited the value of "truthfulness" and how it's the first pillar of good character.
Mother of Domenici's secret child, Michelle Laxalt, became a prominent lobbyist, Republican activist and television commentator after the affair. She said in the statement that she chose to raise her son as a single parent and that the two agreed that it would be a private matter.
Domenici is the latest in a long line of politicians who were forced to reveal secret children, from one-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just last week, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee acknowledged that he's the father of a 24-year-old woman after the two were seen communicating on Twitter during the State of the Union address.
Earlier this month, the daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and his family's maid died in South Carolina. Essie Mae Washington-Williams, whose mother was black, didn't come forward and identify Thurmond as her father until after his death at age 100 in 2003. Thurmond, who was white, was an ardent segregationist for decades.
In the U.S. Senate, Domenici was considered a staunch right-wing politician with a consistent pro-military and anti-environment voting record. The grassroots organization Republicans for Environmental Protection singled out Domenici as “Worst in the Senate in 2006” on environmental issues. He was also no stranger to ethical controversies. For example, in 2008, Domenici was admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for "inappropriately" contacting (in 2006) one of the nine U.S. attorneys later fired by President Bush.
