Back in 1986, Florida Congressman Bill Young, a then-nine-term Republican from the Tampa area, received the Family and Freedom Award from Christian Voice, a major conservative religious lobby at the time.
The year before, he had divorced his wife of 36 years to marry his secretary, who was younger than his children and had already borne him an out-of-wedlock child.
This striking detail, among many others, comes from a Tampa Bay Times story by Andrew Meacham about how badly Young's first family was treated by him and his new-edition wife, up to and including writing them out of the printed obituaries. (h/t Wonkette)
Family and Freedom, indeed, if that means the freedom to essentially abandon your family to fornicate with then marry your Congressional staffer and start another family with her. Young married his secretary eight days after his divorce was final, in the House prayer room in the Capitol.
Young died in October while in his 22nd term in the House. He was the longest-serving Republican in the House.
His first wife was sworn to secrecy as part of the divorce agreement that granted her $2,000 a month in alimony. His death ended the payment, and the agreement.
Details, below.
Young had scant contact with his first family after his divorce. The TBT story leads with him showing up at his son's house the first Christmas after the divorce and remarriage, to drop off presents for his son, daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren.
Terry Young said he relished the opportunity to share such a moment with his father. The two had been out of touch for more than a year after Bill Young divorced his wife of 36 years — Terry's mother — and married his former secretary eight days later.
The son had called and left messages with his father, but they weren't returned. So he backed off.
That December night, Terry asked his father to come inside. The kids were giddy to see their grandfather, who had thrilled them on Christmases past by playing Santa Claus.
"I'm sorry, Terry, I just can't," Bill Young said.
The Republican congressman returned to his car, where his new wife, Beverly, was waiting.
According to Terry, Bill Young never tried to contact him or the grandchildren again.
The new wife was evidently beyond jealous of Young's first family. Wonkette Editrix Rebecca Schoenkopf accurately snarks that she is "a woman with what sounds like borderline personality disorder or Livia Soprano."
Get a load of this:
To Beverly Young, Terry has come forward now because he "is trying to get rid of his guilt for being a horrible son."
"They are going to use the media to try to get back at me," she said. "It's been 30 years and it's a joke. He had nothing to do with them and he wanted nothing to do with them after he tried in the beginning. He would tell me to tell you they are not his family."
Young even once claimed that he "never had a son named Terry," his wife said.
Mrs. Young, 58, said she has wondered if her husband's first children resent her for being younger than they are.
Asked whether any photos of Young's first family were included in the photo montage at his funeral, Mrs. Young replied: "Hell, no. Why would I do that? Why should they be? They played no part in his life whatsoever. Consider that courtesy of me."
And this direct quote:
It's sad, that after thirty years (Marian Young) still can't accept the fact that he never loved her. … She attempted to make him stay in a loveless marriage by having her children, but once they were out of his home and grown adults he wanted to experience real love, life and happiness. And that's what we did. We did it when, where and how we wanted to.
The second Mrs. Young has an odd conception of family. After she and her own son (the out-of-wedlock one) disagreed about who should replace the great man, she was not very maternal:
"You have hurt me beyond belief," Beverly Young told Bill Young II after a Dec. 6 Tiger Bay meeting as a Times reporter stood nearby.
When asked whether the conflict over endorsements had damaged her relationship with her son, she replied: "I have no relationship."
There's plenty more family drama and hypocrisy in the story, including about how the local media covered up for a Congressman who delivered the bacon and the campaign ads. Read the whole thing, it's really well-reported and written.
From the wiki comes this characteristic story about Young and wife No. 2:
At the State of the Union Address on January 31, 2006, authorities expressly prohibited the display of political ideology on clothing in the U.S. Capitol. Young's wife was asked to leave shortly after anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was ejected for wearing an anti-war T-shirt.
Beverly Young's T-shirt stated: "Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom." She argued with Capitol Hill Police officers in the hallway outside the House chamber. "They said I was protesting," she told the St. Petersburg Times. "I said, 'Read my shirt, it is not a protest.' They said, 'We consider that a protest.' I said, 'Then you are an idiot.'"
Young was angry about the way his wife was treated. "Because she had on a shirt that someone didn't like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery," Young said on the House floor the following day, holding up the gray shirt. "Shame, shame," he said. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer apologized in a statement late that same day. Young said he was not necessarily satisfied. "My wife was humiliated," he told reporters. He suggested that "sensitivity training" might be in order for the Capitol Police.
And, of course, Young voted to impeach Bill Clinton for an extramarital blowjob.
Post mortem, Young joins a long list of Republican hypocrites who espouse Christian family values in public and violate them in private -- Newt Gingrich, John McCain, Mark Sanford, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Henry Hyde, John Ensign, Vito Fossella, etc.
With more surely to come, should the media do their job.