Well here’s an amusing turn of events. Dinesh D’Souza, champion of Christian values, is caught up in a sexual scandal that is getting noticed by the Christian media. It seems that he’s been following the example of so many religious right types before him:
vation and a long line at the book-signing table immediately afterward. Although D’Souza has been married for 20 years to his wife, Dixie, in South Carolina he was with a young woman, Denise Odie Joseph II, and introduced her to at least three people as his fiancée…
The next day another conference organizer, Alex McFarland, distressed by D’Souza’s behavior, confronted him in a telephone conversation. D’Souza admitted he shared a room with his fiancée but said “nothing happened.” When I called D’Souza, he confirmed that he was indeed engaged to Joseph, but did not explain how he could be engaged to one woman while still married to another. When asked when he had filed for divorce from his wife, Dixie, D’Souza answered, “Recently.”
According to San Diego County (Calif.) Superior Court records, D’Souza filed for divorce only on Oct. 4, the day I spoke with him. Under California law, that starts the clock on a six-month waiting period for divorce. D’Souza on Oct. 4 told me his marriage was “over,” said he “is sure Denise is the one for me,” and said he had “done nothing wrong.”
Look, the reason for this is obvious. New York, where D’Souza lives, legalized same-sex marriage last year. Obviously, that destroyed the sanctity of his marriage. How many marriages have to be torn asunder before America wakes up? Gay marriage is so powerful that it destroyed the sanctity of all three of Newt Gingrich’s marriages and all four of Rush Limbaugh’s marriages even before it was legal. That’s how serious this is, people.
And apparently the board of King’s College, of which he is president, is going to be discussing the matter at a board meeting this week. Personally, I couldn’t care less who he sleeps with and under what marital circumstances, but the hypocrisy is certainly amusing. Ambrose Bierce defined a Christian as “one who follows the teachings of Christ so long as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.” Sounds like he nailed D’Souza.
Oh, and here’s a punchline to the whole thing. The fiance has a blog and she posted this headline in January:
Newt You Fox, Are You Trying to Sweep Me Off My Feet? Don’t You know I’m Taken?
Unintentional comedy gold.
45 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
matty1
October 17, 2012 at 11:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The blog is call Smart Girl Politics, she does appear to be female and it is about politics but smart?
paulburnett
October 17, 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nothing the rethuglican fundagelicals do can surprise me anymore.
imrryr
October 17, 2012 at 11:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Funny how they always pick a new wife who’s younger than the previous one. That’s probably just a coincidence though.
dougmasson
October 17, 2012 at 11:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
D’Souza, too, has a binder full of women. Apparently.
regexp
October 17, 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Everything you need to know about this individual can be found on the cached personal website page here and its painful.
John Pieret
October 17, 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
At least his fiance wasn’t “Dennis.”
Reginald Selkirk
October 17, 2012 at 11:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Why is he filing for divorce in California? New York has had no-fault divorce since 2010.
Gregory in Seattle
October 17, 2012 at 11:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
D’Souza certainly seems like an old fashioned conservative guy: when was the last time a prominant conservative, family-values Christian was involved in a traditional scandal like this, as opposed to a scandal that involved men, drugs, kinky sex and/or prostitution?
Larry
October 17, 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think its wonderful that D’Souza has the right and opportunity to marry the person of his choice even whilst married to someone else. Nothing demonstrates more the christian concept of the sanctity of marriage.
Gregory in Seattle
October 17, 2012 at 11:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Reginald Selkirk #7 – I seem to recall that community property laws in New York are pretty strict and tend to favor the non-working spouse: California’s laws are more equitable. And, I suspect, it is much easier for him to travel, which will give him a decided advantage when it comes to meeting with laywers and judges.
Bronze Dog
October 17, 2012 at 11:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Gee, I’m starting to wonder if these religious wingnut types made up this whole gay agenda destroying marriage thing as an excuse to explain their own infidelity. You know, so that the public wouldn’t pin the blame it on their lack of character.
Of course, another likely factor is an inability to respect the women they marry as people or live up to the trust inherent in committed relationship, but they pin that on those dang uppity feminists.
Akira MacKenzie
October 17, 2012 at 11:59 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
rexexp @ 5
GOTT’S LITTLE FEESH IN TROUSERS!!!
It’s the perfect storm of stupid: “Chill Girl” SELF-loathing, intellectual vaccency masquerading as intellect, Randite shallowness, and rancid HTML.
Akira MacKenzie
October 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
regexp, sorry.
raven
October 17, 2012 at 12:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A witch hunt. They are so cute when they eat their own.
Probably won’t do anything. Hypocrisy is one of the three fundie sacraments. Although they could. Adultery is a stoning to death offense in the bible.
If they stoned all their hypocrites to death, the fundie religion would be finished.
Chaos Engineer
October 17, 2012 at 12:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I love this bit:
D’Souza admitted he shared a room with his fiancée but said “nothing happened.”
When was the last time that anyone over the age of 18 felt that they had to say, “Yes, I shared a room with my fiancée, but nothing happened! Honest!” And he’s not even saying this to her parents; he’s saying it to a co-worker! That seems kind of old-fashioned even for the 1950′s. My guess is that this is the first time this has happened since the 1870′s or so.
Gregory in Seattle
October 17, 2012 at 12:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
To tie in with one of Ed’s previous posts….
The New Testament is very, very clear about divorce and marital infidelity. If the Bible is inerrant (literally or otherwise), then how do Talibangelicals like D’Souza reconcile their marital infidelities with their religious beliefs? Or do they just not bother, chosing instead to fall back on the sheepish grin and “I’ve been forgiven” schtick?
reverendrodney
October 17, 2012 at 12:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I am glad you caught this. I already put it on Facebook.
Remember, D’Souza’s BFF is Newt Gingrich!
Pierce R. Butler
October 17, 2012 at 12:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
regexp @ # 5 – yep, that’s a brain-cell killer page, fo’ sho!
I can’t recall ever hearing of another woman who styles herself “Name Name Name II” before – couldn’t D’Souza find an unsuccessful lawyer with a little respect for traditional values?
coragyps
October 17, 2012 at 12:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“My guess is that this is the first time this has happened since the 1870′s or so.”
You would guess wrong. It happened to me in 1970. (I was a preacher’s kid.) My fiancee fell asleep while reading in my room, and slept all night, but nothing happened!!
Nothing happened primarily because 1) I was asleep and 2) I had hepatitis and was running a 103-degree fever, and couldn’t have caused anything to happen even if Viagra had existed back then.
But I suffered the parental chill for quite a while thereafter.
And I’m sure that my mother thinks, to this very day, that we did the Big Nasty out of wedlock in her Christian house!
eric
October 17, 2012 at 12:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This. Although the fundie tribe usually spends some time pulling its hair and rending its garments before (inevitably) accepting their own back into the fold. Sins are only unforgivable when perpetrated by people they don’t like.
sailor1031
October 17, 2012 at 12:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“in South Carolina he was with a young woman, Denise Odie Joseph II”
“hiking the appalachian trail”, no doubt!
busterggi
October 17, 2012 at 12:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dinny clearly has no self-awareness.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
October 17, 2012 at 12:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
She likes Ani DiFranco and yet hate “womyn”.
jasonbowes
October 17, 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In Obama’s America, 2016, we’ll all have to stick with our first wives, even if they’re not hot anymore and we’re tired of their nagging bullshit.
Gregory in Seattle
October 17, 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@regexp #5 – Ah, it is all clear to me know! D’Souza isn’t dumping his wife for a blonde tart: he is doing God’s Holy Work by saving this much younger woman from a life of terrible, terrible sin!
tommykey
October 17, 2012 at 12:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a woman with roman numerals at the end of her name.
Michael Heath
October 17, 2012 at 12:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
raven writes:
D’Souza suffers from brown skin, so he’s more vulnerable.
hexidecima
October 17, 2012 at 12:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
well, one would have to despise one’s self to get near D’souza, so Denise seems to fit the bill.
tommykey
October 17, 2012 at 12:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Of course, this is all Barack Obama’s fault. If he wasn’t president, then Dinesh wouldn’t have needed to spend all that time away from his wife to write a book and make a movie about Obama.
Dr X
October 17, 2012 at 1:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nothing happened. He was merely colonizing her room.
twincats
October 17, 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Me too, although in my neighborhood growing up, a neighbor girl with the same name as her mom was a “jr.”
And whoo! Was that blog page ever painful! I’m still seeing ghost lines from the white-type-on-black-background.
Didja notice that her first-listed favorite activity was “The American West”? That’s one busy gal!
=8)-DX
October 17, 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As a divorcee, the idea of “fault” divorce gives me the shivers (although I of course aknowledge having many faults myself). I mean I understand how abusive relationships (either way or both) lead to “it’s your fault” pointing in the courtroom, but shouldn’t judges be impartial and aren’t the most common reasons for divorce simply mutual incompatibility of the two spouses? Some couples have it in them to connect and create family for 5 or 10 or twenty years, why should it be anyone’s fault if all sides feel they need to live apart? And if only one side does, how would continuing the relationship for another 20-40 years be anything but abuse towards the unwilling party? Add to that the fact of how easy it is for people to misjudge the length and strength of their commitment or fail to take into consequence the changes in personality or goals they may meet down the road and till death do us part seems like a masochist’s wet dream.
That being said: Let D’Souza have his divorce and new fiance and call him out on the hypocrisy next time he expresses it. But from my standpoint, marriage is about people finding comfort, love, support and creating families. If it fails in these goals then by all means let people try it again with someone else. Divorce laws should be primarily about protecting children and the abused, not about trying to find a person to judge for things essential to their humanity.
jakc
October 17, 2012 at 3:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Like many Republican leaders, D has so many family valuez , he needed two families.
lpetrich
October 17, 2012 at 5:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Furthermore, DDS is supposed to be a Catholic. This means that he ought to get a Catholic divorce, er, annulment from the Church.
For getting a divorce, he could have taken his jurisdiction-shopping one step further and gone to Nevada.
yoav
October 17, 2012 at 5:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He’s just going for a traditional biblical marriage, Solomon style. The other possibility is that the mormons had a record glitch and got him prematurely posthumously baptized.
dingojack
October 17, 2012 at 6:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
=8)-DX – the way it used to work was something like this:
A) Shouting, door-slamming, cold stares & etc.
B) weary resignation.
C) The man would go to some hotel his girlfriend, ‘fianceé’ or some other woman.
D) They would be busted by the hotal clerk, hotel dective, the wife or be seen by a whole bunch of unimpeachable witnesses.
E) She would claim ‘adultery’ as the reason for the divorce.
F) Done and dusted.
Worked for Wallis and Ernest Simpson.
Dingo
tbp1
October 17, 2012 at 8:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wow, a religious conservative who has made a substantial part of his career out of condemning the moral failures of others can’t manage to live by the rules he wants to impose on everyone else.
Who coulda seen that coming?
stephenmurphy
October 17, 2012 at 8:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Even better – she ‘liked’ a post (back to Bristol Palin) about ‘put a ring on it’, i.e. purity before marriage and all that lol
http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/profile/dodiejoseph (scroll down)
Dr X
October 17, 2012 at 10:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
DD says he did nothing wrong and the “back story” is that this is about a Christian picking on a Christian and it isn’t very Christian.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/17/2016-obama-america-film-maker-am-not-having-affair/
Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"
October 17, 2012 at 10:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think it’s connected. Someone who believes they need a Leviathan government controlling all aspects of life is perfectly inline with someone who fails to live up to their own standards
martinc
October 18, 2012 at 1:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Chaos Engineer/coragyps:
Actually I’m on the list of ‘nothing happened’ too. I was in the USA with my new American girlfriend meeting her parents for the first time, and they put us up in their spare room, which rather pointedly had two single beds. After lights out (about 10pm I think) my girlfriend carefully snuck over from her bed and joined me in mine. In the dark, and with her whispered admonitions to absolute silence in my ears, and in a bed far too small for two people, I attempted the difficult task of divesting my willing partner of her clothing. I finally got her bra off, and with insouciant manly aplomb, I whirled it toward the empty other bed … where it overshot, hit the wall separating our bedroom from her parents’ bedroom, and slid down between the bed and the wall, making a noise exactly like a daughter’s discarded bra sliding down between a bed and a wall.
So that’s how nothing happened. We were both too stricken with paroxysms of silent tear-inducing laughter to do anything nasty at all.
DaveL
October 18, 2012 at 6:03 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Who in hell names their daughter “Odie”? Ask anyone of her parents’ generation who “Odie” is, and they’ll tell you it’s the dumber-than-rocks dog from the “Garfield” comics.
helgemoulding
October 18, 2012 at 10:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
See, D’Souza’s real problem is that he should be a Mormon. Then he could have *binders* full of women!
ewanmacdonald
October 18, 2012 at 10:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dinesh replies via his pulpit on FoxNews.com. Here’s an excerpt:
This is massively implausible. He has been an evangelical Christian for years, a Roman Catholic before that, and is a staunch defender of traditional Christian values. I simply don’t believe what he’s saying here.
And this is cute. It’s been a while since I studied the New Testament but I don’t think love, decency and charity are only to be extended towards believers. This just looks like a convenient “hey, knock it off, guys” plea.
DaveL
October 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t know about the separation, but he wasn’t in divorce proceedings at the time. He filed a few days after the conference.
On this score, at least, I believe him. Not because I believe he thought it was okay for people to have a fiancee while still married, but because I believe he thought it was okay for him.