Rep. Don Sherwood of Pennsylvania's 10th District is an adulterer and alleged domestic violence perpetrator. So is this how Dubya and the GOP celebrate Domestic Violence Awareness Month? By campaigning for a politician who perpetuates adultery as a Republican family value?

The president was in LaPlume, Penn. Thursday doing just that. The Miami Herald reports:

Bush gave Sherwood his wholehearted endorsement as he helped the candidate raise more than $300,000 at Keystone College. The president directly addressed Sherwood's adultery by praising the candidate's wife, Carol, for standing by him.

Sherwood has a 84% Christian Coalition rating, a 100% rating from Concerned Women for America, and considers himself a strong "defender of marriage" by voting for the Defense of Marriage Act, and a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Cynthia Ore is the Maryland woman who told authorities Sherwood choked her in his Washington apartment in 2005. In an interview, Ore said she believes Washington, D.C., police were more concerned about the welfare of Sherwood when they responded to his apartment.

"Who would you help, a young girl or a member of Congress?" asked Ore, who said she has lived in fear since the incident. "He lives in the Hill House so they knew. It's mostly congressmen and also senators."

Ore said she met Sherwood at a Young Republicans meeting in 1999 and that they had a relationship that lasted over five years. Ore said. "I loved him. He always told me he loved me and I believed him."

According to the police report, the Police responded to a 911 call on Sept. 15 from Cynthia Ore, 29, of Rockville, Md. She locked herself in a bathroom in Sherwood's D Street apartment and told operators that Sherwood "choked her for no apparent reason" while giving her a backrub.

Sherwood, 64, told police he was giving Ore a backrub when she "jumped up" and ran to the bathroom."

Sherwood admits in a currently running nationally televised ad campaign to being an adulterer, but denies being a domestic violence abuser.

Washington Metropolitan Police Department, which responded to the incident, say they don't know the full story. "Both parties have left out significant information or are not willing to discuss in detail what actually happened," the police incident report states, noting that Ore "did not seem to be of sound mind."

Police went on to say that Ore initially said she was choked, then withdrew her statement, saying "nothing happened." Ore admitted that she was distraught, but denied recanting her story at any time. She was not charged with making false reports or any other crime.

Ore said police have refused to give her the 911 tape during their response to the Sept. 15 incident. She also said police seemed more interested in protecting Sherwood. She assumes they knew upon arrival to the apartment that he was a congressman because his apartment complex is home to many important officials.

The Times Leader which extensively covered the story was also denied a copy of the 911 tape. Police said 911 tapes are not public records.

The mystery deepened when Ore contended that she was given a different incident report number than the one on the Sept. 15 report that police copied at the request of the Times Leader.

Ore said the report appears altered. According to the Times-Leader story "the area where police note numbers does show unclear lines and smudges," but the police department says there is no report corresponding to the incident number Ore provided.

It is remarkable that police still don't get the symptoms of domestic abuse: often the woman is afraid to tell the whole story. She is psychologically battered. There is a complex of fear and at the same time, residual affection, as in her previous statement:

"We had such a good chemistry," said Ore, of Rockville, Md. "I miss the touchiness and the passion."

She said that she continued to come back to Sherwood because he promised he loved her and was divorcing his wife.