Mark Everson had a golden resume, from prep school to Yale to corporate and government jobs that took him all the way to being IRS commissioner for President George W. Bush.
Then, in 2007 he was named president and CEO of the American Red Cross. But in short order, he was golden no more.
Six months after Everson started at the prestigious Red Cross, he was forced out by the board for having an extramarital affair with a married subordinate. He resigned, divorced and moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to join his pregnant paramour. She divorced her husband and they are now raising their young son, although they are unmarried.
Everson is not letting that - or other personal revelations - hold him back. He announced a few days ago that he is running for president - though the FEC doesn’t have the paperwork yet. In what may make him the unlikeliest of GOP candidates, he lays out his ideas and unusual family situation in a 16 page “Letter to America” and video.
“I have made mistakes, but at sixty I am wiser and humbler than I once was,” he said. “Still, I owe no one. I am unafraid to take on the special interests which enrich themselves at your expense. I am a conservative and understand the limits of the powers of the presidency.”
Everson said he would only serve one term and supports a Value-Added Tax on goods and services, leaving an income tax for only the wealthiest Americans. On social issues, he said he is against abortion unless the mother’s life is in danger and discloses that “many years ago an unborn child of mine was aborted.”
Everson blames himself for the dissolution of his marriage. “My marriage failed. It was entirely my fault,” he said.
As for supporting a single term for president - and that includes a Constitutional amendment for a single six year term - Everson, who has never held elective office, thinks administrations get too focused on politics and not policy.
“The country deserves a leader whose decision-making is based solely on the national interest and in no way compromised by considerations tied to reelection politics,” said Everson.