David Wu resigns from House amid scandal

Scandal-plagued Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) resigned from the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

A statement from Wu’s office said the congressman had notified both Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) of his resignation, effective as of 11:59 p.m.

“Serving as a U.S. Congressman has been the greatest honor of my life. There is no other job where you get up each day and ask, ‘How can I try to make the world a better place today?’ ” Wu said in the statement.

{mosads}“However great the honor and engaging the work, there comes a time to hand on the privilege of elected office — and that time has come.”

Prompted by allegations of sexual assault, Wu said he would step down from office “upon the resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis.” President Obama signed the bipartisan measure Tuesday afternoon after it passed both congressional chambers.

The allegations surrounding Wu, first reported by The Oregonian, have plagued Democrats for the past two weeks as his sex scandal followed closely on the heels of former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-N.Y.) resignation. Weiner initially lied about and then admitted to sending sexually-explicit pictures of himself to women through a social-media website.

Wu’s allegations stem from the teenage daughter of a campaign donor, who left an angry voicemail on his district office phone accusing him of sexually assaulting her.