Clearly, however, even to a level-headed blogger like myself, Foley is disturbed and his predatory actions towards children were criminal. And the GOP Congress wasted no time condemning Foley and beginning an investigation. Or did they? New revelations have come out showing that Republican leaders have known about Foley's actions as early as last fall. What did Dennis Hastert, the Republican Speaker of the House, do about this? He quietly asked Foley to quit it, and Foley promised he would. (Cue fond memories of the Catholic Priest molestation scandal)
Now, as bad as Foley's behavior was, covering it up isn't a crime to the extent that say, sending 2,000 Americans to early deaths in Iraq is. But it does expose the faux outrage the House Republicans have been mustering up since ABC News broke the story last week. Um, you knew about this months ago, and now you choose to denounce it? How timely.
Of course the wonderful Atlanta Journal and Constitution can't let a Republican scandal go by without at least getting a dig in at Democrats - perhaps Bill Clinton - as it goes by. In a so-called "equal time" column, Brent Bozell the Third expresses his, "Oh yeah, well your mother!" moment, by reminding us that even though Foley told his young victim he wanted to "slip off" his shorts, Democrats sometimes have scandals too.
In fact, the sex aspect is too good for Bozell to pass up. He equates Foley's actions with Clinton's consensual adult "relations" with Monica Lewinsky. So someone out there tell me. Do all Republicans really believe that consensual adult sex is equivalent to a Congressman asking a 16-year old boy if he makes him horny? Is sex just sex? I guess this guy (and by extension the AJC) want you to think so.
At what point do the loyal followers of the Church of Bush stop and think, maybe I should stop drinking the kool-aid? Maybe, even though "Liberals" are the root of all evil, Republicans don't have God-like powers of goodness. Are Americans really stupid enough to buy another weak excuse from this corrupt bunch of crooks?
8 comments:
I think anyone who had knowledge of these activities and didn't report them to the proper authorities (and the media is NOT an authority) is just as culpable as the person who committed them. So those in the GOP and his opponent who allegedly knew about this for months, should also be punished in a court of law (not some stupid congressional ethics committee).
And hiding behind the "I was molested as a teen" is just weak.
This is beginning to sound like Watergate. Who knew what and when did they know it?
"Priorities ... Priorities ... We don't need no stink'n priorities!"
Its amazing how the American media works. We have lost at least eighteen more American service people during the first few days of October and Shiite Iraqi death squads are conducting small scale ethnic cleansing.
So, what are all the talking heads and politicians focused on? Surprise! Its another sex scandal. And it wasn't even real sex.
Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley's instant message records indicate he is a dude who gets off on fantasy cyber sex with teenaged boys. I believe this is the first virtual sex scandal in Washington DC political history.
Back here in the real world, American men and women are killed, maimed and scarred, both physically and emotionally every day. War is hell. Finally, the mainstream media is beginning to support our troops by speaking the truth about their sacrifices. more
Thanks for adding a new word (ephebophile) to my vocabulary!
Bozell's apparent need to give "equal time" is an exercise in futility, but it does make me wonder something. Had you been blogging in the 80's, would you have posted about Studds and Frank? And if you would have, would you have done to the Republicans what Bozell just tried to do with the Democrats? Considering that your final words in this post referred to the Republican leadership as a "corrupt bunch of crooks," a topic completely unrelated to the rest of your post, I suspect you would have.
"Do all Republicans really believe that consensual adult sex is equivalent to a Congressman asking a 16-year old boy if he makes him horny?"
I agree with you completely, except for one possible part: Are you suggesting that the adolescent's /gender/ makes a difference? Stated slightly differently: does it make a difference whether the congressman was straight or gay?
Any chance you want to address the mistakes you made in the "Evil or Entrepreneur" post?
"New revelations have come out showing that Republican leaders have known about Foley's actions as early as last fall. What did Dennis Hastert, the Republican Speaker of the House, do about this?"
Dick Morris said to Hannity and Colmes, very recently: And that's going to back fire on the Democrats by focusing on what did Hastert know, because you know that some of the Democratic congressmen knew. I had a reporter who told me today that she knows that one very prominent member of the Democratic leadership knew about this for months.
As Morris said later on, this is not a Democratic or Republican scandal. It's a Congressional scandal.
I think we both had the same thought at the same time when we read this. At some point, there has to be an editorial process that calls B.S. on this sort of "response."
It doesn't matter what Republicans do, it is never worse than what the Democrats are doing, even if it is.
There is always an excuse.
First, these were kids - not adults. Actions such as this are illegal. They have whole shows about catching creeps like this.
Second, this is workplace sexual harassment.
I hope they actually do punish him. Not like they punished the people responsible for the Valerie Plame CIA Leak or the people responsible for illegally wire-tapping to spy on people. You know, because they made such a huge deal about how those people should be and would be punished by the full extent of the law.
Yeah, uh-huh.
First off, let me state I am in no way defending Foley.
I am defending the AJC for printing Bozell's article. No matter how wrong you might think his piece was, for once I applaud the AJC for having more than one viewpoint represented. It's one of the few things they do right on the editorial pages.
Um, Sylvana, did you know that the Plame leak was done by Richard Armitage, who is not part of the administration, and is being punished? The only reason you don't know this is that as soon as the truth came out, that it wasn't an evil plan of Rove's, the media decided to stop talking about so they wouldn't have to admit they were wrong.
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