Posted on 10/04/2006 11:02:15 AM PDT by lowbridge
Finally, a Republican scandal that may stick
Usually when the Republican chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children instant-messages an underage boy and asks him to get out a ruler to measure his...
Well. Ahem. Let's just say: Usually when a congressman is involved in a scandal, he doesn't bring the whole party down with him. This time could be different.
The Mark Foley affair is so simple and so human, it's like a Cliffs.Notes version of all the other Republican scandals:
Rampant corruption.
Leadership? Ha.
No one cares till the klieg lights get turned on.
THE END.
P. S. Hope the public forgets!
Except this time, we won't. Foley's folly has - forgive me - exposed the Republicans as the party that really doesn't care about all the things it says it does: mom, apple pie, morals. All it cares about is staying in power.
Were that not its basic motivator, it wouldn't find itself in the position it is in today, roundly condemning the very behavior it was happy to ignore until it bit 'em (and God knows who else) in the behind.
To recap: It was almost a year ago that the top GOPers in the House were told that Foley had sent an "overly friendly" e-mail to a House page. What does "overly friendly" mean?
Overly CREEPY. Duh! Especially when Mr. Friendly himself is an unmarried congressman with a well-documented fondness for underage manhood.
Now, if YOU knew all this, would you quietly ask the potential predator to lay off and then hope for the best? And - just asking - if you knew your neighbor was an ice-pick enthusiast, would you quietly ask him to please not hang around the playground and then hope for the best?
OF COURSE NOT! But House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his minions kept mum, fearing scandal. How appropriate that in the process they created the one that may do them in.
Until now, the (many) Republican scandals have been way too complicated to stay on the national radar. Tom DeLay allegedly laundered money. Terrible! But who remembers for whom? How much? It's murky.
So are all those scandals involving lobbyist Jack Abram.off, even though it was mostly Republican congressmen who took "Casino Jack's" cash (this from the party that fancies itself our guardian of virtue). And then there was Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.). He's serving time for some bribery scandal. And Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) sold a bunch of stock right before its price tanked. Suspicious? Yes. Compelling? No.
The problem is: When congressional crimes involve balance sheets and a tedious paper trail, we tend to fade out. With fading comes forgetting and even unintentional forgiveness.
But failing to protect young people from a potential predator even while claiming to be the party of family values?
That's as clear as the pants around your ankles. And perhaps the final comeuppance for a party with so much moral posturing, and so little moral fiber.
Think the house will object to the FBI searching Foley's computers, like they did with Jefferson?
You tax bill, the War on Terrorism, the Border, your kids future, NSA bill pending in front of Congress, Judges, Spending, Jobs and the Economy, ALL the real issues that the next Congress will have to deal with will STILL be here and need a resolution a month from now when NO one even remembers Foley's name.
Finally: The democrats have found something they consider reprehensible and immoral - sexually explicit text messages.
What did Nancy Pelosi know about these explicit text messages, and when did she know it? You don't "protect the children" by witholding criminal evidence for over a year, then release it six weeks before the elections.
LOL!
LOL. I don't know about you guys; but I am sick and tired of our elected officials acting like children.
A guy name Tom Foley wouldn't kill my children, but a guy name Al Queda would.
bump
Translation: This is the media's interpretation of this "scandal" and we're going to keep harping on it until we've brainwashed you all into believing it.
By the way LENORE, are the Democrats not about what they claim to be, protecting children and fighting corruption when they allow William Jefferson and Rep. Mollohan to continue to serve in Congress despite taking bribes, and when they allowed Gerry Studds to continue to serve for another 18 years after actually having sex with an underage page as opposed to just dirty talk and even gave Studds a standing O on the floor of the House when he left? Oh, but you don't want to talk about that do you, you dishonest, deceit-drenched bitch. The headline is all you need to know about the biases of the idiot who wrote this.
do you think the dems would object if Foley moved to MA to marry the page?
If Foley would of had consentual sex, Democrats would of had to defended him. Of course Foley should just say he was implimenting Joycelyn Elders' masterbation for youth program.
"Finally....." In other words: "We've had dozens and dozens of Dem scandals that stuck and now it looks like we may have one tiny Republican scandal that will stick."
You mean MARK Foley?
(I made the same mistake the other day-Tom Foley was the unrelated 'D' House Speaker from Washington State)
Foley was the one who requested that the FBI investigate. Actually, the FBI was brought in when the orignal emails were reported, but the FBI declined to open a full investigation.
Sorry, its not going to happen.
The war is the issue. Republicans will live or die by that issue, and so will Democrats, for better or for worse.
The Dems would be better off fighting on that issue. Throwing mud just makes them look small, not ready for prime time. In that sense, their gotcha brand of non-journalism redounds to our favor. The biggest problem is that if their inches of newsprint have been filled with this kind of thing, there isn't much newsprint left to talk about the war, the economy, or anything else.
But beyond that, its a non-story. If anything, it helps to clarify the lines between the parties. If you vote Dem, you're already pretty much OK with the gay agenda. Foley's fall is a delicious irony for you to enjoy, but you weren't going to vote Repub in any case. If you do vote Repub, with rare exceptions you don't support any of that kind of moral degeneracy, and you will pull for the party that would force Foley out, not the party that would defend him for the next 18 years if he were one of their own.
Don't fold. Two weeks from now this will be dead in the water. I'm glad the rat thinks he can keep a story about a queer congressman alive for five weeks. Don't fold. We stick together and we win. We are the adults and if we let the children take over America will be in real danger. It's all up to us. Don't fold.
The people in foley's district will vote for Negron and we will hold that seat. If it doesn't stick there it won't change many minds elsewhere. The rat's problem is that more and more voters use the internet and know what is happening. Don't fold.
Lenore Skenazy is a columnist and features reporter for the New York Daily News. She previously worked for NPR and Mad Magazine.
See my tagline.
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