A Pilgrim’s Digression

Reading about this sex scandal involving Republican Congressman Mark Foley, I have to say I now believe Republicans chances of holding the House in November are officially sunk. I had my doubts there, for awhile, since Democrats give voters little reason to actually vote for them.

Now, Democrats only need to provide voters with one reason to vote for them: they are not Republicans.

This is an absolutely disgusting story, and that adjective “disgusting” can refer not only to Foley’s behavior, but to the political aspects of the case, as well.

ABC News has posted on its website one explicit exchange Foley had with a teenage boy, an IM chat in which, among other things, Foley inquires about how the boy masturbates. Does he use his hand with lotion, or what?

That chat happened three years ago, but what Foley was busted for are emails sent to teenage boys this past spring and summer. Republicans are claiming that they had no idea of the depth of Foley’s depravity. Hastert says that when the emails from this past spring were brought to his attention in July, he thought they were “overly friendly” but not worthy of being forwarded to the FBI. Never mind that Foley asked for a picture of a boy in one email, essentially soliciting child pornography. Hastert simply ordered Foley to stay away from the boy.

Five years this has been going on, and meanwhile Foley sits on a house Subcommittee for Missing and Exploiting Children. It is obscene. Republicans complain about how violators of human rights, such as Iran and Libya, sit on Human Rights councils in the United Nations. This is at least as appalling as that.

Frankly, I simply do not believe that Foley’s colleagues did not know about his actions. I work on Capitol Hill. I know that there are many rumors out there about the personal lives of these men, and most of them never make the press. But most of these rumors are about adult activities, such as extra-marital affairs, homosexuality, and general misbehavior. Pedophilia is not something that would stay covered up for long, unless there were a concerted effort to keep it under wraps.

Believe me, Democrats would have used this information sometime in the last five years, had they known. October 2004 would have been a good month to get the story out there, for example. Yet still, Rush Limbaugh charged on his show yesterday that it was Democrats, not Hastert or the Republican leadership, who covered up this scandal until the time was right to spring it like a political trap. Now, Limbaugh is not excusing Foley’s behavior, mind you, oh no. Yet Limbaugh wants you to remember that Democrats have done far worse. Limbaugh actually had the temerity to compare Bill Clinton’s sexual history with Foley’s, saying that “if they want to play the hypocrisy game, then we can play the hypocrisy game as well…” I don’t even know for sure that he understood what he was saying. Like a wounded animal, he flailed about for any possible way to turn the tables and blame this scandal on liberals.

Again, it’s obscene. Even accusations of possible pedophilia among their ranks does not really raise any sense of shame or decency in these people. All they can think about, all they see are their political fortunes circling the toilet.

Foley’s scandal is not just a black eye, it is quite possibly the dagger through the heart. Foley’s conduct has been known to Republicans for five years. Pages were warned about him as long ago as 2000. Yet still he sat there on that committee for missing and exploited children.

Republicans have only themselves to blame for this scandal. As always the cover up is worse than the effect of getting bad news out in the open early. Republicans can blame Democrats all they want for being opportunistic, or for waiting until October 2006 to break the story, but it’s pretty obvious that Republicans themselves were content to do nothing about it for five years. The GOP has handed Democrats the club they will use to beat them to death, and more power to them, I say. Any party so corrupted with greed for power that it would remain silent for five years while a Congressman preyed on young people deserves to be booted from the halls of Congress. At this point, who cares what Democrats do or do not believe. Republicans need a sound whipping to remind them who they are and for whom they work.

UPDATE (1:20 PM): House Speaker Hastert has refused to resign over the Foley scandal.  Whether or not Hastert is innocent of knowledge of Foley’s actions is irrelevant at this point.  Republicans need to do whatever it takes to squelch this scandal now, before it drags on for another week or month.  Hastert is a former coach; he should know what it means to take one for the team.  I do believe he will resign, but fortunately for Democrats it probably won’t happen until next week at the earliest.  He doesn’t yet see the writing on the wall.