My Earthlink news feed’s top five stories under Politics:
Florida GOP Picks Replacement for Foley
Analysis: Foley Shadows GOP Election
Hastert Defends Handling of Page Scandal
Candidates Give Foley Contributions Away
Ex-Rep. Foley Checks Into Alcohol Rehab
Doesn’t need much comment, I figure.
So, in a municipal entity which defines the age of consent to be 16, a slimy Republican who happens to be homosexual, sends explicit instant mails to a male youth whose parents ostensibly asked for confidentiality.
Heavens.
If the Democrats who have seduced who were minors in most any other juridiction in ths U.S. were so pilloried, it would be almost an S&M festival.
No. It would be an S&M festival…and one the MSM would be wondering why was such a big deal.
When does the next news cycle begin?
It’s only the beginning of October. I would not be surprised to see much more over the next 30 days.
Fucking gladiator movies……the downfall of western civilisation as we know it…..everyone saw this coming , right??
Witheld speldt the sivil thingy..BtW
TW: freedom99,thanx fer dat
This is sad, especially for his family, one of the finest families I’ve ever known. They were outgoing, bubbly, life-loving people who knew how to be good friends to us Midwesterners from Ohio. Being transplanted from Boston area, Foley’s parents were true gems. It’s a sad day for many, including me. God bless that family. Mark, do the right thing, whatever that may be.
REPUG SEX SCANDAL!!!
(all you need to know)
Geezer, Hannity mentioned Gerry Studds, Representative from Massachussetts (Boston, probably) who was caught doing the wild thing with a 16 year old male (what I heard) back in the 70s. He was censured and got three standing ovations from the Dems in the House. Go figure.
What is Barney Frank saying?
Syn: okay, so…?
With cover-up icing!
No. Cover up icing was on Monica’s blue dress.
TW:head26 – I shit you not.
Sorry, I just can’t get all torn up about this like Malkin and crew. What Foley did was wrong and probably illegal, but if I think 16 year olds are old enough for the death penalty, which Malkin (probably) does, then this whole bunny rabbit innocence projection is puritan hogwash. When Malkin says 16 year olds are never mature enough to get 50k volts shot through their body because they shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions, then I’ll consider her sissy tirade with some credibility.
okay, so…?
C.R.E.W needs you fight the power, to stand up to the man, expose overstimulated party of Repug theocrats.
Brought to you by George Soros Open Society where only aging (over 30) gay men and their BoyToys are welcome to engage in dickilating conversation as long as they hate bush and have a big D.
And keeps your hands off Studds, never violate his right to private lifestyle; he proudly wears a big D teaching enlightment from the tip of his ding-a-ling
You’d think it was like the difference between white and black.
Didn’t he have a GOP buddy?
Michael Petrelis is shocked that Human Rights Watch is so quiet about this whole Foley mess (via Instapundit).
I’ll tell ya, when a gay rights activist group just can’t come to criticize what many are terming pedophilia, well, what’s the world coming to?
This is their worst nightmare. Gasp: a gay man hitting on my child. And now I get to watch my hero, tony snow, spin it away as ‘overfriendlyness.’ And its easy to see what those emails actually are. It must be terrifying.
In other words, silence is what is called for when your opponents are doing a good job of digging.
I’m just glad we finally have an honest definition for Republican Chickenhawk.
TW: together36. too easy.
Hate to follow actus with this, because I wouldn’t want to give any appearance of supporting his position, but I’m a little – well, not surprised, exactly, because it’s certainly a theme of this blog, so let’s say “disappointed” – to see so many people taking the “MSM is whipping up this story in order to discredit Republicans and/or help a Dem candidate in Florida” angle here.
Strikes me as not merely out of place, but also incorrect to say that the media are focusing on this any more than any other public-figure sex scandal. This is a media executive’s wet dream, even without Foley’s being a Republican. Now, that’s not to say they aren’t playing up the “hypocrite” angle given Foley’s public stances on various morality-related issues (a la Bill Bennett), but again, I’m not really sure I see anything unusual and/or wrong about that.
He is a hypocrite, besides being a pervert, and in my view that makes everything he did so much worse. This is not a partisan issue, and quite honestly, I think if anyone is worried about this being attached to Bush somehow, your concerns are misplaced. Anyone who could be swayed by something like this is already long gone; the remaining supporters are either in the Bush camp permanently because the Democrats would never be an option based on their personal beliefs, or are, like me, there for one reason and one reason only.
And you all know what that is.
All the Mark Foleys in the world are not going to change the fact that I’m really a big fan of the whole “not being beheaded as an infidel” thing we have going on in this country. But he’s a scumbag, nevertheless, and deserves all the negative media attention he’s getting. The whole “alcoholism” thing – embarrasing, pathetic, childishly disingenuous only begin to describe his fallback to that excuse – only confirms and amplifies this in my mind.
“It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.”
Right?
And flyover country? They’re real interested. Here’s a not very perfect this example.
Careful Citizen Journalist you are implying that gay men who enjoy BoyToys are perverted and this image does not bode well with activists who want to gay their rights.
Doesn’t matter that Dems are throwing gays to the back of the bus in order to achieve political status as the moral authorities but one does wonder why aren’t gay activists coming to rescue of their lifestyle?
QUAGMIRE.
I was living in Gerry Studd’s district when the whole page scandal broke. He was an extremely intellegent, educated man and well spoken. He was also quite possibly the most arrogant individual I have ever met (several times) in my life. His attitude from day one was to point out that the page in question was 17 and that what he and the page did in their private lives was no one’s concern. Let’s not forget that when he was censured he turned his back on the assembly (that image is frozen in my brain.)
Foley deserves whatever he gets. Anybody who covers up for him deserves to take flack. Actus, while you are no doubt chortling over the Republithugs misery, I do seem to remember a certain Dem Senator from Oregon who was nothing less than a serial female harasser who, with the tacit protection of several members of his party, attempted to smear the dozens of women who accused him of various physical and verbal “indescretions.”
This is not a political issue and, legally, it’s probably not an issue of an underage sexual predator. It’s more an issue of the employer/person with power attempting to use his position to get what his narcissistic little brain believes he should have.
Sound familiar?
Well, I talked to my retired cop friend, and he said, “Well, Foley is disgusting, but this, so close to the elections? It’s just crap someone dug up to try to change the way things were headed. And this will not change much, so more crap is on the way. And we both know where that’s coming from, just like the memo thing during the last election.”
Next question: if the Dems aren’t careful, can’t this be whooped up into the biggest anti-gay, anti-free-lifestyle, heteronormative, right-wing, traditional bonfire of all time? After all, pedophilic ex-Representative Studds went gently into his good night only because the MSM ditched the story ASAP since he was a Democrat liberal (he was re-elected what, six times after his escapade with a 17-year-old page?). With the Republicans on the fire, the leftist MSM risks much more than they think if they don’t let this slip away in a similar fashion.
But, hey, power for the party is more important than “civil rights” for a measly 3% of the population, right?
I, for one, look forward to Democrat investigations into the absolute <i>horror<>/i> of men having sex with teenage boys and the outrage that will stir up amongst the electorate against homosexual men everywhere who can’t seem to tame their lusts. And also against those who advocate lifestyle values that encourage such outrageous horrors. Egad, I see the bus the Democrats need to throw their gay constituency under…it’s on the way and its BIG!
QUAGMIRE, indeed. Well said, syn.
Hey, BJ. How’s it going? I gotta get back to work.
You’ve got a point there, Geeze Man. The Dems took a hit for the whole Packwood mess from their female base. The long term effect of this will depend upon whether this is spun as “gay guy gone wrong” or “employer harrasment.” The latter seems to be less of a concern to the general population than the former.
Hey, I wonder if he will pass Pat Kennedy on the way to rehab? (I know, cheap shot.)
On the lighter side, check out this political ad from Christy Mihos, independant running for Governor of Mass. I can’t believe that he actuallu got it on the air (after 10:00PM)
That’s right, any word in English can be verbed.
But listen, this isn’t about homosexuality. It’s about sexual predation of minors. If we were talking about sixteen-year-old girls here instead, it would be just as bad. Not to mention, as was frequently pointed out regarding Clinton-Lewinsky, the employer-employee power differential here is almost immeasurable. We’re talking about teenagers dealing with a middle-aged Congressman, ferchrissakes. These people live deceit and manipulation every day.
And this bottom-feeder was using his status, position, and experience to get his rocks off with someone who wasn’t yet out of high school. The fact that it happened to be boys rather than girls that he was targeting just makes it all the more unusual and, as far as the media is concerned, sensational.
Citizen Journalist, you nailed it. Bas behavior knows no political or gender bounds.
Laura Ingraham is having a tongue-twister contest on her show. Say it five times real fast:
FoleyFollyFallout
FoleyFollyFallout
FoleyFollyFallout
FoleyFollyFallout
FoleyFollyFallout
Yup. Do you think the old lechers the girl pages have been hiding from for years have reason to be nervous, now?
Shouldn’t that be verbified? And, if a noun holds extra promise for verbification, can we measure its verbility? Is there a verbilification index somewhere?
I think it all started with gifted, as in “I re-gifted the Eiffel Tower digital clock that sis gave me last Christmas.”
Sorry. It’s late in the day and a left outer join is not behaving as I think it should…