What’s an Acronym for ‘Pervert’?
It’s well known now that Mark Foley, the Republican Rep from Florida, has resigned amidst allegations that he sexually solicited several underage male Congressional pages.
Democrats nationwide are entering the Guinness book of World Records for the world’s largest simultaneous orgasm.
Many will argue that it’s not fair to make such a big deal about one Republican congressman’s sexual antics, when certain Democratic presidents have certainly had their own issues.
Well, but is it?
After all, it wasn’t the Democrats who publicized in overdrive about wooing the evangelical vote, it’s not the Democrats who claim to be “God’s Own Party” and the party of moral values, appealing to the “family values” voters. It’s not the Democrats that tried to ram through anti-gay amendments.
Nope, it was the Republicans. And now it turns out while they were saying all this, one of their own was trying to use the internet to have sex with underage boys.
“Trying” being the operative word. It’s yet to be found out whether or not he was ever successful.
This really is very much like the Catholic priest scandals. It wouldn’t be a big deal if this happened in organizations that are known for immorality, indecency, and sexual misconduct. I mean, if it were the Hells Angels, or a Nevada Brothel Owners Association, or the Michael Jackson Fan Club, it wouldn’t be front page news. But when the people who make their living condemning others while claiming to be the defenders of morality and decency show themselves to be utterly without morals or decency, there’s another level of disgust here.
Also like the Catholic priest scandals, it’s starting to look like the higher-ups in the Republican Leadership in Congress knew about this. It turns out that a while back, a 16-year old page told Rep. Tom Reynolds of inappropriate instant messages he was receiving from Foley, and Reynolds passed on the information to House Speaker Dennis Hastert in the Fall of 2005, and that new pages were warned of his behavior as far back as 2001. If the story is true, the highest ranked politician in the House of Representatives knew about Foley’s conduct up to a year ago and did nothing about it, even tried to cover it up.
It’s yet to be seen how all this plays out. Some are even suggesting that the GOP leadership hung on to this information in case they needed a distraction from something REALLY bad… say a new book from Bob Woodward that says that 2 months before September 11th, George Tenet met with Condi Rice and “did everything but pull the trigger on the gun to her head” saying that a terrorist attack was imminent, and was ignored.
What is known is that Foley wasn’t just some congressman – like that’s not bad enough. He was also a co-chair on the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, and campaigned against online sexual predators – all the while being one himself. He introduced the Stopping Adults From Exploiting Today’s Youth (or SAFETY) Act.
In promoting the act before the Judiciary Committee, Foley said: "Sex offenders are not petty criminals. They prey on our children like animals and will continue to do it unless stopped. We need to change the way we track these pedophiles. ... It has often been noted that a society can be judged on how it best treats it children. We have a moral responsibility to do everything in our power to protect our kids from these animals. This bill will turn the tables and make prey out of these predators. Failing to act on this measure is just playing Russian roulette with our children's lives."
He could soon be “prey” to this bill, himself.
Other bills he supported in his tenure include:
The Helping Youth Produce Original, Creative Registration Initiatives for Tomorrow’s Electorate (HYPOCRITE) Act
The Drastic Ongoing Utilization of Children’s Heritage for the Enrichment and Betterment of America’s Greatness (DOUCHEBAG) Act
And his personal favorite, a reading campaign called the New American Movement for Better Literary Awareness (NAMBLA).
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
