It turns out that Rep. I-Like-Boys Foley was a well-known... er... e-mail writer among the Republican establishment. (Even the Congressional pages took time to warn the new guys in the program about Congressman Foley.)
The Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert apparently knew about the e-mails last year, and then shortly thereafter went on the House Floor to say "At home, we put the security of our children first and Republicans are doing just that in our nation’s House."
Republican Majority Leader John Boehner also knew about Rep. Foley's predilections for younger boys... and then announced, "House Republicans have approved legislation that protects our children from Internet predators." (That would be the legislation that Rep. Foley actually co-sponsored.)
Back a year ago (it has since been explained to us), the Republicans didn't investigate the charges at the request of the 16-year-old's parents. Hmm. I wonder if that excuse would have done well with the Catholic Church? Hope all the other parents of all the other 16-year-old pages Rep. Foley took a liking to don't mind.
Now of course, now that the whole tale has made it out into the sunlight, the Republicans have to behave like... well... Republicans, and those same guys who heard about this problem a year ago, but decided to ignore it (at the parents request, natch) are now calling for "the full weight of the criminal justice sytem to be brought to bear, because "resigning isn't enough."
Personally, I don't think it should be illegal to talk about sex on the internet with a 16-year-old, if it is perfectly legal to have sex with them in person. However, at the same time, I support stiff penalties for hypocrisy... but that's just me. So, I hope everybody gets what they deserve out of this fiasco.
By the way... just for the record: Apparently this 16-year-old was told (warned) about Rep. Foley's proclivities for boys, and somehow managed to wind up having spicy conversations with him anyway. Since I honestly believe there are no victims in this whole scenario... just people getting (and giving) what's coming to them... I don't mind speculating that there was a little "Let's see if I can get this guy in trouble" on the part of the kid.
Well Mr. Foley, that's what the closet, hypocrisy, and general boneheadedness get you: A one way ticket to political and social oblivion.
UPDATE
(I took out an earlier "idiot" sentence, because it was a poor choice of words that made it sound like I was referring to the kid as well. Sorry... memory hole, please.)
UPDATE II
I put this in the comments, but I figured I would add it here so that everyone would read it:
Some people think that the "Let's see if I can get this guy in trouble" comment is some kind of "blame the victim" approach on my part, or a show of my disapproval.
So I will say this here and now, as someone who loves nothing more than to see hypocrites get what's coming to them: If a 16-year-old boy was able to gay-bait a 52-year-old closeted, self-loathing, DOMA-supporting Congressman who had a well-established history of chasing after other 16-year-old boys, then I think that is just the most awesome fxcking thing ever. Whether it was planned or not: Nice job kid.
UPDATE III
Apparently Rush Limbaugh reads my blog. Granted, my take was to ponder whether the kid might have taken it upon himself to nail Foley. Ol' Rush, strapping on his tin foil hat, thinks some Democratic operative paid the kid.
Well, what did you expect? That The Great Limbo wouldn't go me one better?
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9 comments:
"Let's see if I can get this guy in trouble"
Nothing about how role models have tremedous influence over young people. You would go so far as to ascribe malicious intent to the 16 year old.
Not knowing the facts - in other words, in the same shoes as you - and making that assumption is quite the leap of logic.
Perhaps instead you should focus on the duplicitous actions of the GOP, purposefully concealing their tracks, rather than speculate on the motives of a pubescent male.
omg, so YOU think the kid is an idiot? I am assuming you are a woman. Don't you realize that what you said is the reason these things don't get reported...YOU humiliate them. I thought we got rid of this kind of thinking in the seventies but I guess it's still alive and flourishing.
The boy SHOULD get Foley in trouble!! THE ADULT IS IN THE WRONG!!
Oh. Don't get me wrong. If I was 16 and getting e-mails and PMs like those, I'd turn the guy in too... with a grin a mile wide. Just like the kid did.
My point is, the guy was such a letch that the more experienced pages were actually warning the new kids "Watch out for Rep. Foley. He's a quite the perv." And according to ABC News, the 16-year-old kid was specifically warned about Foley.
Now, nobody knows how the online conversations started, but we do know these two things: Foley was too boneheaded to stay away from 16-year-old pages, and the 16-year-old page whom he was talking to was already aware of that fact.
I should have mentioned that the kid isn't an idiot... and I'm going to change the post to reflect that. It's Foley most of all, and the Republican leadership who covered it up who are the idiots here.
Anonymous:
As I said in the original post, "I don't mind speculating" malicious intent on the part of the 16 year old boy.
It's quite a leap of logic on your part to assume that I somehow don't approve of what he did. I actually think it's awesome that — if the kid did what I'm speculating he did — that this kid somehow managed nail this hypocrite and nail him good.
(Remember: I'm not railing against the e-mail content, or the age, or the gender. I'm laughing because a closeted self-loathing gay man, who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and helped to pass the law that makes his own actions illegal, is totally ruined in a gay sex chat scandal.)
"I honestly believe there are no victims in this whole scenario... just people getting (and giving) what's coming to them". Memory holes indeed.
The victim is the boy in a postition where the one in "power" could have black mailed him. NO MATTER WHAT THE BOY SAID OR DID!!
I won't be reading your blog again . bye bye
Fed up:
You have to remember, none of this is a crime (except for the fact that Rep. Foley made it that way with his internet bill). If these two were having a full-on physical relationship, nobody would be in danger of going to jail. 16 years old is above the age of consent.
If you want to call this sexual harrassment, then fine. The transcripts of the AOL Chat that I read don't make the kid appear to come across as feeling harassed. When asked to describe his masturbation methods, the kid didn't have to go into details.
Well, I don't know: I think about it, and maybe if I was a congressional page and a Congressman was writing to me and asking me questions of a sexual nature, maybe I'd answer too... simply based on the fact that he was a congressman. When I was 16 years old, I might have felt pressured to keep up the conversation for my own personal benefit or avoidance of problems.
Still though, nobody can (as of yet) deny the possibility (which is the original premise of this whole thread) that the kid decided to take this guy down and set about doing it, and did it most excellently.
Whatever gripes you have about how much of a "victim" this kid was, and my seeming failure to recognize that fact, the truth of the matter is that at the end of the day, the kid himself decided not to be a victim, and turned the guy in, and ended his little page-boy prowls.
Barney Franks. Bill Clinton. What a memory you have.
Barney Franks never got involved with pages. He's not a hypocrite, just a gay guy with a bad choice of lovers. Bill Clinton is a great example except for the fact that he wasn't a hypocrite.
My memory is quite fine actually: Democrat Gerry Studds (boinked a male page): Not a hypocrite, openly gay, went on to serve a full career in the house after his affair. Republican Daniel Crane (boinked a female page): Big hypocrite, got bounced out of the House the next election. It's not the sex, it's the coverup and the hypocrisy that matter.
I'll say it again: I don't look at this Foley thing as punishment for sexual impropriety, but as punishment for hypocrisy. Foley, and the entire Republican establishment set themselves up as the great protectors of family values and welfare of children (and on and on and on), and now we are finding out that they are not interested in that kind of thing at all... just staying in power.
But Tom, I'm sure you'll tell me this is all Clinton's fault. (Oh: And you'll get bonus points if you can come up with a way to show me how this whole thing is actually a win-win for the Republicans.)
By the way Tom, new rule:
Coming on blogs and belching "Bill Clinton!!" to minimize or trivialize Republican fuckups is officially retarded. Sames goes for "Michael Moore" references, same goes for "moveon.org" references, same goes for "Jane Fonda" references, and the same goes for any other "oh-yeah?" Beavis-and-Butthead retorts that require nothing more than a 5th grade education and a bookmark to Townhall.com.
So Tom, please: If that gaseous pit in your stomach that you feel everytime your ideological world falls apart a little bit more causes you to feel obliged to come to the comment pages and emit little methane bursts of Rebpulican twaddle, keep it to yourself, unless you can put some thought into it and make an actual point.
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