The Disgusting Foley Case and the Disgusting Politics Involved

I haven’t wanted to discuss the disgusting Foley case (unfortunately he was my Congressman in Florida) until I felt I knew the answers to three questions: 1. were Representative Foley’s actions limited to online activity, 2. was there a sexual advance to a minor child, and 3. was there a Democrat plot at work to use this sordid affair as an October Surprise (possibly even involving an entrapment scheme)?

We don’t know all the answers yet, but as of today it appears that no actual sexual contact between Congressman Foley and a minor ever took place, and that the e-mails to minors were overly friendly in a weird way, but never sexual. One might assume that Foley was eventually going to do what he later did in his Instant Messages, but he didn’t do that until the page in question became an adult. As a father and as a traditional American, I am outraged by what Foley did and certainly was getting around to doing, but it appears he didn’t break any laws or do anything considered wrong by the dominant ‘anything goes’ American society. The Democrats don’t want us to wiretap foreign Al Qaeda, but they are screaming for Speaker Hastert’s head because he didn’t illegally wiretap Foley. Something smells.

What smells is the message that it’s OK to have sex with children only if you’re a Democrat.

What smells is the timing and the Democrat talking points aimed at turning Foley’s actions into a wholesale indictment of the Republican leadership. This hypocrisy almost overwhelms Foley’s indecency.

Yahoo News (Excerpt)
“In 1983, then-Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts was caught in a similar situation. In his case, Studds had sex with a male teenage page -- something Foley hasn't been charged with.

Did Studds express contrition? Resign? Quite the contrary. He rejected Congress' censure of him and continued to represent his district until his retirement in 1996.

In 1989, Rep. Barney Frank, also of Massachusetts, admitted he'd lived with Steve Gobie, a male prostitute who ran a gay sex-for-hire ring out of Frank's apartment. Frank, it was later discovered, used his position to fix 33 parking tickets for Gobie.

What happened to Frank? The House voted 408-18 to reprimand him -- a slap on the wrist. Today he's an honored Democratic member of Congress, much in demand as a speaker and "conscience of the party."

In 2001, President Clinton, who had his own intern problem, (which amounted to sexual harassment – my insert) commuted the prison sentence of Illinois Rep. Mel Reynolds, who had sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer and pressured her to lie about it. (Reynolds also was convicted of campaign spending violations.)

You get the idea. Democrats not only seem OK with the kind of behavior for which Foley is charged, but also they protect and excuse it. Only when it's a Republican do they proclaim themselves shocked -- shocked! -- when it comes to light.

We have a lot more questions about this whole affair. The timing of the revelations, as we noted, couldn't be more propitious for the Democrats. Turns out both the Democrats and several newspapers seem to have known about Foley's problem as far back as November, 2005, according to research by several enterprising blogs.

Why didn't they come forward then? Who dredged up these e-mails -- and why did they hold them until now? This reeks of political trickery.” Yahoo News

We have to wait for the details of the Democrat trickery to come out involving 1. the fake weblog, 2. the collusion between ABC News and the Democrat staffers involved and 3. why the now 21 year old page has decided to hire an attorney. Unfortunately, we probably won’t learn the whole truth (former FBI Director Louis Freeh was tapped to head up the investigation, but was vetoed by Nancy Pelosi????) until long after the November election has come and gone. Last night it was stated that three more pages have reported e-mail contacts without giving their names, and that some of them may have been involved in a prank (which doesn’t excuse Foley). If it can be shown that e-mails or IM's of a sexual nature were sent to minors, Foley belongs in prison. Meanwhile the manure of hypocrisy and the sludge of all-news, all-day cable TV have overwhelmed the serious issues of the day.