Monday, October 02, 2006
Republicans Eff Up
You’ve all heard the news: Mark Foley, a now former representative from Florida, was busted for emailing and texting sexually explicit messages to a White house page, who was 16 at the time. Apparently Speaker Dennis Hastert was made aware of the situation last year and the only reprimand Foley received was that he was told to stop messaging the boy. Foley is believed to have hit on more than one page in the past, and continued to do so after being warned. The most disturbing part of the story: Foley was the chairman for the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. This morning, NPR played an eerie clip from four years back: an interview they’d recorded with Foley in which he explains how the internet is a dangerous tool that predators use to pick up children. I guess he knew more about that subject than anyone suspected!
ABC News article here.
ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with current and former pages, all male. In one message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page, "Do I make you a little horny?"
In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? … Well, strip down and get relaxed."
It really says a lot about our political system that the safety of children is a lower priority than one man maintaining his power (in a close race, of course). This from a party than (unsuccessfully) tried to convince us that every child is sacred, from the moment s/he is conceived! I’m a little surprised that Republicans didn’t see a serious problem with future political consequences. That could have been avoided while, hey! protecting kids *at the same time*. Would Democrats do the same thing? I’d say that’s a guess. On one hand, I think they’re more aware of the potential problems with scandals like this one and the fact that they actually fund some children’s programs might indicate they’re slightly more concerned about their welfare. On the other hand, they’re politicians like the rest of ‘em. Man, I’m freaking sick of those Republican moralists…bible thumping to all of us, then cheating on their wives, stealing money and hitting on kids. And they had the nerve to complain about a blow job?
You know, I can't even derive any joy out of Republican losing their seat this way. It's just awful and sad and disturbing.
ABC News article here.
ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with current and former pages, all male. In one message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page, "Do I make you a little horny?"
In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? … Well, strip down and get relaxed."
It really says a lot about our political system that the safety of children is a lower priority than one man maintaining his power (in a close race, of course). This from a party than (unsuccessfully) tried to convince us that every child is sacred, from the moment s/he is conceived! I’m a little surprised that Republicans didn’t see a serious problem with future political consequences. That could have been avoided while, hey! protecting kids *at the same time*. Would Democrats do the same thing? I’d say that’s a guess. On one hand, I think they’re more aware of the potential problems with scandals like this one and the fact that they actually fund some children’s programs might indicate they’re slightly more concerned about their welfare. On the other hand, they’re politicians like the rest of ‘em. Man, I’m freaking sick of those Republican moralists…bible thumping to all of us, then cheating on their wives, stealing money and hitting on kids. And they had the nerve to complain about a blow job?
You know, I can't even derive any joy out of Republican losing their seat this way. It's just awful and sad and disturbing.
