Congress turns another Page

Am I surprised to learn that a Congressman is a sexual predator? Not really. Disgusted, but not surprised. Am I surprised to learn that Representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) has been preying on underage Congressional interns? It's happened before, so I guess not. I'm not even surprised that the (as of yesterday) former Congressman's prediliction was for young boys instead of girls. Our generation has, for the most part, gotten over the shock at the occasional outing of public figures preferred gender choices. The irony - Rep. Foley was chaired a committee for the protection of missing and exploited children - of course adds a nice dramatic touch and not a little hypocricy to the story.

I guess in some ways, I can feel sorry for Mr. Foley. He has an excuse. He "is sick." He can't help the way his brain is wired.

Even sicker than Mr. Foley though, is the fact that "top Republicans" have been keeping his secret for him since October 2005 - almost an entire year. They even allowed Mr. Foley to retain his place as head of the Congressional children's issues caucus.

"Representative John A. Boehner, the majority leader, and Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee" have known that this pedophile was soliciting underage pages for nearly a year. "Mr. Reynolds said in a statement Saturday that he had also personally raised the issue with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert." G.O.P. Leaders Knew in Late ’05 of E-Mail, NY Times, October 1, 2006.

Speaker Hastert, for his part, has issued a non-denial-denial. According to the Speaker's office: “While the speaker does not explicitly recall this conversation, he has no reason to dispute Congressman Reynolds recollection that he reported to him on the problem and its resolution.” Id.

I'm not surprised by the hypocricy, but I am revolted.

What family values was this secret supposed to promote?

While everyone rushes to investigate Rep. Foley. It seems to me that the real investigation should be into why Republican House leaders hushed this matter up for a year.

Are House Republicans and party leaders so eager to retain votes that they will even overlook pedophilia in their own ranks?

It seems there is no crime or atrocity horrible enough for Republicans to turn on one of their own. House Republicans have supported George Bush on every step of his march towards dictatorship. They approved an unnecessary war of adventure, they failed to investigate the President's approval of the use of torture, indeterminate detentions, extraordinary renditions, illegal wiretaps, and spying on U.S. Citizens. Americans are finally becoming aware that the President has engaged in hundreds, if not thousands of criminal acts, including brazen usurpation of unconstitutional powers, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. So what did Congress do? Yesterday, it passed a statute legalizing these crimes and retroactively forgiving anyone who commited them.

I'm only surprised they didn't try to protect Rep. Foley by decriminalizing pedophilia.

Meanwhile, the Democrats couldn't even protect Pres. Clinton from the fallout from a completely legal blowjob.

That's party unity for you.

The Republican Party is sick to its very core. It is not the party of American Values, it is not the party of Family Values. It has become the party of whatever Bush wants, Bush gets and every principle to the contrary be damned.

Well, they should be damned for coddling Rep. Foley for a year. Will America respond with the indignity the situation so rightously demands? Will Dennis Hastert be removed as speaker? Will John Boehner, majority leader, still lead the majority? Will the majority follow the lead of a pedophile's apologist? Will Rep. Reynolds continue to chair the Republican Party? Or will mainstream Republicans finally demand a more principled leadership and sweep out the bad blood that has taken over their party?

Is winning at any cost really winning?

When the price of victory is your soul, I don't think so.