Hastert’s call for an investigation is all about who knew about the IMs, and only about that. Which investigation would leave his own ass, along with the asses of Boehner, Reynolds, etc., completely off the hook.
Well, if the Republican electorate cuts Mr. Foley a tiny bit of slack, I won’t be too bothered. It seems like, in many respects the guy actually meant well, and some of the former pages who had dealings with him said their interactions with him were very positive. He’s got a disease that he had to hide his entire life, and has probably been dealing with issues of shame, fear, and guilt that few of us could imagine. What he did was wrong, and he must suffer the consequences, of course, but I doubt his future prospects will be too kind to him. His old, good life is now over, and the real depths of his personal nightmare have probably only just begun. There’s really no good comparison to Barney Frank (for one, Barney’s not a compulsive paraphiliac with a taste for jailbait), of course, except perhaps the experience of having to hide in plain view. Frank gave that up long ago, out of necessity, and has clearly been better off for it. I guess Foley’s “friends” in Congress not only cared nothing about the pages he interacted with, they cared nothing about him. They’re by far the worse villains here, if you ask me.
D’ya think that if this were Durbin or Leahy that the GOP would cut any slack at all? Or Obama or Jackson or (insert name of generally well liked, well thought of Dem here)?
No way. IMO, Foley’s feet should be held to the fire, as well as Hastert et al. I know they won’t be-these folks slither out of more slime and somehow stay “clean”. <sigh>
I have already said my piece about both Foley and Hastert in the GD thread on this topic.
But this comment betrays a lack of a sense of history. Remember Democrat Gerry Studds, who had sex with an underage male page in 1983, and not only refused to apologize, but defended his conduct as consensual? Democratic leadership didn’t demand his ouster; he stayed on and kept getting re-elected until he retired in 1994.
So did the Democrats stop being the party of hot boy love then, or is it still an official party position?
Here’s a thought, Bricker -why not deal with the matter at hand, rather than bring in 20+ year old shit?
Your one tactic is to find a finger to point, no matter how old, irrelevant, trivial or specious. Anything to swerve the discussion off course (if the topic is the moral turpitude of the GOP, that is).
I find your positioning of the Dems as the party of hot boy love hilarious. Let’s stick to the scum of the moment, shall we? Your boy, Foley, is on the hot seat. Talk about him, why don’t you, instead of dregging up old scandal. More eloquent posters than I will come in and dress you down (ooh, so hard to not cave in here and pun like crazy), but I’ll just stick with this: I guess you don’t look so dirty when you can scoop some mud off yourself and drub the other guy with it.
What a gift this scandal is. One lone pervert quickly resigning would have been a two day story, but the RCC-style cover up not only allows the Dems to put heat on anyone who actively worked to abet the pervert, but also opens up all kinds of rich possibilities for generalizations and guilt-by-association on the part of the peanut gallery. This will probably devolve very quickly into a “Republicans = pederasts” meme.
If I was one who lacked taste or fairness I might wonder aloud just how the Republicans separate the men for the boys. The answer, of course, is with a crowbar. I could make that joke but I’m above that sort of thing.
Well, we’ll have to see what happens to Foley in the end. My expectation is he’ll be made an example of, because of the bitter irony that he is one of the architects of his own legal demise, and his Party will not be able to allow such hypocrisy to stand uncondemned. I assume the guy is going to get crucified, now that the cat’s out of the bag, because further leniency and complacency will not serve the public image of those still in power. Could be wrong, of course.
Thank you, Bricker -said in exasperated tones, as a mother to a recalcitrant child.
I really don’t look for your pearls of wisdom scattered about the Dope. You mentioned another thread on this topic. Did you think we all would run to read your post?
By all means, let us not accuse Mr Foley of a crime. I am somewhat pleased to see that you consider him a sleazebag. Of course, most of Washington has that moniker as a middle name, so it ain’t much.
(not sure where my hostility is coming from, but feel the need to kick a GOPer, so Bricker is it)
Dio -that made me laugh. Thanks. I suggest a firehose…
It has been, and remains, my policy that anything I may say is wide open for use, or outright theft, by anyone, at any time. Or, more succinctly, Freak Freely!
I think you are. Look at Rush Limbaugh. He who demonized drug addicts etc-tons of sympathy and not a whole lot of scathing condemnation in the press. There was some, but nothing like what it would have been if it had been a prominent Dem or say, Oprah. Of course, he was the “right” kind of drug addict-the Rx kind. :rolleyes:
I think the Machine is in motion, and every effort will be made to force this off the front page (has it made the front page?). I wouldn’t put it past the GOP to play up a story about Iraq (must be on that shows the Administration in a good light–that might be harder than I think!). Anything to bury this.
I highly doubt that any house cleaning will occur. If anything, this gives the GOP the chance to bleat loudly, “this will not stand! We are the party of family values! One bad apple does not ruin the crop!” and other manure they excell in imparting.
I feel bad for the pages. What a horrible position to be placed in by an old toad, abusing his power. He’s an ass and deserves all he gets.
I’m not! After Mr. Foley’s retreat to the House of Chemical Repentance, I was thinking along the lines of the Monty Python song about the drinking habits of philosophers ("…Wittgenstein was a beery swine…") tailored to Republican House slimebots, with the kicker:
“…Mr. Foley of Florida is particularly missed, a lovely legislator but a bugger when he’s pissed!”
