Horror of horrors. Like a spooky tale from the crypt of Craig Spence, a sexual predator prowled the Vampire Congress in Wingnutsylvania. This early Halloween trick included Egors and Renfields who protected the Wolf Man from a silver bullet. What's truly horrifying is that the scary story of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) who behaved sexually lurid toward congressional pages isn't fiction. Scarier still, the villagers kept him secret.
Previously, I've written about sexocrites like the Wolf Man. Sexocrites in denial, a state of mind that's very Topic A. With the latest Foley scandal, we can read for ourselves about Republicans who coddled a pedophile:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week.
Hastert did not dispute the claims of Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), and his office confirmed that some of Hastert's top aides knew last year that Foley had been ordered to cease contact with the boy and to treat all pages respectfully.
Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, became the second senior House Republican to say that Hastert has known of Foley's contacts for months, prompting Democratic attacks about the GOP leadership's inaction. Foley abruptly resigned his seat Friday.
House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post on Friday that he had learned in late spring of inappropriate e-mails Foley sent to the page, a boy from Louisiana, and that he promptly told Hastert, who appeared to know already of the concerns. Hours later, Boehner contacted The Post to say he could not be sure he had spoken with Hastert.
[...]
Only after Reynolds's definitive statement did Hastert concede yesterday that he may have been notified of some of the questionable activities of Foley, 52, who had co-chaired the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus. Hastert said, however, that he knew nothing of the sexually explicit instant messages that became public Friday when ABC News and other news outlets reported them. The messages apparently were exchanged with youths other than the 16-year-old.C'mon, haven't the facts proven that pedophiles gravitate toward child-related interests and opportunistic contact? Doesn't the GOP conduct background checks on the candidates they anoint to chair committees on kids? Oh. I get it. Republicans don't do oversight. Duh. And they don't do quick response to the problems of our nation. Except for the sad case of the woman who was on life support, Terri Schiavo. Heck, even Bush interrupted his Crawford vacation for that lady. Seems to me, removing a pedophile from Congress merited urgent action and Republicans failed to force Foley's resignation when the emails were uncovered. Inexcusable.
On Friday, Tim Grieve at the Salon War Room recorded the Foley denial, a regular GOP state of mind:
Foley's office and campaign staff had insisted that there was nothing inappropriate about a 52-year-old member of Congress engaging in such communications with a 16-year-old former page. Foley spokesman Jason Kello had accused Democrat Tim Mahoney's campaign of distributing the emails as part of a "political smear campaign of the worst sort." "They have taken these e-mails out of context in order to smear a good man," Kello told the Associated Press. Now Foley says that he's "deeply sorry ... for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."
While the e-mail messages were vague enough that Foley might have explained them away successfully, ABC News says it has obtained instant-messaging text he sent to other underage male pages in which the congressman "made repeated references to sexual organs and acts." ABC says Foley's resignation came shortly after it questioned him about the IM content.CNN read on-air text from some of the IMs during their noontime broadcast today. ABC News has a PDF of salacious chit-chat between Foley and a House page from 2003. Definitely way over the line.
When you go through the list of Republicans in the WaPo article who knew--Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL.), House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-N.Y.), Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) who sponsored the page, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL.), "who heads a three-lawmaker panel that oversees the House page program," Mike Stokke, Hastert's Deputy Chief of Staff, "Hastert's staff attorney, Ted Van Der Meid, and the House clerk"--you reach the conclusion:
Republicans appeared to have kept the matter under wraps. Rep. Dale E. Kildee (Mich.), the only Democrat on the House Page Board, said yesterday: "I was never informed of the allegations about Mr. Foley's inappropriate communications with a House page, and I was never involved in any inquiry into this matter."
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, questioned yesterday why Alexander had gone to the House Republicans' chief political operative, rather than to other party leaders. "That's to protect a member, not to protect a child," Emanuel said.
With his statement, Reynolds, who is locked in a difficult reelection campaign, signaled he was unwilling to take the fall alone amid partisan attacks that were becoming increasingly vituperative. The Democratic National Committee yesterday issued a statement asking "Why Did Tom Reynolds Cover Up Congressman's Sex Crimes?" It continued: "While the shocking [online] exchanges produced an immediate uproar that cost Congressman Foley his job, at least one member of the House Republican leadership had known about the situation for months and did nothing about it: . . . Reynolds."
Republican insiders said Reynolds spoke out because he was angry that Hastert appeared willing to let him take the blame for the party leadership's silence.
A House GOP leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that Reynolds realizes he has taken a shot at his leader but that it is understandable.
"This is what happens when one member tries to throw another member under a bus," the aide said.Pffft. Grrrr. Ah-woooo! Rubber stamps grow claws and howl when their own hides are hung on the wall in full view of voters and evangelical wacky doodles with a knife held to the right-wing House of Representative's s throat. But doesn't it make you question why House Republicans, the party of law and order, (Boo-waahaha!), didn't mobilize on the situation immediately? Did the GOP plan to ask for Foley to step down after the election? Never? That's what Foley's Democratic opponent, Tim Mahoney, on CNN charged earlier today. Ha! House Republicans kept it secret, understandably for the family's concerns. But why wasn't Foley investigated and vanquished before the election cycle, and more importantly, in the best interest of the pages? That's asking for someone to pull back the carpet where the dirt was swept. Let's see if the Republicans make good on the promise of a full criminal investigation and "a toll-free telephone number for House pages, parents, grandparents and staff to confidentially report incidents of concern."
When sexocrites rule, some of them are the first to yell pervert or adulterer as cheatin' Newtie Poot did when it served partisan goals, so let that be a lesson: scrutinize piety and pontificators.
Will silence fall over the Dobsonites, will they heed the lesson that Republicans will exploit, deny, and propagandize to win, and curb their questionable political activity. Or will they continue to believe, "If the pastor is doing the right job, the people will automatically vote for the right person?" So far, there's little evidence that they have backed the "right person" either on national security, the economy or moral values. Does appeasing warmongers, corrupt politicians, incompetent leaders, and sexocrites somehow hasten the Rapture?
What House Republicans were quick to do--once the news broke of the Wolf Man's secret life--was denounce Foley:
Republicans fear the scandal, coming in the wake of indictments of three GOP congressmen this year, might add to the public's unrest at the party's image and conduct, and some House members yesterday joined in the chorus of dismay and scorn.
"I don't think it will be just conservative voters that will shake their heads when they hear about this," said Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.).
"As the author of laws designed to protect children on the Internet, I was appalled at the recent revelations that a member of Congress engaged in reprehensible behavior toward young people connected to the congressional page program," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.). "Congress should thoroughly investigate this matter and, in cooperation with law enforcement authorities, support all proper legal action."
Rich Galen, a Republican political strategist, worried that voters might lump Foley's name with former representatives Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), all of whom were forced to resign or were indicted amid various scandals this year.
"This sense of entitlement that members of Congress can do anything to anyone or for anyone has got to end," Galen said.Can't wait to hear how this GOP scandal gets spun in the next few weeks. Disregarding illicit details already known and pretending that he don't know nuthin' about the underage aspect of congressional pages, former House Speaker Gingrich conflated gay with pedophile--a bit of Georgia Republican Perry McGuire wingnuttia--for what is a typical hot air escape from Newtie Poot. If Foley had targeted underage female pages, I suppose Gingrich would have floated a similar excuse: fear of hetero bashing? Yeah, sure. Faux News' Brit Hume erroneously compared Foley to Clinton and Frank. Ann Coulter portrayed House Republicans as innocent blindsighted dupes... ah, those lovable galloots. But what's Time's excuse for providing cover for House Republicans? Just wait until tomorrow when conservative talk radio jocks begin their clown act.
Strange timing, one house of horrors hosted by an evil clown recently squawked about media's "obsession with child molestation," and defined what a "normal pervert" is--one who molests girls--as if, with a wave of the hand, that magically-appearing spring popping out of his head captivated us enough to ameliorate the horrible sickening truth of sexual abuse. He doesn't make a lick of sense but he's paid to rant that there's nothing to see other than his wacky worldview: It's all an illusion and only he has a grasp of reality. Ta da! He's a hooting prima donna until you realize that tragically, people take the evil clown's act seriously. Boinnnng!
As for "this sense of entitlement," that Galen mentioned, what else underscores the patriarchal mindset? The belief may only be rivaled by arrogance, which in the Foley scandal was to hide a sexocrite in plain sight, to risk further damage, another victim, to delay action and coddle a pedophile just so they could win a seat in Florida. The good old boys stick together. That's how they keep the status quo. Imagine how the moms and dads of the pages might feel about now. I hope the young men don't suffer further injury by the media swirl and the House ultimately makes amends to the families. At least pick up the tab on therapy and medical bills. I also fully expect the party of Abramoff, Cunningham, DeLay, and Ralph Reed to keep a slush fund for hushing people up.
IMAGE: A parody of the film, The Wolf Man, from 1941.
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