and his erection,,,errr,,,I mean the election...
Late night comedians had a field day when Pat Stevens, the Senator in charge of the internet in congress, commented that the internet was a "series of tubes" showing how little he knew about the technology he was overseeing. Of course we all remember George Bush senior needing bar codes to be explained to him in a supermarket, exposing just how little shopping the ex pres actually ever did himself. Michael Dukakis was a walking joke after putting on a helmet and riding around in a tank as if he actually knew what he was doing. When Karl Rove was distracted, Geoge W Bush showed off his bad decision making ability by choosing his personal lawyer as the next Supreme Court justice.
We all laughed at those and other images of our leaders being exposed as less than competent in a situation. That all changed last friday when congressman Mark Foley (R) of Florida was exposed thru a series of emails and instant messages as possibly being an active pedophile. Of course, most know by now, Foley was the congressional leader in charge of protecting our children from the likes of pedophiles. It was literally the fox guarding the henhouse.
Those of us outside the beltway are now learning that Foley's antics and "overfriendliness", a nice term either the republican leadership or the media have invented to gloss over the fact that a predator was put in charge of guarding kids, were well known inside the halls. it apparantly was well known that Foley was gay for years, in fact, there is strong evidence that his orientation was the cause of his sudden withdrawal from a Senate campaign in which Foley had raised over a million dollars to run. But his being gay is not the issue for most of us. Him being a pedophile is.
And are we to believe all this "overfriendliness" and illicit emails / messages in which Foley instructs an underage page to masturbate for him and tells him how much he wants to have sex with him are the extent of his activities? How often does it happen that any kind of "addict" (and i'm not talking about alchoholism unless there's a lot of booze in a page's cum) of this sort merely just does a few related activities but doesn't actually do anything "bad" concerning that decision. How many alchoholics, except for Sam Malone on Cheers, hang out with boozers all the time and don't take a drink? How many gambing addicts "casually" watch a game without placing a wager? And how many of those guys caught on Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" claim that they just came to talk?
I have a feeling there is more to this story, and unfortunately, that "more" will probably include reports of sex with underage boys. It's only specualtion, but from my experience, "addicts", in this case, an addiction to young boys, don't just hang around their prey for some good conversation. And Foley's "hanging around" with the pages was something that occured over his 12 year congressional career. Anyone who knows about hunting knows that you go where the animals are that you are hunting for, and probably wouldn't stay long in an area that had no game. Foley has been "buddying up" to pages for 12 years.
Is the old addage true that "where there is smoke, there is fire?" When it comes to children and predators, as a parent of 2 (and one on the way), I prefer not to take any chances. I wish the house leaders would have taken the same approach if they had any knowledge whatsoever. What is disturbing are reports that this matter, when brought to some light last year, was refferred to an "election" comittee run by the GOP and not a bi-partisan ethics comittee as it should have been. It is beyond political if anyone wanted to squash this story because they feared losing power.
Beyond that, big questions remain about exactly who knew what, and when. the house of representatives leadership is now on the hot seat over allegations that they knew at least of Foley's improper behavior with the pages for some time. I still don't know if that's true or not. I hope it is not. An investigation has been launched, and hopefully that investigation will be complete and fair. If house leaders did know of this, they have breached their trust with the pages and the American people. I don't know if their misdeeds warrant resignation from their seats, but surely resignation from their positions as leaders in the house should be revoked if not voluntarily given. It is essential that the GOP not do anything that even appears as tho they are covering anything up at this point or protecting leaders to save public face. Such a move could backfire hard.
THE most important thing here is the protection of the pages, just as all children need to be protected by our society as a whole. But secondly, it is vital that we find out exactly what has happened here, and if it was just some "improper emails" as White House spokesman Tony Snow would like us to believe. I have a feeling there's more. This is not a partisan or an election issue, it is an issue of principle.
It is sometimes funny when our leaders are exposed for not knowing what is going on. Pat Stevens is probably still trying to figure out how Foley sent all those messages thru those tubes. But nothing about this is funny, in fact , it's downright repugnant.