I've been off the blog path for a little while now (sorry, busy and frustrated and just got other things to do), but the Foley debacle has me kinda lathered up. Heh. Sorry to touch on something so un-local, but the right wing spin machine is in fantastic form on this, and I thought it worthy of mention. As a warning, those who don't like lewd details should go read something else.
By now, everyone knows the landscape: Foley turns out to be a well-known lecherous scoundrel who cyber-stalks young boys for sexual release (in violation of the law he co-wrote). At a minimum, Republican leadership failed to do enough follow-up on the situation. Democrats responded with predictable and justified outrage, as have the American people. Republicans responded with initial confusion - this is their nightmare "can't happen to us" scenario. Kinda like being a poor black woman in New Orleans at the end of last August.
Now we're a week into it, it's exploded as details of Republican failures and their frankly shockingly callous dismissal of the issue have grown. Desiring to stop the bleeding, they've started to cast about for anything AT ALL to cram in the open wound of their party. Being Republicans, the only thing they know to do is blame Democrats (for the record, there are other options here: Take the blame for their own actions, admit they don't know who did what or what to do now, or...DO SOME GOVERNING AND MAKE DECISIONS TO PROTECT PEOPLE BESIDES REPUBLICANS), and they've finally started to get their "it's Clinton's fault" feet back under them.
Now, from Drudge complaining on the radio that it's these "16 and 17 year old beasts" egging him on (if you just got off the plane from freaking Mars, yes, he really said that), to O'Reilly both labeling Foley a Democrat and claiming Soros is funding this whole thing, we're beginning to hear their unified voice again. It's the Democrats' fault. In classic 5-year old child, oops, I mean Republican form, they are furious NOT that one of their own did this horrifying thing, nor that members of their party knew about it and didn't stop it, but that they got caught. And they want Americans to join them in their outrage that someone would intentionally tell on them.
While it seems that they can't get their shit together, it's actually a brilliant shifting of the conversation - away from "why didn't you stop it" to "who knew, and why did they tell us now". I'd just like to politely offer a reminder to my friends in the media of what the issue actually is:
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO TOLD OR WHY. MARK FOLEY IS A SEXUAL PREDATOR AND HE WAS ENABLED BY REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP.
Let's use the GOP talking points to examine this thing...
If one accepts Republican claims that:
1. George Soros is somehow financing a smear campaign to time the release of the "reams" (heh) of Foley documents
2. The Democratic Party is helping him
3. The Democratic Congressional leadership had the documents months ago
4. Long ago and far away, Democrats had sex with pages once, too
5. The whole thing was a prank by a page gone awry
6. The pages are 16-17 year old "beasts"
You can't change these facts:
1. George Soros did not ask a teenage boy via IM to measure his penis. Mark Foley, R-FL, did.
2. The Democratic Party did not ask a teenage boy how he masturbates. Mark Foley, R-FL, did.
3. The Democratic Congressional leadership learned about the documents (if they did) AFTER Republican Congressional leadership, and
3(a) The Democratic Congressional leadership does not run House discipline, Republican Party discipline, nor the Page program. Republican Party Congressional leadership is responsible for these things.
4. And now they don't. Also, see "if they jumped off a cliff, would you?" parental logic. Prior bad acts by an opponent do not justify current bad acts by you.
5. No prank justifies a grown, adult man in a position of responsibility engaging in sexual banter with teenage boys - or girls. Mark Foley, R-FL, did engage in sexual conversation with teenage boys, and Republican Congressional leadership covered it up for him.
6. No matter how beastly and helplessly attractive to their adult same-sex paramours, pages are teenage boys and girls, and a grown, adult man in a position of responsibility should never, under any circumstances, engage in sexual conversation with them. Period. This is a basic tenet of human morality. Mark Foley, R-FL, did engage in sexual conversation with teenage boys, and Republican Congressional leadership covered it up for him.
Again, here is what we know:
- Mark Foley, R-FL, violated the law by pursuing minors online for sexual gratification.
- Republican leadership learned about this a minimum of one year ago.
- Republican leadership did not stop him.
Here is what we hear:
- Mark Foley was molested as a child and is a drunk. This, of course, is an insult to every molested child and alcoholic who manage their life without ruining someone else's.
- According to rumors, spread only by Republicans such as Sean Hannity, the embattled Dennis Hastert and Bill O'Reilly, some combination of Democratic Party leaders, shadow organizations and George Soros knew about Foley's email/IMs and held onto it until it could do the most political damage. They have provided no evidence of any of this, whereas Republican Congressmen and staffers all confirm that they personally informed Republican Congressional leadership of this problem as long ago as 1998.
- Democrats did not stop him. This, of course, ignores the fact that it wasn't their job, there's no evidence they even knew about the problem, and completely ignores the reality that this is classic avoidance by the actual responsible parties.
- It was a prank, and/or pages are just too smokin' hot to ignore. Plus, they were egging him on. They wanted him to ask them to measure their penis, drink with him and have sex with him. A finer "blame the victim" game I've never seen.
Driving the scandal: facts. Driving Republican response: rumor and lies.
Best case scenario: Teenage boys played a prank on a sexual predator and he took the bait, engaging in criminally negligent online behavior with them. Republicans and Democrats knew and failed to act until a Democratic operative used the information to spring a politically motivated attack on the Republican leadership.
Worst case scenario: A sitting Congressman has been stalking and molesting teenage boys in the care of the United States House of Representatives. Republicans knew about this for years, yet did nothing to protect a seat in Florida and that Congressman's fundraising ability. Occasionally, this Congressman was aided in contacting these teenagers by other Republicans.
Most likely scenario from available evidence: A sitting Congressman has engaged in criminally negligent online sexual conversation with teenage boys who were in the care of the United States House of Representatives. He may have had sexual interactions with one or more of these teenagers. At least one member of the Republican leadership enabled him by preventing further action against him. When he tried to leave Congress, a member of the Republican leadership with knowledge of this issue convinced him to stay and run for re-election, thus ensuring at least two more classes of pages would be endangered.
Now, Hastert wants to investigate and "reform" the page program, rather than the page board, ethics panel and procedures for dealing with sexual misbehavior by members of Congress.
Hastert, who will still stay on as leader of House Republicans, according to a House GOP official, had wanted former FBI director Louis Freeh to examine the page system and make recommendations on how to improve the program.
...
"All I know is what I hear and what I see," he said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune on the eve of the ethics meeting. "I saw Bill Clinton's adviser, Richard Morris, was saying these guys knew about this all along, If somebody had this info, when they had it, we could have dealt with it then."
In fact, Morris, who has advised both parties, offered no independent knowledge of Democrats being aware of the Foley communications before they came out. He said on Fox News that an unidentified reporter told him a Democratic leader had known about the matter.
Hastert said "people funded by George Soros," a liberal billionaire who has plowed millions into this and other election campaigns, want to see the scandal blow up. And he warned that when the GOP "base finds out who's feeding this monster, they're not going to be happy."
Hastert alternately says he will and he won't resign now. I don't really care about that - if he goes, it is as it should be, if he doesn't, we win 35 seats instead of 20. No, what bothers me is that he doesn't care about the immorality of what's happened, and is
completely focused on Republican's re-election opportunities. Indeed, the campaigns are the only consideration for Republicans, rather than any right or wrong.
Hastert had told the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday night that he had no thoughts of resigning. He blamed ABC News, which broke the Foley e-mail story, and Democratic operatives for the mushrooming scandal.
"I think that (resignation) is exactly what our opponents would like to have happen -- that I'd fold my tent and others would fold our tent and they would sweep the House," Hastert told the newspaper.
The smear is having an effect. Some of the robots
have bought the conspiracy theory hook, line and sinker, and more will of course follow. Republicans seem to have a proclivity for accepting that Democrats gaining politically, for whatever reason, is worse than sexual molestation by a Republican.
"My guess is that some liberal conspired with the liberal media to sit on the evidence for an extended period of time to wait until the revelation would have the most political impact," a reader posting as jbdjbd wrote on MSNBC.com's message board.
Similarly, a reader posting as Code3blog implied a conspiracy, criticizing "individuals, mostly smear teams in the employ of Democratic Party interests, [who] held criminally-acquired private communications that also, if their stated belief is true, were in violation of child protection laws."
Again, IF liberals conspired "with the media" to sit on the evidence (a rumor that, contrary to everything else we've seen, there is no evidence), they certainly did so for less time than the Republican leadership did.
And they didn't engage in sexual conversation with teenage boys from positions of responsibility. Mark Foley did.
Again again, IF individuals "in the employ of Democratic Party interests" (wtf does that mean?) held "criminally-acquired private communications", they DID SO FOR LESS TIME THAN THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP DID.
BUT FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME, THEY DIDN'T ENGAGE IN SEXUAL CONVERSATION WITH TEENAGE BOYS FROM A POSITION OF POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY - MARK FUCKING FOLEY DID. AND REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP CONTINUES TO AVOID RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT THEY KNEW AND WHAT THEY FAILED TO DO ABOUT IT.