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Our president lies about WMDs in Iraq and launches an unjust and unnecessary war. We are in debt beyond belief. Home prices are plummeting. Government spending is out of control. A woman’s right to choose is under attack. Gays are bashed regularly by members of Congress and the President. Americans are dying as we speak. We’ve lost the war in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden has not been captured, the Chinese basically own us, and goodwill toward Americans is at an all-time low. There can be no doubt there’s lot to talk about and a lot of upsetting events.
But what’s got the media on their heads?
Ex-Representative Mark Foley: a pervert. a congressman, a Republican from Florida who likes to hear about how 16-year-old boys masturbate, a leader who used his own power to seduce young pages and ex-pages. A man whose party covered up his behavior by saying “bad dog, don’t do it again, bad.” Now there’s huge fallout, and the Republicans have cut and run from Foley faster than they say the Democrats want to do from Iraq and now.
The pathetic justifications have begun.
Foley is reportedly in rehab for alcoholism—a personal problem that no one in his immediate world even knew existed. Some have told reporters they don't even believe Foley is an alcoholic. But off to rehab he goes--you know, the place celebrities go when they want the public to forgive them for this or that transgression, or simply to hide out. Mel Gibson on an anti-Semitic rage? Rehab. Kate Moss coke-head? Rehab. An embarrassing car wreck in Washington, D.C., in the middle of the night? Rehab. Betray the public trust and try and seduce a child in your care? Rehab.
Oh, and the latest excuses du jour is that he’s gay and that he was abused as a child by clergy. Come on, Foley, it’s 2006. Who hasn’t been seduced by this or that clergyperson? But oh, no—more reasons to feel sorry for poor Mark. It’s not his fault.
Say it with me: Poppycock.
First of all, I wish he had not come out (like a coward, in absentia via a lawyer's statement). Great, just what we need: a pedophile who claims to be gay. Boy, doesn’t that feed into what America thinks of us already, at least conservative America. So now he’s hurt one or more teenagers, his party, his state, his family, and the gay community. What a slimeball hypocrite, like most of his Republican ilk in power.
Did I mention that he chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and was a cosponsor of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act? Can’t wait for John Walsh on CNN to explain away this.
First of all, the moment a 50-something congressman sent an e-mail to a 16-year-old asking for a pic, a huge red flag should have gone up. Did it? Nope. Dennis Hastert says he didn’t know how bad it was from just that exchange. Well, then, Dennis, you’re a blind idiot whose eyes might not even have opened wide if the e-mail had been sent to your grandson.
Hastert and other Republicans that knew of Foley's inappropriate contact with pages and ex-pages, and they didn’t do the right thing, the transparent thing. They didn't do anything, really. They did not, for one thing, inform key Democrats who also oversee the page program. They did not bring the appropriate people into the mix to solve the problem. Maybe they might have told Foley to shape up and then covered it up. And when the cover-up and scandal blew up, they cut and ran, and now Foley blames alcohol, being gay, and being molested; right-wing talk radio is blaming the Democrats (a dodge so ludicrous it's not even worth discussing).
OK, here’s the deal. I had sex at age 16 with men double my age. I was not molested, but it happened. And I’m gay. And up until my 40th birthday, I could have drunk Foley under the table. Now I have had sex with a 19-year-old. And good for me—he was totally hot and legally of age. But I turn my head the opposite way when passing by a high school where the jocks are on the field. Who needs that temptation? That being said, I have never tried to seduce anyone under age 18 via IM, text, e-mail, snail mail, in person or otherwise, even with all the demons in my own past.
But the worst part here is that Foley was in my House. He was in your House too. He was in the people’s House: Congress. The children, the pages, were in the care of "We the People. "And in our care these bastards let Foley's behavior go on and looked the other way.
And to try and justify this and blame your sexuality, your childhood--I’ll say here the same thing I said about good ol' Jim McGreevey: I am so sick of people blaming being gay for anything other than the fact they sleep with the person of the same gender. Stop using your sexuality to explain away why you’re so screwed up. You’re so screwed up because you’re a mess to start with, not because you sleep with a person of the same sex.
It’s like my old saying when referencing cocaine: They say it intensifies the person. Pople who take it say it really lets them be themselves to the fullest. Well, what if you're an asshole to begin with? Now you’re just an intense asshole. Great.
From all reports, Foley appears to be a pedophile, someone who wants to have sex with minors, and that's just plain wrong in America. If he wants to behave that way, he should live in Amsterdam where the age of consent is 14.
Want to know whether a kid uses a towel when he jacks off? Want to know if a girl has given him a hand job this weekend? Read his blog. If it’s not there, then guess what? It’s none of your business. In fact, it's none of your business in any case.
It's age-old scenario, really: the combination of an authority abusing his power and of a compliant victim who may have been afraid to just say no, or may have thought he'd gain some advantage from playing along. Older power figure, younger opportunist—you do the math. And whatever gender combination is involved doesn’t matter.
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