- Mark Foley: As the pages come forward, Foley’s complete out-of-controlness becomes almost surreal. In ABC‘s most recent report, Three More Former Pages Accuse Foley of Online Sexual Approaches, we hear that "… if he happened to be in Washington, D.C., he could stay at Foley’s home if he ‘would engage in oral sex’ with Foley." These recent Pages date back six years. It’s a little hard to imagine that so much of this went on for so long without someone knowing about it.
- House leadership: Hastert Apologizes but Refuses to Resign. They have stopped responding to questions about their own behavior, and dropped back to rhetoric. One has the feeling they’ve been briefed by RoveCo and are taking the "ignore the crisis and keep preaching" route that we know so well from Bush. They do continue to blame the Democrats and suggest this is a cheap political trick.
- Right Wing Media: Today, Rush Limbaugh and Drudge were on a new tack – the boys will be boys defense. The pages were, in their opinion, leading Foley on. It was a prank [who listens to these people?].
It’s hard to actually believe that they are so jaded as to say what they’re saying. Of course the Democrats are all over this like ants. Of course it’s political. We all want to topple this Administration and their Congressional friends as soon as possible for whatever reason avails itself. Of course we want their constituents to react with horror. But it’s because they are a bunch of crooks who have plunged this country to depths unimaginable, riding on a flying carpet held aloft by a non-existant morality. And I don’t think even those of us who were their loudest oppenents believed that they would cover up for a scoundrel like Foley who spent his time cruising the Congressional Pages. If a teacher at a boys school were found to have been acting this way for a decade, the school’s doors would already be shut for good. Outraged parents would assure it.
So, that’s why the story has become the cover-up, the lack of oversight, the failure to set absolute priorities on ethical grounds, the same complaint that underpins complaints about the Administration. Their lack of minimal ethics in hiding their pre-911 ignoring and ignorance, their misrepresenting the prewar intelligence, their inaccurate reporting of the course of the war, and their underhanded dealings along the way are bad enough. But their rampant disregard for all tenets of our Constitution, the Constitution they swore to uphold, and their disdain for the U.N. and the Geneva Conventions will stand for all times as a testimony to their ethical black hole.
So sure, we are all over the Foley case. Sure, it’s political. But it’s not "just political." The reason they think it is "just political" is obvious – that’s all these people care about. They see us that way because it’s all they know. Through all of their contempt and disdain, they reveal themselves – just as Foley himself has, year after year – as morally corrupt charlatans, wrapped in a cloak of self-serving righteousness.
But for a really eloquent version, here’s Keith Olberman tonight!
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