I suppose that we’re supposed to understand Mark Foley now that we know that he, too, was molested by a priest, or that he’s an alcoholic. I’m not sure that we didn’t already understand him before we heard all of that.
Back at the beginning of the last century, Freud wrote paper about such things – noting that sexually aggressive kids were usually kids who had been molested themselves – turning passive into active. A patient of mine, a guy who had been repeatedly molested by his older brother, once told me that although he had teased and tormented his own younger brothers, he had never molested them – and that he was proud of that – implying that the impulses were hard to combat. I was kind of proud of him too. He’d had a really rough time of things.
But I’m having trouble feeling sympathy for Congressman Foley. Of all people, he ought to have known about the negative psychological impact of his behavior, even in situations where it was welcome. Were he a patient seeking help for what he was doing, I think the sympathy would be there. Maybe he sought such help in the past, and we just don’t know about it. But his "cry for help" comes at an inopportune time. We’d like to hear that it came before getting caught. We’d settle for him "crying for help" after being confronted, no matter how softly, by another Congressman. But it’s a bit late now.
What I’m finding impossible to believe is that a number of Congressmen knew something about what was going on and did so little. They say that they didn’t see the emails, but lordy, it’s 2006. We are all attuned to the warning signs of a sexual predator – more than any time in history. No matter how little they knew, their index of suspicion would have to be set anachronistically low. That seems virtually impossible in modern times. Their defenses sound as improbable as Condoleeza Rice not recalling her July 10, 2001 meeting with George Tennant. It’s equally absurd to believe that the Congressmen were in the throes of "political correctness" as suggested by the Wall Street Journal or the Family Research Council. They were just avoiding unpleasantness and scandal.
The "morality" button just didn’t click. That’s what we’re so mad about. Neither Foley nor his fellow Congressmen heard a "morality button" click. And given the amount of self righteous morality that’s come out of that bunch for a very, very long six years, they can’t expect us to shut up about it. We absolutely know what the Republicans would say if Foley were a Democrat.
I think the operative old saying for all of them is, "You Made Your Bed. Now Lie in It."
all of them = Jeb too. see WMR