Foley: The cover-up (UPDATE)

I want to keep dr. elsewhere's important piece on Marc Gossman (and company) in a prominent position, but I can't resist a few further comments on the Foley scandal. As you probably know, ABC News has acquired sexually explicit IM conversations involving Congressman Mark Foley and congressional page boys. (Note the plural.) Sample Foley quote: "That's a great size." I need quote no further.

Although ABC repeatedly refers to the boys as underaged, Foley may have kept within the boundaries of the law, since the age of consent is lower in DC than in most states. We cannot judge until we know where Foley was when he wrote these words, as well as the exact ages of the young men he addressed.

Foley has resigned.

For the rest, hit Permalink below.

Don't hate me, but I now feel sorry for Foley. No-one can excuse the spectacle of a man of his age and position leering after high schoolers; such behavior infuriates regardless of its legality. But the sight of a man brought low by the least rational area of the human psyche is always sad and should inspire no schadenfreude. If Republican culture had allowed this man to be honest about his sexuality -- and if he had fixated on more appropriate individuals -- Foley might not have made himself a figure of public humiliation. His internet maunderings would have been considered silly (in the sense that all sex chat is silly) and private.

This AP story widens the scandal:

The page worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander (news, bio, voting record), R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents. Alexander told the Ruston Daily Leader, "We also notified the House leadership that there might be a potential problem," a reference to the House's Republican leaders.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Friday he had asked the chairman of the House's page board, Rep. John Shimkus...R-Ill., to investigate the page system. "We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe," Hastert said.

This means that the Republican leadership knew that Foley had a problem roughly a year ago. They did nothing. One man's tragic inability to control his Id thus gives way to a larger tale of institutional corruption. The analogy to the Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal is inexact but inescapable.

ABC reports that the page boys were warned about Foley by their overseers in the program. AmericaBlog, which often does the best reporting in these areas, notes that when Shimkus learned about the emails in 2005, he discussed them with Foley. Yet Shimkus did not mention the matter to Dale Kildee, a Democrat on the board. That's the telling detail.

Last spring, House Majority Leader John Boehner learned of Foley's problem. Boehner has recently told two directly conflicting stories about whether or not he told Hastert.

You know the axiom: It's not the crime; it's the cover-up. In this case, the real crime is the cover-up.

According to ABC, Hastert has promised to investigate whether other congressmen committed similar acts. Pay special attention to the speed of his response. Hastert has been loathe to investigate anyone for anything. Rapid action now may mean that he has dirt on a Democrat.

UPDATE: The Freepers, class acts as always, have named one of the boys involved in the scandal. It's his fault, y'see.

One particularly clueless Freeper offered this memorable response: "One more Queer Democrat down!!!" That's what people my age call an "Emily Letella" moment: Oops. Nevermind... (I was also astounded by the bizarre attempts to cast blame on Barney Frank.)

While we probably should not make much (or anything) of the fact, you may be amused to learn that Foley's defend-to-the-end spokesman, Jason Kello, used to work for racist senator George Allen. What a resume!

The Republican talking point, which you may expect Limbaugh and the Murdochian hordes to emit with robotic efficiency, comes down to this: "Unlike Clinton, Republicans know when to do the honorable thing and step down." The responses, of course, are these:

-- Foley lusted after the underaged.
-- He came on to confused kids who did not reciprocate his feelings.
-- Unlike Monica, who tried her damnedest to keep her love life private, those confused boys volunteered what they knew because they found Foley's behavior disturbing.
-- Foley, a closeted gay man, belongs to a party that depends on the anti-gay vote.
-- Instead of stepping down when caught, Hastert and the G.O.P. leadership covered up for him for a year.

There's also the very real possibility of blackmail. As one of our commentators has noted, we must ask whether Hastert has ever used this sort of information to enforce vote conformity.

Is it just the spirit of party unity which has, until recent times, kept this Republican congress so free of faction and internal dispute? Some time ago, I once suggested that the Watergate prostitution ring (remember that?) existed for the purpose of acquiring blackmail data on pols. As the aptly-named President Johnson once put it: "I don't trust a man unless I've got his pecker in my pocket."