I’m avoiding looking at Foley with moral outrage because this only news because Foley was attempting to seduce boys, not girls. Were these pages smokin’ hot 17 year olds, there would be a few people on the “what’s the big deal? The age of concent varies from state to state!” kick.
But read this right fast.
The real lesson to learn is one that only applies but so much in this case. But the lesson still is important–watch who your kids talk to on the Internet. Not just anonymous stuff like chat rooms, but everyone. There’s something about chatting that compels people to say all kinds of things they wouldn’t necessarily say in person. Sitting in your own house, in your own zone and armed with the ability to say “I was just playin'” seems to make people feel more comfortable saying out there stuff.
So keep an eye out, please. And teenagers, here’s one for you–be very wary of a man with gray hair asking for your screen name. Especially if he’s your boss. Dig?
14 thoughts on “The Real Lesson From Mark Foley”
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What a sick bastard. People like him make me ill. What’s worse, a grown man being orally copulated in the oval office by a grown woman…or an old azz man having internet “sex” with a minor while waiting to vote (The House voted that evening on HR 1559, Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations.)?
Unfortunately, this will be swept under the rug.
This goes to show that we as a country care more about Animal Rights and a Childs Rights. This is an epidemic and people like him should be crushed.
Moral outrage is perfectly appropriate, not because of the gender or even age of the Page(s), but because of his position as a Congressman and because he supposedly made a career out of pretending to want to protect children.
He should be totured, beaten, sodomized with sharp objects, and left to die a slow, painful death somewhere.
This is one of those issues where people from the left and right should point out the actual issues at hand without spinning it into a political push for either Democrats or Republicans.
But unfortunately, with it being so close to Election Day, the laws of bipartisanship will cause this very important issue to be spun into a less prominant one (see Foley camp’s “alcoholism” defense). Someone from the Republican camp needs to step up and articulate something other than a defense for Foley. Punishment and scorn is more like it.
Don’t even get me going on how much discrimination is encouraged in our “clouded judgement” bipartisanship…
Stephanie, yes one is clearly worse than the other, but that doesn’t make the lesser of two evils “good” by default.
Anyone who is that much of a slave to their dick should probably be put out to pasture regardless.
I love how he checks into rehab to try and blame it all on alcohol. And I love how the GOP leadership knew about this since last year and didn’t do shit. But what I love most is that aimless, spineless Democrats, even with all of this going on, are still probably going to have their asses handed to them in November.
God, I love America.
I’m co-signing with Tim. The laws of bipartisanship will undoubtedly take over. They will try to disassociate him from the Republican party, and turn him into the 8 billionth victim of alcohol. The focus will stray from what he actually did and turn into what “they” can do to help this poor little Congressman. It’s always a circus in politics.
Way to spin the spin, Ben.
Again the “apology” is on par with that of recent trend where the person apologizes for the event and the aftermath, but never comes out and specifically says “I am sorry for X.” His leadership had a great chance to come out against him in a severe manner and as evidenced by Trent Lott last night on the Daily Show, no one has the fortitude to actually do so.
It’s shrill squawking from everyone with a microphone who stands to maintain a political status.
man, the daily show tore him a new one. It was pretty funny — his crime isn’t but they way they got him was VERY funny.
This will probably end up being a break-even proposition for Republicans. Yeah, Foley fucked up and so did Hastert; that’s gonna hurt a little. But Foley’s gay, as his attorney was very careful to point out today, so it’s not all his fault.
“And we all know the gays go after kids. That’s why we need go after these ass pirates and carpet munchers. We’ve got to pass a consititutional amendment banning gay marriage…for our children’s sake.”
And idiots in Kansas will listen.
Ben, I could definitely see that happening and then the folks in middle America agreeing with that.
There are so many angles this story could go.
Welcome back, democratic party. Welcome back.
I have the same problem right now with the Republican party that I have with the Catholic Church. Not the rank and file, but with a small group of high-ranking officials who are perfectly willing to sacrifice the vulnerable on the altar of their own self-interest. My main issue with the priest abuse scandal was not simply that the priests were molesting innocent children, but that the church enabled them to do so. How? They simply shuttled priests from parish to parish and used their huge slush fund to pay off young boys who are still damaged to this day.
Thank goodness Mark Foley did not act on any of his graphic messages (that we know of), but for the Republican (House) leadership to act as if they didn’t know there was a problem is a LIE. Pages knew to avoid Foley even back in 2001 (and possibly before). Even last December, when Foley sent what Hastert called an ‘overly-friendly’ email to a 16-year old pages (who thought the email was ‘sick’), only the Republican chair of the panel that oversees pages was told. Said chair told Foley to ‘watch himself’. Yeah, that’ll show him! Hastert was also told again this past spring about Foley by other Republicans…and did nothing. Here’s the thing–when you are dealing with minors, you can’t be too careful. But when somebody’s bringing lots of cash to the table (Foley and his wealthy Florida constituents) then folks are mighty willing to ignore other problems. And the fact that Republicans knew about his ‘overly-friendly’ proclivities and still put him in charge of a bill designed to protect children from innocent predators makes me ill.
Congressman Foley needs to get assaulted with a barbed wire baseball bat/enema by Mick Foley….
Any other joe blow doing this woulda gotten broomsticked in the county as we speak. This isn’t right. And yes baba, if Foley was tryin to cradlerob lil (insert chick’s name here), they just would’ve dismissed him as a horny little guy addicted to barely legal clubs.e
now they’re saying foley was molested as a child. will the cycle never end?!?