Another Idiot From Florida

It must be the trickle-down effect. If you have an ethics-challenged numnut running the government, say, oh for argument’s sake...THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA, it then follows that the Florida secretary of state would commit an unethical act to make the governor’s brother president, and that a Florida Congressman will try to entice teenage boys into elicit sex by email. What doesn’t follow is that when the Republican leadership found out ten months ago that US Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) was sending sexually explicit emails to a 16-year-old page, they did not grill Foley about it. This morning the New York Times reported, “The leadership had other possible avenues for investigating the e-mail messages beyond questioning Mr. Foley, including an inquiry by the ethics committee or even the Capitol police. But aides said that while the contents of the messages are disturbing in hindsight, they did not set off alarms initially.” Tell me they’re joking! What’re they, blind? The slimemeister is 52 and the kid is 16. These messages didn't set off alarms? Foley: You in your boxers, too? Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late. Foley: Well, strip down and get relaxed. … Foley: What ya wearing? Teen: tshirt and shorts Foley: Love to slip them off of you. … Foley: Do I make you a little horny? Teen: A little. Foley: Cool. ABC News blew the lid off this can of worms yesterday and reported, “The language gets much more graphic, too graphic to be broadcast, and at one point the congressman appears to be describing Internet sex.” A former page told ABC News that his class “was warned about Foley by people involved in the program”. Other pages said they were “hesitant to report Foley because of his power in Congress.” The NYT said, “Among those who became aware earlier this year of the fall 2005 communications between Mr. Foley and the 16-year-old page, who worked for Representative Rodney Alexander, Republican of Louisiana, were Representative John A. Boehner, the majority leader, and Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Mr. Reynolds said in a statement Saturday that he had also personally raised the issue with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.” This morning the Los Angeles Times said, “In its preliminary report, Hastert's office said it had been told twice of concerns about Foley's e-mail contact with a former page.” Guess what? Hastert says he knew nothing about it. Hastert’s office issued this disclaimer, “No one in the speaker’s office was made aware of the sexually explicit text messages which press reports suggest had been directed to another individual until they were revealed in the press and on the Internet this week.” Boehner’s spokesman Kevin Madden said Saturday that Mr. Boehner had had a “brief, nonspecific” conversation about the subject with Mr. Alexander in the spring but that he could not recall with certainty whether he had discussed it with other leaders. Alexander did not respond to the NYT's telephone and e-mail messages. However, Alexander had said that he called the boy’s parents yesterday, and they told him they had not wanted to pursue the matter but wanted Mr. Foley to stop. Foley, of course, will not stop this kind of behavior, but at least he was forced to resign his seat in Congress. And his reputation is in shreds. The question hanging in the air of course is: Were the parents paid off or threatened with bodily harm and other exquisite forms of financial and personal ruin? Because lacking those motivations to clam up, what parent would not want to cut Foley’s balls off, presuming they exist. It surely would be poetic justice, if the state that enabled the worst Republican candidate in the history of US elections to become president, now paved the way for the Democrats to reclaim Congress. And all because of a nasty perversion.