Have you all been following the Mark Foley scandal? If not, you should be. So, here we have a 50 year-old Republican congressman from Florida who likes to chase after 16 and 17 year-old male congressional pages. On the one hand, that's gross. But on the other hand, I just don't get the impression the pages are all that sweet and innocent. Don't get me wrong, I obviously think what the congressman did was very inappropriate. But being a congressional page means, by definition, you're not stupid. The pages go to Capitol Hill in order to jumpstart their careers in congress. Some of those pages have to be gay. And some of them probably thought, "Shoo, maybe I can get a leg up on everyone else if I fuck a congressman (or at least have IM sex with him)." I'm not saying that makes it right. But anyway I've read most, if not all, of the IM's that have been released. And some of them definitely make it seem like the teen knew what he was doing. For example (via Slate):
ABC News declined to release what follows next, instead summarizing it as follows: "The exchange continues in which Foley and the teen both appear to describe having sexual orgasms" (bolding mine).
We now resume our previously scheduled programming:
For some reason, I just can't get all outraged at what the congressman did. Disgusted, sure. But outraged, nah.However, I'm perfectly happy to let the voting public, particularly republicans, get riled up and decide to abadon their party in favor of the democrats. Who knows, maybe they'll even topple the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. That would be icing on the cake! I do find it kind of ironic that the major improprieties of a closeted gay republican may contribute, perhaps significantly, to the downfall of the Republican Party (a party that generally hates gays) in the mid-term elections.
ABC News declined to release what follows next, instead summarizing it as follows: "The exchange continues in which Foley and the teen both appear to describe having sexual orgasms" (bolding mine).
For some reason, I just can't get all outraged at what the congressman did. Disgusted, sure. But outraged, nah.
2 comments:
Two quick stories on Congressman Pedophile. 1. My biggest regret in this whole scandal is that he wasn't caught on one of those Chris Hanson Dateline exposes. What could possibly be funnier than him walking into a house, Chris Hanson walking out and saying have a seat, Congressman???? and Foley saying: "I thought this was a setup."
2. I have an incredibly partisan, Republican, gay "friend" who once interned in Foley's office and asked him recently if he got any emails himself. He was like "No and I dont want to talk about it." But in the context of the conversation I got the impression more that he was angry that he didn't get emails himself rather than the congressman preying on young boys.
Also, a side comment: you may have a point about the boys not totally being innocent, but there is definately a different level in innocence that you may have had growing up in an urban center such as San Fran and I growing up in a rural setting like Polk County, Fl. Its possible these kids aren't all that worldy, but still intelligent.
I also contest the notion that these pages are deemed intelligent simply for being pages. I've known three people that were pages and I assure you, in all three cases, it had to do more with who their parents were and how much money they had than anything to do with any level of intelligence they displayed.
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