ON AN imaginary scale of enormity, the pederasty of ex-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., ranks slightly below any conspiracy to conceal it, and even further below the manipulation of the scandal to appropriate American homophobia as a "wedge issue" in the upcoming mid-term election. Moments after the public learned that Foley exchanged lewd instant messages with adolescent congressional pages, lawmakers promptly proclaimed the following: Foley's behavior was "unacceptable and abhorrent," we didn't know about it, and now that we do know about it, he must be punished for his sinister ways.
The first claim appears legitimate, albeit surreptitious, as you'll soon learn. Foley's behavior -- cyber-molesting underage boys -- excites the sort of disgust normally reserved for celebrity creep John Mark Karr and child-raping Catholic priests. But the second and third claims, I think, deserve a bit more attention.
To avoid having their majority threatened by one perverted colleague or to halt their plummeting poll numbers, Republican lawmakers ignored Foley's inappropriateness hoping, one assumes, that Foley would reform
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