No, Not the Catheter

If I had been blogging on Wednesday, instead of spending the day in transit: rushing to the dentist, rushing to the office, having lunch, rushing to the airport, flying to California, and checking into a lovely hotel sans internet cafe; I would have blogged about Mark Foley.

I would not have blogged about the emails to pages. I would not have blogged about how fortunate this timing seems for the Democrats. I would not have blogged about how this further demoralizes the Republicans, who've held themselves up as the standard bearers of decency.

Rather, I would have blogged about Representative Foley coming out, in the midst of the mess, as gay. And a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. But mainly the gay part, that came first and has gotten a lot more attention.

I was sickened by this, this excuse. Even at this late date, this man - full of a truly impressive amount of self-loathing - is helping further his party's crusade against gays, by suggesting, however indirectly, that what he did was unavoidable because of his sexual orientation.

As Michael Albetta, president of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, said, "A pedophile is a pedophile whether you're gay or straight. So he's gay. So what?"

We're looking a lot at the age issue, and that's certainly important. But while we're discussing that imbalance of power, let's not forget that it doesn't stop with adult vs. teen, there's also U.S. Congressman vs. Page. Which is kind of like President vs. Intern.

And now conservative groups are blaming the inaction of those within the "GOP" who knew about Foley's "indiscretions" but failed to act on political correctness and fear of appearing homophobic. Brava! Well done! A Republican congressman does a Bad Thing. Other Republicans seems to have known about it and covered it up. And it's still the fault of the liberals! Excellent!