Oh, Who Cares?

Various groups are calling on Foley to name the 'clergyman' who molested him. At this point, who cares? While it might do Foley some good (unlikely, at this point... mostly, right now, he needs a drink... oh wait!), it might protect some other victim, if the perp is still 'at large'. But mostly, it's just background noise, and distracts from the fact that Foley had inappropriate contact with youngsters over whom he had a position of power.

I'm not all that riled up about an older man having contact with 16 and 17 yos. Kids that age ARE old enough to know what they want, and as long as they weren't coerced or forced, I really don't give a rat's ass. Additionally, unless he had sex with them in a location where the Age of Consent is under 18, his criminality is pretty questionable (the AOC in DC is 16.) The federal law he's possibly guilty of violating is stupid in that assumes that anyone under 18 is incapable of making sexual decisions and therefore any sexual contact is a crime (of course, if they'd killed Foley, we prosecute them as adults... go figure!) The part that bothers me is that Foley was in a position of power/authority over these pages, and may have misused it to sexual advantage. The one saving grace in the IM/email scandal is that it seems mostly to be EX-pages that Foley was macking on.

The story here isn't Foley's guilt or innocence (he's a sleaze, good riddance), but, as usual, with DC and PARTICULARLY with the Repugs, it's about the cover-up. What did X (and Y and Z, for that matter) know and when did they know it? And why, when REPEATEDLY warned about Foley's behaviour, didn't they do something about it. And no, they didn't force Foley to resign; Hastert lied- Foley had already resigned at the time Hastert says he forced him out. And why was the first person alerted by someone not in the 'loop' (Rep Alexander) report it to the POLITICAL head of the Congressional GOP and not the Speaker or the head of the Page Program.

Drudge, Cannon, et al, can try and refocus this as a 'prank' by the pages (or whomever they're blaming this nanosecond), the folks in Florida can try and focus on poor Foley's youth and his defloration at the sanctified hands of the yet unnamed clergyman, Hastert can blame Boehner who can blame Shimkus who can blame whoever's next in the circle jerk, or they can just say my bad, we screwed up, we will turn over the reins to someone who is (relatively speaking) blameless and let the chips fall where they may, or they can continue to obstruct and obfuscate and look worse and worse. Neither one is very palatable, but the second option gives them an opening back to the moral highground (at least with their base). Given their historic venality and general cravenness, it's no doubt which route they'll take.

At this point, I say we've retaken the house. Now if we can just find a couple of Senators with Page jizz on their ummm hands.......