Gay Champion SF Chronicle: "Shame On Foley And GOP"

SF Chronicle/Sweetness & Light ^ | October 3, 2006 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

Hypocrisy on parade from the San Francisco Chronicle:

A contingent from NAMBLA marches in San Francisco's Gay Pride parade.

Shame on Congress

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

THE ABRUPT fall of Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from West Palm Beach, is about more than one congressman's sickness. It's about whether his colleagues were sufficiently vigilant in responding to signs of his exploitive behavior toward House pages.

In backtracking through the scandal, it's outrageous that Foley was not confronted long ago by responsible adults in the House. His doting over congressional pages earned him a label as an eccentric to avoid. After one youth complained about "sick" e-mails from Foley, he was privately warned by House overseers of the page system to knock it off. It's obvious he didn't get the message.

Foley was indulged and tolerated. He headed, of all things, a House caucus on missing and exploited children. There was never a serious inquiry into his curious conduct, and to underline the partisan backdrop, Democrats on the ethics review panels were kept uninformed about the allegations against Republican Foley.

But this dam finally burst. When the explicit e-mails were made public, Foley had little choice but to quit. Days later, he vanished from sight by entering rehab for alcohol abuse.

House leaders are now in a flurry of action they never showed before in controlling Foley. With his resignation, the mess is conveniently out of reach of a bipartisan House inquiry. The Department of Justice is now invited in to sort out the charges.

Foley could face criminal charges if young witnesses can be encouraged to back up the evidence.

Foley's misconduct is obviously a serious matter, but equally shameful is the negligent oversight that allowed his behavior to continue. Members of Congress have a parental responsibility to assure the safety of these young pages. House Speaker Dennis Hastert insisted Monday that neither he nor any other Republican leaders saw the lurid exchanges between Foley and the pages.

Hastert said, "As a parent and speaker of the House, I am disgusted." So are we. But our disgust does not stop with Foley.

So far as we know, Representative Foley has yet to be accused of any crime.

All that was known by the House GOP leadership was that Foley had scribed some emails to a former page that seemed in hindsight possibly overly familiar.

There are no "explicit emails," like the Chronicle incessantly claims. Just explicit internet messages.

The Chronicle appears to suggest that because Foley "doted" over pages he should have been forced by the GOP to resign.

The Chronicle is outraged that Foley's homosexual tendencies were tolerated. -- Isn't irony ironic?

Meanwhile, Democrat leaders had access to the more explicit IMs for three years, and said nothing until it would be too late for the Republicans to replace Foley with a viable candidate.

But the Chronicle is disgusted with the GOP.

Also note that the word "homosexual" does not appear in this editorial. Why do you think that is?

Lastly, one can't help but notice that George Soros created a whole new operation to promote this scandal -- CREW. One suspects even he realized that using his stooges at MoveOn.org was just too ironic.

As Wikipedia notes:

Initially called "Censure and Move On," [MoveOn.org] invited visitors to add their names to an online petition stating that "Congress must Immediately Censure President Clinton and Move On to pressing issues facing the country."

MoveOn (and the rest of the Democrats) argued that it mattered not at all that a President had committed and suborned perjury.

Nor was it significant that Bill Clinton broke laws that he himself had so loudly championed, such as against sexual harassment in the workplace. (Remember, Clinton perjured himself in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit.)

It was "just about sex." And therefore laughably unimportant.

Still the Chronicle is on to something. Yes, shame on Congress -- especially the Democrat operatives who sat on this information for three years rather than try to prevent other possible victims merely for political gain.

But also shame on the San Francisco Chronicle for lying about events and for suddenly finding homosexuality a crime that dare not speak its name.

[Sam Hill]

I wonder if the San Francisco Chronicle has ever fulminated against NAMBLA?

[Sam Hill]

Hypocrisy ping.

[Always Right]

What's worse, IMing a page or getting oral sex from an intern?

[Always Right]

Foley could face criminal charges if young witnesses can be encouraged to back up the evidence. Considering the age of consent is 16, am curious at what the criminal charges would be.

[Always Right]

Foley could face criminal charges if young witnesses can be encouraged to back up the evidence.

Considering the age of consent is 16, am curious at what the criminal charges would be.

[kinoxi]

A contingent from NAMBLA marches in San Francisco's Gay Pride parade.

A large net attached to a large catapult can be effective at eliminating such vermin. If applied correctly.

[NeoCaveman]

I thought they celebrated this kind of behavior.

I wonder if all this caterwauling will turn off their leftwing base.

[Hildy]

I wish, just wish some Republican politician would get on TV and speak like a normal human being about how this has been blown so way out of proportion. He was caught...he resigned....why does the whole Republican Party have to go down with him? IT MAKES NO SENSE. I'm so sick of all of this. I just don't even care anymore.

[chimera]

What was the Chronicle's reaction to the Gerry Studds scandal? That pervert was diddling male Congressional pages and the lousy 'Rats covered it up for 10 years. When they finally censured him he turned his back on the Speaker as the resolution was read, then had a press conference denouncing the "witch hunt" into his "private life". Then ran for and won re-election three more times. The 'Rats essentially celebrated his perversity. And then there was Barney Frank living with a guy who was running a homosexual prostitution operation out of their home in DC. And now they are all worked up about a Republican scandal? Lousy hypocrites.

[Hatteras]

Is there a link to the text of the explicit messages?

[Fighting Irish]

Foley needs to be in prison .....any who knew about this needs to join him.

I'm so friggin' sick of this story I could spit.

The smugness of my own party makes me sick. Now is the time for our side to take the brutal, high road ... not bury this as if the American public are too stupid to comprehend the seriousness of such a sick crime.

In any other walk of life ... this event wouldn't be taken so flippantly. Heads would roll, jobs terminated and retirement pay erased.

To hell with politics .... timing or agendas.

[what's up]

I wish, just wish some Republican politician would get on TV and speak like a normal human being about how this has been blown so way out of proportion

LOL. What makes you think that would make any difference?

[polymuser]

Neoliberalism is a mental disorder.

[svcw]

No. Boy / man is just another lifestyle choice. They just do not think the men need to act on those impulses until and appropriate age for the boy, currently 12. I have heard the man / boy people feel 3 is an appropriate age. The boy / man people march proudly in these parades with no condemnation from the other homosexual groups or press.

[what's up]

Heads would roll, jobs terminated and retirement pay erased

A head has rolled. Foley's...in case you hadn't heard.

[Sam Hill]

"Then ran for and won re-election three more times."

Five more times.

Does Anybody In Our Media Remember Gerry Studds? | Sweetness & Light
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/does-anybody-in-our-media-remember-gerry-studds

[goodnesswins]

Do they demand gay men be allowed to be leaders in the Boy Scouts in San Francisco??????

[Fighting Irish]

why does the whole Republican Party have to go down with him

Because they are playing politics with it. They need to treat this like the cancer it is.

We could come out of this looking like adults ... but until the republicans act brutally and start taking this seriously ... the next election is ovahhhh.

[Star Traveler]

You asked -- "Is there a link to the text of the explicit messages?"

Yeah..., go to the ABC news site where the story is -- and they'll have a link to it.

Regards,
Star Traveler

[Sam Hill]

"The smugness of my own party makes me sick. Now is the time for our side to take the brutal, high road ... not bury this as if the American public are too stupid to comprehend the seriousness of such a sick crime."

I think you are confused. The timing is important.

The GOP leadership did not know about anything other than emails where Foley asked for a photo from a former page -- saying he collected them from all his pages.

If the GOP had forced Foley out of the House because they suspected he had homosexual tendencies, what do you think the headlines would have been in our one party media?