Ahhh election season! A time to see what our politicians are really made of. Excuses will fly, history will be re-written, and the spin will flow freely.

For instance the Foley thing. We have the republicans claiming everything from alcohol, to clergy abuse, to him being gay, is to blame for his wanting to touch little boys.

From here

Disgraced lawmaker Mark Foley’s behavior was affected by alcoholism and childhood molestation, but he “never attempted to have sexual contact with a minor,” his lawyer said Tuesday in the first extensive defense of the Florida Republican’s actions, which have rocked Congress and the GOP.

…

Attorney David Roth told reporters in Florida that Foley was intoxicated when he sent lewd electronic messages to former House pages but was always sober when conducting official business during his 12 years in Congress. Roth said he could not explain the latest report from ABC News of an exchange in which Foley appeared to be having Internet sex with a youth while participating in a House roll-call vote.

Roth also said Foley is gay and was abused by clergy between the ages of 13 and 15. Foley, who is single and Roman Catholic, will fully cooperate with law-enforcement officers and will preserve all records, e-mails and other items they might want to review, Roth said. “Nothing will be altered,” he said.

Being gay does not make you want little boys.

It seems the ultra right wing is going to try and spin this as some sort of Uber Democratic plot. The logic goes something like this, the Democrats have created such a “climate of political correctness” that the Republican leadership had no choice but to not tell anyone about Foley. Because he was gay, and they were afraid that they would seem like they were unfairly targeting him because of his gayness, and because of the evil Democrats (and there damned climate of political correctness) they would look bad.

from here

neither party seems likely to address the real issue, which is the link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse. Foley, an unmarried 52-year-old representative, had always refused to answer questions about his sexual orientation. Now that his emails and messages to teenage male pages have been revealed, it appears clear that Foley is a homosexual with a particular attraction to underage boys. While pro-homosexual activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. Although almost all child molesters are male and less than 3% of men are homosexual, about a third of all child sex abuse cases involve men molesting boys–and in one study, 86% of such men identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual. Ignoring this reality got the Catholic Church into trouble over abusive priests, and now it is doing the same to the House GOP leadership. They discounted or downplayed earlier reports concerning Foley’s behavior–probably because they did not want to appear “homophobic.” The Foley scandal shows what happens when political correctness is put ahead of protecting children.

Take a moment to awe at that train of thought, it may be one of the craziest justifications for being a pervert I have ever heard.

1. They don’t seem to have any trouble with passing laws that are anti-gay so why would they feel bad about outing a child molester, even if he is gay.
2. Being gay is not the issue, gay males want to have sex with other fully grown up gay males, not little boys.

The worst part about all of this is that some have claimed that the republicans have known about Foley since 1995.

from here

In 1995, male House pages were warned to steer clear of a freshman Republican from Florida, who was already learning the names of the teenagers, dashing off notes, letters and e-mails to them, and asking them to join him for ice cream, according to a former page.

Mark Beck-Heyman, now a graduate student in clinical psychology at George Washington University, and more than a dozen other former House pages said in interviews and via e-mail that Rep. Mark Foley was known to be extraordinarily friendly in a way that made some of them uncomfortable.

Beck-Heyman, who was a Republican page and is now a Democrat, said the attention was “weird,” and he provided a handwritten letter that Foley sent him after the page left Washington to return home to California. The note suggested that they get together during the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996.

Why don’t you read the transcripts of his conversation with the young men yourself and see what you think, my personal read on this is that this guy is fucked, and should have been kicked out a long time ago.

this is just a bit, it gets much much worse. (Maf54 is Foley)

Maf54 (7:46:33 PM): did any girl give you a haand job this weekend

Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:38 PM): lol no

Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:40 PM): im single right now

Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:57 PM): my last gf and i broke up a few weeks agi

Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): are you

Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny

Xxxxxxxxx (7:47:29 PM): lol…a bit

Maf54 (7:48:00 PM): did you spank it this weekend yourself

Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:04 PM): no

Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:16 PM): been too tired and too busy

Maf54 (7:48:33 PM): wow…

Maf54 (7:48:34 PM): i am never to busy haha

Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:51 PM): haha

Maf54 (7:50:02 PM): or tired..helps me sleep