Quote of the day - Camille Paglia [Mark Foley]

The way the Democratic leadership was in clear collusion with the major media to push this story in the month before the midterm election seems to me to have been a big fat gift to Ann Coulter and the other conservative commentators who say the mainstream media are simply the lapdogs of the Democrats. Every time I turned on the news it was "Foley, Foley, Foley!" -- and in suspiciously similar language and repetitive talking points.

Camille Paglia - 10-27-06

Mark Foley, Gerry Studds, Barney Frank, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy

It is a virtual guarantee that (with the possible exception of left-leaning Republicans of the future) no Republican will ever say the kind of things about Mark Foley that are found here - no matter how much time passes before he is deceased. Republicans, if they are smart, will prefer to forget Foley and treat him as an aberration instead of a beacon, pioneer and example to follow.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

In my new book . . . . I say that some of us looked at Sept. 11 as the sudden revelation of the tip of a vast iceberg, and I try to address the seven-eighths of that iceberg below the surface -- the globalization of radical Islam, the free-lancing of nuclear technology, the demographic weakness of Western democracies. Other folks, however, see the iceberg upside down. The huge weight of history -- the big geopolitical forces coursing through society -- the vast burden all balancing on the pinhead of the week: in this instance, Mark Foley.

Mark Steyn - 10-15-06

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - Foley scandal

This was a honey trap (as they used to say in the Cold War) designed to leverage one peripheral figure's squalid fantasies into political opportunity. It's as predictable as the leaves falling from the trees, except that it only occurs every other autumn. Still, I take my hat off to the media and Democratic Party. Indeed, in the spirit of Bill Clinton, I take my pants off to them. It is a remarkable achievement to have transformed, in little more than a week, the GOP into the Catholic Diocese of Boston with Speaker Hastert as Cardinal Law and the page program as the massed ranks of 7-year-old altar boys. What an awesome force the Dems would be if only the ruthless skill and cunning that went into this operation could be applied to, say, national security.

Mark Steyn - October 8, 2006

Mark Foley, Barney Frank, Steven L. Gobie, Bill Clinton etc. - a hypothetical for perverts and future politicians

Let's say you are contemplating a career in politics. Let's say also that you have not decided which political party would best serve your future political aspirations.

Suppose, finally, that you are also a sex pervert - that you either have a desire for underage boys or that you don't mind having male prostitution rings operated out of your apartment by your gay male "partner" or that you have a tendency to force your attentions on female subordinates [or one of a hundred other fetish/tendencies/"preferences"/perversions].

There are undoubtedly at least a few people in the US facing such a situation. They are about to begin a political career but are nagged by fears that their sexual proclivities/activities may become exposed/reported at some time in the future. If you are one of these people, you have a very important question to answer before you begin your first campaign.

Which political party should you join?

Which political party would best serve a politician that engages in or facilitates hidden, illegal sexual activities? As the events surrounding Congressman Mark Foley make clear, the choice is obvious. You do not want to be a Republican if you are caught in some bizzare sex scandal.

Look at the evidence over the past 20 years. If you are a Democrat, you can count on your political allies to:

- lie for you
- deny, deny, deny
- rely on the thinnest of legal excuses
- hire detectives and thugs to smear and intimidate your accusers
- support you to the end notwithstanding the evidence against you

The worst you can expect from your allies is a cursory expression of moral qualms, which expression will not be backed up by any meaningful action.

You will be allowed to remain in Congress for years afterward and express faux moral outrage over every reference to your particular "preference." Your improprieties will be ignored by the MSM/DNC while the same MSM/DNC will give unlimited airplay to your bile on any issue.

You will be offered a guest appearance on Oprah and a lucrative book deal. You may even qualify as a new breed of hyphenated-American.

On the other hand, if you launch your political career as a Republican, you will have no protection. If you are ever exposed for the disgusting pervert that you are, the GOP will abandon you and join the calls for your head.

The same Democrats that would have defended you if you had only joined their party will now attack you unmercifully. [They will attack you not for your perversion or your actual crime - but only for "hypocrisy" - this being a case of "love the sin, hate the sinner."]

Rest assured also that MSM/DNC operatives are seeking to out most Republicans as perverts/hypocrites on a constant basis. [Don't think they haven't investigated every teenage boy that has ever met George W. Bush in a vain attempt to contrive some dirt.]

The choice is thus clear. If you have something to hide, join the Democratic party. You are in for a very successful career.
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Michelle Malkin links to more information on the Foley story, including a link to her own column from 2001 in which she tells of her own experiences as a Congressional intern.