NEW ADMISSIONS FROM FOLEY: HE GOT BOINKED BY AN UNNAMED PRIEST WHEN HE WAS 13 OR 14; HE'S GAY (NO!!) BUT HE'S PROBABLY LYING ABOUT BEING AN ALCOHOLIC

From the Party of Personal Responsibility, we have a new uncorraboratable story about young Foley being fondled by a priest. So? All we've heard from him from the beginning is lie after lie after lie, starting with denials, claims of Democrats smearing him and now he's blaming the Roman Catholic Church for being a child predator. He's still lying his ass off about the heavy stuff and only cops to sending dirty e-mails and IMs. Well, as millions of Americans have now read, some of those communications with young boys indicate physical relations. And although many seemed consensual and mutual-- although legally unacceptable-- one boy spoke of Foley stalking him and barging into a bathroom to grope him.

Another lie appears to be this whole phony alcoholism claim he and his lawyer concocted. "When disgraced former congressman Mark Foley went public with his alcoholism and mental illness after reports that he had sexually explicit Internet communications with underage boys, people who knew him for years were shocked."

Peter King says he's full of blarney. "I don't buy this at all, I think this is a phony defense. The fact is, I think he's responsible for what he did here and I think it's a gimmick." Similarly, Marie Davis, President of the palm Beach Republican Club, a major Foley haunt when he wasn't prowling for teenagers, says "I've seen him with a cocktail or something, but nothing more. We're shocked."

Today his lawyer announced what the Establishment has known for many years but helped him hide from his churchgoing constituents. "Mark Foley wants you to know he is a gay man." Can he take back his anti-gay votes?

Some of my favorite Foley/cover up stories of the day: he was turning Japanese with some young lad while awaiting a House vote on some Bush war appropriations bill; TIME Magazine loudly musing-- while other Republicans weasels turn on him like the vicious little monsters they are-- whether or not the cover-up will bring down Hastert; and, best of all, Wanda Sykes defending the good name of alcohol of the Tonight Show: "Alcohol might make you sleep with a fatty or pee in your neighbor's yard, but it doesn't make you turn into a pedophile."

But numero uno today was the pile of crap Limbaugh, another practiced liar, and Hastert dished out to the braindead who still bother to pay attention to Limbaugh's Republican propaganda broadcasts: the whole Foley scandal is a plot to get Hastert. Wow! Aren't you glad you're not a Republican or someone stupid enough to believe anything they say?


AN IMPORTANT CAUTIONARY MEMO FROM PFAW

One of my oldest friends-- hint: I met him at a Doors concert I booked for $400-- has been calling me a McCarthyite and witch-hunter for my coverage of the Foley cover-up. He insists Foley's victims were young men, not children and a bunch of other stuff. I'm encouraging him to write up his position and I hope he will. Meanwhile, People For the American Way sent out a very valuable press release, entitled "Right Using Foley Scandal to Push Anti-Gay Bigotry, Falsely Equate Being Gay With Being An Abuse," with which I completely agree.

Some right-wing leaders have wasted no time turning the Foley-Hastert scandal into an attack on gay Americans and advocates for equality.  
 
For example, the vehemently anti-gay Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, has said of the scandal, "when you hold up tolerance and diversity, this is what you end up getting."  Perkins says neither party “seems likely to address the real issue, which is the link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse ... ignoring this reality got the Catholic Church into trouble over abusive priests, and now it is doing the same to the House GOP leadership." Meanwhile, Linda Harvey in World Net Daily calls Foley’s actions "typical behavior for homosexuals." 
 
It is disappointing but hardly surprising that anti-gay zealots are trying to protect Republicans' political power and deflect attention from these failures of personal and institutional responsibility.  It is reprehensible that they are fanning the flames of anti-gay bigotry with despicable and dishonest charges that have long since been discredited.
 
What about personal responsibility and accountability? This is about Mark Foley engaging in extremely inappropriate behavior with minors, and about the failure of House Republican leaders to take action even though his behavior was reportedly common enough knowledge that pages were warned to watch out for Foley. It's about Foley's hypocrisy in making a name for himself pushing legislation against the very activities he was engaged in. And it’s about the hypocrisy of party leaders who proclaim themselves the guardians of values but who failed a basic test when doing the right thing might have cost them a bit of political power.