Quote of the day: We've made our pick, but you can make your own from an embarrassment of riches from last night's Daily Show

JON: "So basically the pages are brought down there to perform sexual exploits for legislators, is that your . . ."

SAMANTHA: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's what the interns are for. Pages are just the aphrodisiac, to set the mood, get 'em primed. They're the fluffers of liberty."

--Jon Stewart and Daily Show Senior Washington Youth Correspondent Samantha Bee on last night's show


Whew!

The Daily Show went to town last night on the Mark Foley mess. We're going with the above for QOTD, but we can certainly understand alternate choices. Ours comes from a discussion in which correspondent Bee drew on her own experience as a teenager spending a year in Washington as a page, during the Reagan Carter Ford administration.

JON: What's the job of a page?

SAMANTHA: Well, it's fairly boring--
[over video clips of these activities, labeled "Courtesy: Congressional Page Program"]
delivering mail, answering phones, basic clerical stuff.
[Now the clip depicts near-naked orgiasts with whips.]
You learn all about it in the exhaustive orientation program.
[Audience laughs.]

JON: It appears the last clip was taken from Bob Guccione's Caligula.

SAMANTHA: Well, only because the actual orientation footage is truly unsuitable for broadcast television. They don't make black bars that wide. Anyway, by taking part in what happens on the Hill, I saw firsthand exactly how Washington functions, and that's why today--I work in New York.

JON: So basically the pages are brought down there to perform sexual exploits for legislators, is that your . . .

SAMANTHA: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's what the interns are for. Pages are just the aphrodisiac, to set the mood, get 'em primed. They're the fluffers of liberty.

• • •

JON: One lawmaker, the cofounder of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, was particularly outraged:

[Clip shows "REP. MARK FOLEY, (R) FLORIDA," saying: "They're sick people. They need mental-health counseling. They certainly don't need to be interacting with children."]

JON: That was Mark Foley, from 2002, reacting to himself three years later.

• • •

"Top GOP aides," Jon suggested, "apparently decided to rip a page from the Catholic Church's school of scandal management."

• • •

Jon showed a clip of Fox "News"-hack Chris Wallace back in his element, interviewing people even dumber than him. He invited former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to voice "second thoughts" about what the House Republican leadership might have done about Congressman Foley, and Newt sank to the occasion: "Had they overly aggressively reacted to the initial round, they would also have been accused of gay-bashing."

To which Jon commented: "[Mimicking] 'You know, politically, we did the math, pros and cons. Made more sense to keep the pedophile there.'

"And by the way, equating a 52-year-old congressman who preys on 16-year-olds with being gay may be one reason the GOP is accused of gay-bashing."

• • •

Eventually the heavy artillery was brought in, in the form of our guy, Senior Washington Correspondent John Oliver.

JOHN O: Jon, I can tell you tonight the anger here is building. There is a real sense that this time the Democrats must be held accountable for their actions.

JON S: The . . . the Democrats?

JOHN O: Jon, Congressman Foley has been dangerously flirting with young pages for years. So isn't it interesting that just one month before an election, the Democrats happen to be told about it? And isn't it just like them to make a convenient stink over an unconscionable breach of ethical conduct? If they'd heard about it before, they'd have had every chance to bring it to the attention of the cofounder of the committee to prevent the exploitation of children . . . I believe his name is . . . [searching back and forth through his pocket-size reporter's notebook] . . . uh . . . [still searching, finally finds page and reads out slowly:] M. Foley, Republican of Florida.