The problem I have with the whole thing-- well okay, several.
As an adult [and a politician] Mark Foley had the option to report the e-mails/instant messages sent to him by pages which were flirty/leading him on/looking for a gay bashing instead of responding to them.
I wasn't able to find the links to any articles that pointed to a possible gay bashing.
Even if it was a gay bashing/attempted gay bashing/outing of a closeted older gay male republican politican by the younger high school pages, Mark Foley had the option to not respond and to direct his concerns about any of this stuff to his superiors i.e. his bosses.
So the idea that this situation is a result of some high school kids fooling around-- looking to trap Mark Foley in some way, shape, or form or have fun with the affections or affectations of an older closeted gay republican politician does not, in my mind, excuse any of it--
as the adult, Mark Foley had the responsibility to report THEIR overly friendly sexy etc emails/ims to the boss.
BTW, I know that many gay men do talk about "twinkies" [blond on the outside, fluffy on the inside, ie younger and much younger gay men] at least in
Albany NY they do. Most of them have the sense to wait until their twinkies are of legal drinking age or out of high school. A few of them or some of them DON'T.
Therein lies the sickness. That Mark Foley, regardless of the reason, would e-mail/IM back to any page [or anyone period during working hours but that is my second issue] messages alluding to his underwear or any question along the lines of, "Do you find me sexy?" or "Do you find me attractive?" Especially when said pages were still in high school regardless of whether or not they were legal tender.
Lawyers are paid to make scum look good and less-than-scum look better. So I believe that Mark Foley was asked/forced/mandated to resign rather than the words of his lawyer that he volunteered to resign [before asked/forced/mandated to].
The fact that the democrats are attempting to use this stuff as shit-fodder for the upcoming election just points to me the nature of politics.
There is also the alleged upcoming testimony of one page now 18 from Louisiana who allegedly had sex with Mark Foley while he was fifteen. I can understand why a victim of a perpetrator would wait several years to come forward with this stuff, having been there myself.
It does seem a bit over-convenient to the democrats for all this to come out now.
As far as the republicans covering the whole thing up, I don't buy that.
Mark Foley's seat was a "safe" republican seat, the republicans have been traditionally associated with non-championship of some civil rights for glbt americans, and it was republicans who were in the forefront of reporting their suspicions about Mark Foley and the pages to their bosses.
The other problem I have is this man was working while allegedly looking for his thrills with the high school pages [or getting suggestive messages and responding to them in the same manner]. Bill Clinton was on the job too when he did some of his down and dirty stuff. But Bill was a democrat. We have Genevieve Flowers, Paula somebody or other, and Monica who didn't have the sense to send her dress to the dry cleaners.
I wonder if the democratic response would have been any different [that is to say, yup, it woulda. after all, Barney Frank got to keep his young lover in a paid-for-by-the-taxpayers apartment] had Mark Foley been a democrat.
Make sure to check out my friend Jeremy Crow's blog for another refreshing take on the subject at: http://blog.jeremycrow4life.com/2006/10/things-you-learn-when-you-pay.html
radical sapphoq
sapphoq raps about current events, politics, anti-censorship, fundamentalism, war, and anything else that strikes her fancy and radical being.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Sunday, October 08, 2006
FOLEY'S FOLLY 10/8/06
This morning on the teevee, we watched a newscaster attempting to dialogue with one democrat senator and one republican senator about the republican senator who was asked to resign. The latest scandal is that Senator Mark Foley was [allegedly] sending sexual e-mails to some male high school pages, showed up drunk one night looking for sex, and may or may not have had some sort of sex with one of them. "Under-aged" is the word that was stressed.
The democrat naturally insisted that somehow the republican was supposed to know of Mark Foley's actions, did know and didn't take any action soon enough, blah blah blah. The republican was fairly vocal about the fact that one Mark Foley's actions came to light, his resignation was immediately demanded. Both senators were heavy on the idea of a full investigation though for different reasons. Neither one mentioned the fact that the ex-senator is currently in treatment for "alcoholism and behavioral disorders." Neither one talked about the idea that any senator is not supposed to be sending any sort of personal e-mails during work time. [Well, at least I hope that they aren't supposed to be.]
When I first heard this story, I thought that the pages in question were college kids. That made it a bit less hideous to my way of thinking. High school kids though gave me pause. Why would any grown adult want to get it on with any high school kid? Mark Foley is old.
Quite frankly, I was also a bit put out that Mark Foley self-identified as being "gay." Personally, I DON'T WANT HIM IN THE NON-STR8 COMMUNITY. The fact that an adult goes after underaged teens of the same gender does NOT make him gay [or her a lesbian. I know that there are woman pedophiles out there too]. I don't care that he has an addiction to alcohol or a "behavioral disorder." He is an ex-senator. That is too bad in a way. He should go rot in a prison cell with the other pedophiles where he can have all the gay sex he doesn't want. Meanwhile, he is in a place that will probably drug him and teach him that he is powerless over his recent actions.
~radical sapphoq
P.S. I could not figure out from the democrat senator's comments exactly how the republicans were supposed to "know" these things were going on. There was no clear-cut evidence presented on the news show I watched this morning [names, dates, written records] of who allegedly might have reported concerns about Mark Foley several years ago.
The democrat naturally insisted that somehow the republican was supposed to know of Mark Foley's actions, did know and didn't take any action soon enough, blah blah blah. The republican was fairly vocal about the fact that one Mark Foley's actions came to light, his resignation was immediately demanded. Both senators were heavy on the idea of a full investigation though for different reasons. Neither one mentioned the fact that the ex-senator is currently in treatment for "alcoholism and behavioral disorders." Neither one talked about the idea that any senator is not supposed to be sending any sort of personal e-mails during work time. [Well, at least I hope that they aren't supposed to be.]
When I first heard this story, I thought that the pages in question were college kids. That made it a bit less hideous to my way of thinking. High school kids though gave me pause. Why would any grown adult want to get it on with any high school kid? Mark Foley is old.
Quite frankly, I was also a bit put out that Mark Foley self-identified as being "gay." Personally, I DON'T WANT HIM IN THE NON-STR8 COMMUNITY. The fact that an adult goes after underaged teens of the same gender does NOT make him gay [or her a lesbian. I know that there are woman pedophiles out there too]. I don't care that he has an addiction to alcohol or a "behavioral disorder." He is an ex-senator. That is too bad in a way. He should go rot in a prison cell with the other pedophiles where he can have all the gay sex he doesn't want. Meanwhile, he is in a place that will probably drug him and teach him that he is powerless over his recent actions.
~radical sapphoq
P.S. I could not figure out from the democrat senator's comments exactly how the republicans were supposed to "know" these things were going on. There was no clear-cut evidence presented on the news show I watched this morning [names, dates, written records] of who allegedly might have reported concerns about Mark Foley several years ago.
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