I am so angry, and I have so much to say about the Mark Foley scandal down in the U.S., that I hardly know where to begin.
Lawyers acting for Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who resigned
after it was revealed he had sent sexually charged emails to teenage
boys, said yesterday that the politician had been abused by a member of
the clergy as a teenager.
No details of the alleged abuse were given,
other than that Mr Foley, who is a Roman Catholic, was between 13 and
15 years old at the time of the abuse. One lawyer, David Roth,
acknowledged for the first time that the congressman, 52, is gay. "Mark
Foley wants you to know he is a gay man," Mr Roth told a news
conference in Florida, adding that the admission was part of a
"recovery" programme. He also insisted that Mr Foley was "absolutely,
positively not a paedophile". Mr Foley said in a statement on Monday
that he was an alcoholic and that he was entering a recovery programme
to treat his condition. (Glaister, Dan. "Republican who sent indecent emails was abused ", The Guardian, October 4, 2006)
Oh, so now he finally decides to come out of the closet, several years after he was already outed by The Advocate newsmagazine for hypocritcally voting in favour of the "Defence of Marriage" act.
And of course, now he checks himself into rehab, whimpering: "I did because I was drunk."; "I did it because of that priest."
Entering a "recovery" program? Recovery from what? Being gay? Being drunk? Getting caught??
I find it beyond pathetic that Foley finally plays the gay card, only when he thinks it will help him. How can it help him, you ask? By not-so-subtly using the "I'm gay so I molest children" charge which the Religious Right likes to keep throwing at us God-damned sodomites. That way, perhaps he can cast his sexual orientation as more of a "sin" that needs "recovery". This man is a disgrace to honest queer people everywhere, and I comfort myself with the thought that he's gonna be one helluva popular bitch at whatever prison he lands up in.
Oh, and he says he's not a paedophile?!? Well, I guess that depends on the law, but really. As more word leaks out about the content of those IM messages between him and one or more teenagers, one has to ask just how Mark Foel defines the term.
Apparently he is now saying (via his lawyer) that since no physical (i.e. face-to-face) acts took place, he is not a paedophile. This defence falls intro the category of "I never has sex with that woman!" Clinton learned a blow job is sex. Foley is going to soon learn that cybersex is sex.
And to make matters even worse, until his resignation he was a co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and a backer of new legislation, the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which he may well now be charged under. HE WAS IN A POSITION OF TRUST. (I wonder what Joe Walsh, Adam's father and host of America's Most Wanted, is thinking now.)
I got news for Mr. Foley: Being gay does NOT excuse what you did. Being a drunk does NOT excuse what you did. Being a victim of child sex abuse does NOT excuse what you did. Being ANY COMBINATION OF a diddled-with,
drunken faggot does NOT excuse what you did, in any way, shape or
form. That you even TRY to use these as excuses or defenses makes you even viler, if that is possible.
I hope Foley gets the book thrown at him. His grasping, gawping response by checking into rehab and blaming booze/sexual abuse/being gay is absolutely, utterly, completely vile and reprehensible. Thankfully, most people can already see through that "rehab" act pretty easily; it's getting old.
And ANYBODY in the U.S. federal or state govenments who is found to have kept his secrets hidden deserves to be tossed out on his ass and go down in flames along with Foley.
UPDATE: Now Newt Gingrich has said that one reason why the Republicans in power didn't act on Mark Foley sooner was that they were afraid of being accused of "gaybashing". What the...?! As John Stewart said in response on The Today Show, assuming that all homosexuals are child sex offenders IS gaybashing.
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