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And the crazy just gets crazier ....
Oct. 3rd, 2006 06:42 pmA short while ago, this "News Alert" moved across the AP Wire: "The attorney for former Rep. Mark Foley says Foley was molested by a member of the clergy as a teenager."
Aaaaand, all our institutionalized pedophilia comes home to roost. I'm not entirely sure if I'd be happier if he's lying or if he's not. Eh, scratch that. The whole damn thing makes me so unhappy I can't take any joy in the GOP's current misery. The fact that just this morning I was struck by how similar the Republican coverup of Foley's actions was to the Catholic Church's pedophile priest coverup just makes this news flash all the more bizarre.
Of course, the Foley situation has shaken a LOT of crazy out of the GOP in the last few days, my particular favorite being Katherine Harris (who else?) going on TV and claiming that NO Republican knew about Foley and that Democrats and the Press did. Because it's just not a political circus until Katherine Harris chimes in, bless her silicone-injected heart. Sometimes, I think she might believe some of the things she says.
As I've noted before, people following the Foley case should probably also follow the case of Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, "the 36-year-old Christian conservative activist and lawyer with close ties to Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Scott Baugh, head of the Orange County Republican Party. Police say Nielsen took a 14-year-old Westminster boy as his sex partner in 2003 and maintained a huge cache of man-boy pornography."
Between the two, you begin to see not just the blatant hypocrisy of the "traditional values" crowd, but of a sort of ingrained sense of entitlement, that their position allows them to prey on those weaker than them. I'm honestly beginning to believe that the effort that goes into the appearance of virtue -- and no one is as virtuous as the GOP attempts to portray itself -- breeds a sickness in the heart and head, an evil that inevitably takes root. It's all very Jungian, I'm sure.
The God & Values crowd -- read: The Republican base -- is always quick to believe anyone who waves a flag and a cross at them, but really. What has to happen to make them understand that the people who claim to represent their values in Washington are simply lying through their teeth? Foley barely counts as an anomaly: We've seen, in a very short amount of time, high level GOP members indicted or charged with bribery and campaign finance scandals (Delay, Ney, Cunningham); We've seen blatant racism exposed (Allen); We've seen a Bush administration appointee arrested for shoplifting of all things; and now this.
How much more evidence do you need to understand there's something seriously sick inside that party.
I miss the days when a politician would just get caught with a mistress. That made sense to me. This? This is just beyond the pale.
Aaaaand, all our institutionalized pedophilia comes home to roost. I'm not entirely sure if I'd be happier if he's lying or if he's not. Eh, scratch that. The whole damn thing makes me so unhappy I can't take any joy in the GOP's current misery. The fact that just this morning I was struck by how similar the Republican coverup of Foley's actions was to the Catholic Church's pedophile priest coverup just makes this news flash all the more bizarre.
Of course, the Foley situation has shaken a LOT of crazy out of the GOP in the last few days, my particular favorite being Katherine Harris (who else?) going on TV and claiming that NO Republican knew about Foley and that Democrats and the Press did. Because it's just not a political circus until Katherine Harris chimes in, bless her silicone-injected heart. Sometimes, I think she might believe some of the things she says.
As I've noted before, people following the Foley case should probably also follow the case of Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, "the 36-year-old Christian conservative activist and lawyer with close ties to Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Scott Baugh, head of the Orange County Republican Party. Police say Nielsen took a 14-year-old Westminster boy as his sex partner in 2003 and maintained a huge cache of man-boy pornography."
Between the two, you begin to see not just the blatant hypocrisy of the "traditional values" crowd, but of a sort of ingrained sense of entitlement, that their position allows them to prey on those weaker than them. I'm honestly beginning to believe that the effort that goes into the appearance of virtue -- and no one is as virtuous as the GOP attempts to portray itself -- breeds a sickness in the heart and head, an evil that inevitably takes root. It's all very Jungian, I'm sure.
The God & Values crowd -- read: The Republican base -- is always quick to believe anyone who waves a flag and a cross at them, but really. What has to happen to make them understand that the people who claim to represent their values in Washington are simply lying through their teeth? Foley barely counts as an anomaly: We've seen, in a very short amount of time, high level GOP members indicted or charged with bribery and campaign finance scandals (Delay, Ney, Cunningham); We've seen blatant racism exposed (Allen); We've seen a Bush administration appointee arrested for shoplifting of all things; and now this.
How much more evidence do you need to understand there's something seriously sick inside that party.
I miss the days when a politician would just get caught with a mistress. That made sense to me. This? This is just beyond the pale.
