Scandalous!
Possibly one of the few really bright spots in the news recently has been that Mark Foley and his IM Scandal. (courtesy of ABC News) You all are instructed to inform yourselves as fully as possible about this very amusing scandal, because the sort of things that the (former) congressman is alleged to have IM'ed are eeeewwweyy in an amusing manner, much like watching a bucket of slime fall on someone else. I am all full of some long German word which means joy-from-witnessing-someone-try-pathetically-to-score-with-someone-completely-out-of-their-league, like when Steve was trying to hit on Cathy. "You can stay in my bed,' he offered. Cathy somehow graciously declined. Ha ha! It's so GROSS to read what this congressman wrote!
But semi-seriously, I am beginning to doubt the veracity of some of the material. If someone, let's put it frankly, yucky and old hit on me like that, I would not encourage them as this "teenager" seems to have done. I can't imagine, as a teenager, having had a conversation with a 52 year old congressman about spanking the monkey. No. If someone, say, a teacher, had sent me this kind of message, I would have been very disgusted. I should think my students would be as well. Especially the sort of student that becomes a page in Congress; one expects that they would be well connected, popular, smart, and successful, not vulnerable loners who have sexual conversations with an ancient lech.
I think that some of these conversations are somewhat manipulated, as in the sense of I don't really think his correspondent was a teenage page, or the teenage page was given instructions on what to say in order to lead the congressman to say something embarrassing. There's a series of oddities here that to my jaundiced eye, add up to something a little more than a yucky old man in an internet-era raincoat. These conversations occured in 2003, and they're just now appearing? And this 17 year old, or the parents, saved them? If they felt this was a problem, why didn't they come forward in 2003? 17 year old kids can't be counted on to reliably bring their books to class every day, so the notion that the kid saved the IMs- not buying it. How convenient they should appear A) in an election year and B) just before the election, so close that they can't get Foley's name off of the ballot and this gets rid of a congressman in an otherwise safe seat, thus potentially tipping the balance of power in Congress. I'm also wondering why he abruptly resigned. Ok, the messages he sent were definitely repulsive. But I don't see any evidence of any actual ILLEGAL behaviour, unless- there's more to the story than we know about. So the guy liked to talk dirty to cute younguns. That's not really a crime. Perhaps he actually did something with a page. How many bases did he get to with the teenagers?
I think the alleged victims have some responsibility in all this as well. By this age if you are responsible enough to serve as a page and live off in a dorm, you have enough sense to fend off the advances of Doc Oc. I can't call him a kid, because he really isn't- and he seems to be encouraging the man, which I again seriously doubt any actual 17 year old would do, so - I feel some sympathy for the lot of them, especially Foley's dermatologist husband of 19 years.
I really think there is a little too much hay being made out of this, especially in light of the fact that people like William Jefferson are still in office. One thing to the Republicans' credit, I suppose, is that when they have someone in office who breaks their code of ethics, they are GONE. They don't allow them to linger around like Marion Barry, or Cynthia McKinney, or Ted Kennedy, or Bill Clinton to stink up their offices. They don't make excuses for them. (No, Bush is NOT ethically challenged. That's another debate) If this had happened on the other side of the aisle, there would have been no resignation, no condemnation, nothing but excuses.
But semi-seriously, I am beginning to doubt the veracity of some of the material. If someone, let's put it frankly, yucky and old hit on me like that, I would not encourage them as this "teenager" seems to have done. I can't imagine, as a teenager, having had a conversation with a 52 year old congressman about spanking the monkey. No. If someone, say, a teacher, had sent me this kind of message, I would have been very disgusted. I should think my students would be as well. Especially the sort of student that becomes a page in Congress; one expects that they would be well connected, popular, smart, and successful, not vulnerable loners who have sexual conversations with an ancient lech.
I think that some of these conversations are somewhat manipulated, as in the sense of I don't really think his correspondent was a teenage page, or the teenage page was given instructions on what to say in order to lead the congressman to say something embarrassing. There's a series of oddities here that to my jaundiced eye, add up to something a little more than a yucky old man in an internet-era raincoat. These conversations occured in 2003, and they're just now appearing? And this 17 year old, or the parents, saved them? If they felt this was a problem, why didn't they come forward in 2003? 17 year old kids can't be counted on to reliably bring their books to class every day, so the notion that the kid saved the IMs- not buying it. How convenient they should appear A) in an election year and B) just before the election, so close that they can't get Foley's name off of the ballot and this gets rid of a congressman in an otherwise safe seat, thus potentially tipping the balance of power in Congress. I'm also wondering why he abruptly resigned. Ok, the messages he sent were definitely repulsive. But I don't see any evidence of any actual ILLEGAL behaviour, unless- there's more to the story than we know about. So the guy liked to talk dirty to cute younguns. That's not really a crime. Perhaps he actually did something with a page. How many bases did he get to with the teenagers?
I think the alleged victims have some responsibility in all this as well. By this age if you are responsible enough to serve as a page and live off in a dorm, you have enough sense to fend off the advances of Doc Oc. I can't call him a kid, because he really isn't- and he seems to be encouraging the man, which I again seriously doubt any actual 17 year old would do, so - I feel some sympathy for the lot of them, especially Foley's dermatologist husband of 19 years.
I really think there is a little too much hay being made out of this, especially in light of the fact that people like William Jefferson are still in office. One thing to the Republicans' credit, I suppose, is that when they have someone in office who breaks their code of ethics, they are GONE. They don't allow them to linger around like Marion Barry, or Cynthia McKinney, or Ted Kennedy, or Bill Clinton to stink up their offices. They don't make excuses for them. (No, Bush is NOT ethically challenged. That's another debate) If this had happened on the other side of the aisle, there would have been no resignation, no condemnation, nothing but excuses.
posted by SavageATL at 3:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home