So Representative Mark Foley of Florida's 16th Congressional District has resigned. Why? Sexually explicit emails between him and a congressional page who was 16 at the time (August, 2005). Gross? Not only disgusting-gross, but a gross abuse of power. Let me spell it out for you:
H is for homophobia. To associate Foley's crimes with his homosexuality rather than his pedophilia, like Cliff Kincaid, is a form of passive homophobia.
Y is for younger. A 16-year-old page is much younger than 50-year old Congressman. If I dated a girl a third my age, she'd be all of eight (and two thirds!).
P is for predation. To attempt to seduce subordinates from a position of power is sexual predation. If Foley worked in your office, someone from Human Resources would have explained appropriate comments, clothing, and behavior.
O is for oblivious. How could the Republican leadership have been oblivious to Foley's actions when pages have been warned about him for at least five years? They can't have been.
C is for Caucus. Foley was chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus; maybe someone said “caucus” too slowly and he just misunderstood.
R is for representatives. Foley is no longer a member of the House of Representatives.
I is for incredible. It's incredible that a man could write laws outlawing the online solicitation of sex from a minor, then break those very laws.
T is for tantalizing. The media found some of Foley's instant messenger conversations too tantalizing to reprint. More tantalizing than asking about penis size? Damn.
E is for enough. Enough is enough. The Republicans let the fox guard the hen-house, so let's make them surrender their house. Both of 'em, in fact.
