It appears ex-Congressman Mark Foley now admits his homosexuality. Too little too late. However as the sturm and drang continues over his inappropriate sexual communications with pages, and ex-pages, the question is was this pedophila.
Well no it wasn't actually since age of consent laws in Washington are 16 years old. Flordia has a more restrictive law dealing with age of consent. But that is not the issue either.
While Republican supporters who are outraged over this like Bay Buchanan on CNN today say it is not his homosexuality that is a problem but his being a "stalker" and "predator", she almost gets it right. First off of course its not his homosexuality that has to do with this at all.
This was sexual harassment. Would the Republican Congress have given him the nudge, nudge, wink, wink, if he had been harassing female pages or other female saff. This is after all the post -Thomas, post-Lewinsky Congress.The Repubicans claimed moral superiority in impeaching a Democratic president for moral turpitude and lying.
I suspect the old boys network in Congress will say they failed to see this as sexual harassment because it was an older man, whom his colleagues continued to pretend was straight, with younger male pages. Had it been a Congressman with female pages, it would have been blatant.
That being said the fact is that this was a clear cut case of sexual harassment, and the Republicans reacted by trying to cover it up. Period. All excuses in the world will not change the inappropriateness of their actions or inaction. And if they would cover up over this, how many other cases of sexual harrasment have they covered up over the last six years?
Congress has clear cut rules about that, rules that none of the Republicans informed of Foley's follies cared to do anything about. That is what makes House Speaker Hastert's protestations of innocence so disingenuous.
Ethical Issues Regarding Relationships With Interns in Congressional Offices
By clarifying that the purpose of the internship is educational and by specifying that sexual and romantic relationships between members of Congress, their staff, and interns who serve in their offices are prohibited, ethics committees would make a strong and essential step toward restoring the reputation of the internship process.
Only now is the house ethics committee investigating Foley, shutting the barn door after the horse has left. Of course the majority on the ethics comittee are Republicans. Which leads to another cliche about the fox guarding the chicken coop. Now who is guilty of moral tupitude? Shoe, fits, wear it.
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Foley
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