Plum Crazy

I suppose the easy answer is "because they breathe." How much lower could Drudge sink? He's blaming the Congressional pages for egging Mark Foley on.

You're not going to tell me these are innocent babies. Have you read the transcripts that ABC posted going into the weekend of these instant messages, back and forth? The kids are egging the Congressman on! The kids are trying to get this out of him.

Because you have to remember, those of us who have seen some of the transcripts of these nasty instant messages. This was two ways, ladies and gentlemen. These kids were playing Foley for everything he was worth. Oh yeah. Oh, I haven't...they were talking about how many times they'd masturbated, how many times they'd done it with their girlfriends this weekend...all these things and these "innocent children." And this "poor" congressman sitting there typing, "oh am I going to get any," you know?

Can you believe anyone is seriously trying to pass that off? A 53-year-old Congressman, who is in a position of political authority, is being set up by high school students. How can anyone seriously put that forth as a defense? Foley had authority over these students. He also was instrumental in passing a law making his own behavior criminal. Yet, we're supposed to believe that he was being set up. He couldn't control himself in the face of those "wily" high school students. This is classic victim-blaming. It's also the classic excuse used by sexual predators. Even Foley isn't making himself out to be the victim here.

A former page sums up why sexual harassment laws are needed:

Loraditch says that some of the pages who "interacted" with Foley were hesitant to report his behavior because "members of Congress, they've got the power." Many of the pages were hoping for careers in politics and feared Foley might seek retribution.

That's exactly why Foley's behavior was coercive. That's exactly why it's ludicrous that he was the victim, rather than the minors he was soliciting. Had they been adults, his behavior would still have been wrong. The fact that they were minors makes it even worse.

As for Tony Snow's nonsense about the only thing House leadership having to go on being some "overly friendly e-mails", please. Hi, Tony? When a 53-year-old asks a 16-year-old non-relative for pictures of himself, total red flag. That's enough to call for an investigation. No one's saying you take action against the man on the basis of that evidence alone. You do, however, investigate. You talk to the pages to see if anything else has happened. You look at the man's computer records. You don't just brush it aside and say "Well, we didn't know anything else." You should have asked. Not you specifically, but Denny Hastert. He doesn't remember anyone telling him? Too bad, so sad. That's his job. His job is not to ignore a classic sign of sexual predatorship, thus putting other minors at risk. Besides, if Loraditch above is to be believed, and I see no reason why he's not, there were members of the House who knew of this behavior 5 years ago. 5 years. Surely long enough to have done a proper investigation and protected the minors working for Congress.

UPDATE: Add Bob Beckel to this list. According to Ace of Spades HQ, a Democratic strategist named Bob Beckel suggested on Hannity & Colmes that Foley's sexual orientation should have "raised questions" about the e-mails. I don't watch Hannity & Colmes and couldn't find a video or transcript to link to, but I'm going to assume it's true. In which case, Beckel is full of BS too. The fact that Foley is gay should not have raised any questions about the e-mails. The fact that he was an adult asking a non-related minor for pictures should have. If he had asked the same question of a female page, the same red flags should have been raised. Mr. Beckel, if you believe otherwise, you're a homophobe.