Jailbait-gate update: House Republicans can't keep Foley story straight

House Republicans can't get their stories straight about Mark Foley, the Florida congressman who resigned last week after ABC News published sexually inappropriate emails and IM chats between Foley and underage boys.

House Republicans have known about Foley's emails for months.

It gets better: Atrios is reporting that Foley gave $100,000 to Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) after Reynolds had seen the Foley emails, but before Reynolds told anyone else about them. Hmmm.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), the guy in charge of the page program, claims that he saw the emails last fall. Whereas, Rep. Dennis Hastert claims that Shimkus never saw those emails. Oddly, Shimkus's own spokesman also claimed that Shimkus didn't see the emails.

John Hinderaker insists that Hastert had better things to do than investigate sexual predators:

I've never been Speaker of the House, but I can imagine that such a conversation would not be among the most significant Hastert has had in the last year, and would not necessarily make a deep impression. Foley was, I take it, generally assumed to be gay.

Stop and think for a moment how truly offensive that remark is. It's no big deal if a congressman is preying on pages because you just assume that gay guys do that sort of thing? How would Hinderaker feel if someone said, "Mr. Hinderaker is probably having cyber-sex with 16-year-old girls because he's (widely assumed to be) a heterosexual man and het males are notorious for that sort of thing?"

Comments

[cfrost]

I know schadenfreude is unbecoming but, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

[Cass]

Well of course!! Heterosexual men are known to sleep with adult women; and do you remember any Republicans making a big deal about the Lewinsky affair?

[John Lucid]

Foley was, I take it, generally assumed to be gay.

That's impossible, because Republicans are the party of family values, Jesus, and homophobia. To suggest there is a homosexual in their ranks is absurd because then you'd be saying that these distinguished gentleman would be self-hating, hypocritical, gay-bating, closeted, homosexual Uncle Toms. That I simply refuse to believe. Why if honorable men such as Rep. David Dreier, RNC Chair Ken Mehlman and NRSC spokesman Brian Walton heard such slander they would do the honorable thing and challenge you to duel. That is, if you weren't a member of the weaker sex, Lindsay.

What's next, you unprincipled scoundrel-ette? Accusing certain Republicans of race-baiting? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

[John Lucid]

And Hinderaker's right about Hastert too. The Speaker of the House has much more important matters to attend to, like inserting earmarks into legislation that make him a tidy $2 million profit on a land deal.

You gotta have priorities: 1) Make money, 2) Promote torture, 3) Stop gay marriage, 4) Stop flag-burning.................9,873) Get off fat ass to stop colleage from sexaully preying on high schoolers.

[coturnix]

Wingnuts never saw any distinction between homosexuality, pedophilia, man-on-dog....which explains Hindrocket's confusion.

[Bruce/Crablaw]

There is a time for Schadenfreude and to bring down the doom. I take joy in the despondency of posters on RedState, who are currently freaking out (unlike the lost Hinderaker.) Funny how the only time Team Red will give some breathing room to a gay person is when he is terrorizing a bunch of 16 year-olds. If he wants to marry his partner of 8 years, stopping him is the most important issue in America.

I am beginning to think that we liberal and libertarians brought these corrupt predators and thugs upon ourselves. By being polite and not tossing anchors, battleships upon these bastards, we invited their metastasis, being the sort of people who are too open-minded to press our own side in an argument. I am probably more guilty than most in this regard.

[Cass]

I'd guess Assrocket had some uneasy dreams last night, as did many of his friends. The idea of homosexual rape goes pretty deep into the wingnut well of neurotic fears.