Earlier this week I blogged about the suspect convenience of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley going into rehab for alcoholism. I guess much of the country shared my skepticism, because last night, as the heat on Foley continued to increase, his lawyer announced that his client was sexually abused by a member of the clergy when Foley was a kid.
Excuse me if I don't believe it.
I know it's not PC to doubt victims of abuse. But again I say that Foley's announcements are way too convenient. For years he's allegedly been sending explicit e-mails and instant messages to teen-aged Congressional pages. For even longer, he now claims, he's been a victim of addiction and abuse. That may very well be the case, and if so I hope he receives the treatment he needs. But it in no way excuses his behavior, like I'm sure he's hoping it will help do. By the way, while his attorney won't reveal which denomination the clergy member served, Foley is apparently Catholic. Just like the bottle, Catholic priests are easy targets on which to lay blame nowadays. What will you blame next, Mark? Video games? The media? Sex-filled movie? Too many snack cakes that affected your blood sugar level? About the only claim Foley and his attorney have made in the last several days that I actually believe is that Foley is gay. That's been a widely-accepted suspicion within political circles in DC and Foley's home state of Florida. But again: Great that you're facing the truth, but it does not excuse your behavior.
What I find most interesting/disturbing in all this is that since ABC News confronted Foley with the scandalous internet conversations Friday, the six-term Congressman has resigned, claimed he was an alcoholic and entered rehab, claimed he was a victim of clergy sex abuse and come out of the closet. But as far as I know, he still has not apologized to the children he allegedly victimized, though he apparently takes responsibility for the messages, some of which, his lawyer says, were sent while Foley was under the influence of alcohol. According to ABC News, Foley even took time away from a vote on an Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations bill in 2003 so he could have Internet sex with a former page. I cannot underscore the irony that Foley could be prosecuted under child predator laws he helped create as a crusader against child exploitation during his time in the House of Representatives.
But while we're talking about troubling behavior, let's not let the folks using this for political gain to go unnoticed. I find it disturbing that some Democrats are actually trying to boost their campaigns (well away from Florida's 16th House District, where Foley
served) by citing this as some sort of Republican issue or failure. Just as it was wrong for any Republican a decade ago to claim that another Democrat was unfit because of then President Bill Clinton's infidelities with an intern, it is also wrong to paint Congressional Republicans with such a broad brush. If you want to be mad at House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the rest of the House leadership for the way they handled, mishandled or didn't handle the Foley allegations from the start, that's fair game. But it seems wrong to me to try and sway voters in a North Carolina House race by claiming some sort of malfeasance or guilt by association by the incumbent because he has received money from political committees run by Foley.
Just once it would be nice for the politicians on both sides of aisle to focus on the problem, the victims and punishing the offender (if he is indeed proven guilty according to American standards) instead of trying to use a situation like this for their personal and political gain.
