Monday Blogroll: Naughty E-mails Edition

From the Department of Abu Ghraib Was Like Harmless Fraternity Hazing, we now get Tony Snow’s response to the creepy Mark Foley story was “simply naughty e-mails.” And apparently as far back as 4-5 years ago, incoming pages were warned about Foley’s creepy behavior and just told not to “get too wrapped up in” it (h/t Atrios). I guess this is the Republican definition of boys being boys. Jane at FDL has more on this. So does Steve Soto. So does Greenwald, including this credit-where-it’s-due blurb about Pelosi:

Credit to Nancy Pelosi, who sees exactly what Hastert is up to and is emphatically pointing it out, just as she (and the media) should be doing: "Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for Ms. Pelosi, said Mr. Hastert seemed 'more concerned by who revealed the Republican leadership’s cover-up of Mr. Foley’s Internet stalking” than about the pages.'"

Meanwhile, TBogg defends Hastert (or something):

So, in the interest of bipartisan across-the-aisle reaching-arrounding, I thought I would remind everyone that, prior to assuming a position that puts him a few heartbeats away from the presidency (those being the erratic systolic and diastolic surgings of Dick Cheney; not that his own cholesterol-clogged waterways would offer a Fantastic Voyage-like flume ride), Dennis Hastert was a high school wrestling coach who once led the Yorkville High School Foxes to the Illinois State Wrestling Championship (you can look it up). To Denny, the sight of a grown man tussling with the firm supple scantily-clad body of a young man, his body covered in a sheen of perspiration, heart-racing, turgid with fear and excitement and possibly desire --- is probably as natural as those late night phone calls from a sobbing Ken Mehlman who has just watched Morte a Venezia for the umpteenth time.

And meanwhile, it goes without saying, really, that Foley happened to be the Republican pointman for sexual predator provisions. As Billmon points out:

Collectively, all these coincidences have given a whole new national meaning to the phrase "in the closet." Congressman Foley, it seems, had a foot in both.

I really don’t get this series of talking points. When Livingston resigned as Speaker of the House for trying to prosecute Bill Clinton for having an affair while having an affair, they pretty much just swept his name under the rug and never mentioned him again. But instead of sweeping Foley under the rug and changing the subject whenever possible, they’re admitting that they knew about this creepy habit years ago and just didn’t think it was serious enough to tell anybody about it. How can anybody vote for a party that professes to be the party of morals and family values when the leaders they elect have, among thousands of other issues, a creepy tendency to hit on young boys...while other members of the party have an almost creepier tendency to just ignore it? Have I said “creepy” enough here?

Gadflyer summarizes nicely:

This is, very simply, emblematic of the current state of the GOP, a once proud party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt that has devolved into an elected membership comprised of racists, criminals, self-haters and perverts. Am I exaggerating? I think not.

I'll leave the Neo-Confederates such as George Allen and the Abramoffers such as Bob Ney for another column. Let's just talk about the latter two categories. Former Representative Ed Schrock of Virginia, who sponsored anti-gay legislation in the House, was caught in 2004 making calls to a homosexual phone-sex operation. He then resigned without comment much like Foley. Hate yourself much Ed?

See Mayor Jim West of Spokane for a very similar story to the one currently bedeviling poor Mark Foley, who was still Chairing the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited children as of last week.

You want to find adultery among these miscreant moralizers? Why go no further then Pennsylvania Representative Don Sherwood, who thought it wasn't good enough to just cheat on his wife with a women in her 20s (he's in his 60s), but decided to try and choke her for extra credit. Or Representative Steve LaTourette of Ohio, who didn't only cheat on his wife of 28 years with an aide, but set her up with a nice little shop that lobbied a committe on which he sat (Transportation). The piles of money she made was helpful though, as it most likely helped pay his rent as she was living with him.

And because everything ends up getting tied to Missouri somehow (h/t Fired Up!)...