Foley, Pages, And Capitol Hill Republicans Speak a Whole Different Language

The Mark Foley scandal - and, as you may have read in The New Republic, it may be a case of Karl Rove "blackmailing" Foley to run for re-election in Florida when Foley wanted to leave and become a lobbyist - is one of those (and I hate the insipid nature of this book and over-simplification here but ...) cases of "Republicans Are From Mars (armchair warriors) and everybody else is from Venus. We speak a whole different language.

While the rest of America sits back and thinks what Foley did with the pages was wrong, the far-right and those who just like to spew the Bush White House's talking points seem able to justify Foley's behavior with the pages and only take exception and fault as illegal (in the name of God, no less) Foley being gay.

This is not a point to underestimate either.

Thankfully, there are a few exceptions. There's a righter radio host named Michael Smerconish who, on Joe Scarborough (Country) last night - and man, I hate citing Joe - who laid it out fine. The problem isn't that Foley is gay. The problem is he went after underage young males who usually did not return his sexual interest, regardless of little bits of trivia like how the District of Columbia views the age of consent at 16 while Foley's Florida says 18.

This is a long way around both making my point on the gap (Grand Canyon sized) between the Bush GOP and everyone else, as well as to point you to a New Republic piece by Jon Chait on how the Foley scandal has nothing on real GOP corruption.

Oops, there is also Michele Cottle's piece on whether the Foley Scandal is the much-expected October Surprise.

However, the answer to that is no. An October surprise, by definition, is typically a dark scandal or moral debacle put together by one group to use against another. The Foley Scandal isn't something the Dems dreamed up, nor have they promoted it all that loudly.

To think Foley was the October Surprise would mean - and I think this story will end up much larger - you could call David Kuo's book, "Tempting Faith" an October Surprise. Once again, however, this is a case of the current Washington GOP (and no, I don't believe all or even the majority of Republicans are like the current Washington crop) imploding itself again since they've been too cocky for too long.

While you're at it, check out this final TNR piece about how Karl Rove will try to destroy David Kuo, the Bushies #2 man in the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and a vetted conservative Christian.