It’s rather pathetic to watch the right wing pundits try to spin the Foley mess as a Democratic foible.
Jonah Goldberg asks: “Where was the left’s furor over the Clinton sex scandals of the ’90s?”, claiming that Democrats are being a bunch of hypocrites.
Well, Jonah — the Democrats DID had furor over the Clinton sex scandal in the 1990’s, but we also had prespective. What Clinton did with a consenting adult is hardly comparable to what Foley did with underage minors. Get the difference. Attempts to equate the two, as if they are moral (not mention legal) equivalents is sheer desparation.
One theme that runs through rightwingers op-eds is the fact that Foley was gay, as if that was the issue. Well, perhaps it is an issue for the GOP, no friend to the gay population. But for the rest of us, the issue is pedophilia, something which is gender-neutral.
The key sentence in Goldberg’s piece is this:
What liberals don’t understand is that social conservatives actually believe their moral rhetoric, even when it’s politically inconvenient.
Really, Jonah?? Because that’s at the heart of the controversy. Social conservatives DON’T follow their moral rhetoric, especially when it’s politically inconvenient. If that were so, then Hastert would have dealt with the Foley issue when the facts were presented to him.
And it wasn’t too long ago that you, Jonah, and others wanted Tom Foley to keep his leadership role, even though he was fucking indicted. So don’t breach that your politics doesn’t influence your sense of moral outrage.
But the best attempt in trying to spin this against the Democrats comes from none other than Ann Coulter, whose headline says it all: “Who Knew Congressman Foley Was A Closeted Democrat?“? Nice try, Ann. But the Foley scandal (not only Foley himself, but the failure to deal with it) are GOP problems. And, by the way, Ann — it’s not that Foley is gay (that’s YOUR prejudice, Ann, not Democrats) — it’s that he was a pedophile. Got it?
UPDATE:? Greg Sargant: Wingnuts Have New Theory On Who’s Behind Foleygate: The Clintons
Greg is absolutely correct, the Republicans and their sad little sycophants are completely tone deaf on the Foley scandal. I caught a bit of Hannity’s show yesterday, during which a caller who seemed generally sympathetic to the conservative world view tried to explain to Hannity that pedophilia is not a Republican value. Hannity continued to defend Hastert, like the good little soldier he is, continually reiterating yesterday’s talking points — that Hastert never saw the more explicit IMs, never even saw the emails — all he knew was that Foley was sending “overly friendly” emails to a page whose family was disturbed by this and asked him to stop. The caller tried to point out that knowledge of a fifty-something congressman sending “overly friendly” emails to a teenager should have been all Hastert needed to know, but Hannity was having none of it. I just don’t see it and hey, what about this unrelated thing a Democrat did once? Yadda yadda yadda.
It’s really quite astonishing, that they think they can win this one with arguments like that. That they imagine parents across America will say to themselves, heck, what’s the big deal about an overly friendly email? Of course, I’ve certainly been astonished in the past, by the things they can apparently get away with. But when it comes to something so basic as an older man in a position of authority who’s supposed to be protecting teenagers but is instead hitting up on them, I find it hard to believe that most people are going to be swayed by a nitpicky little argument about the difference between instant messages and email.
Purely from a strategic standpoint, if ever there was a time to just toss in the towel and admit your guys fucked up, this is certainly it.
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