The Democrats finally have their issue. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned his seat in the House of Representatives on Friday, September 29, after news leaked that he had sexually harassed an underage male Congressional page. Foley repeatedly e-mailed and instant messaged the page, revoltingly asking him to undress, to measure his genitals with a ruler, to list details regarding frequency and method of masturbation, and to tell Foley when he was aroused. "[I'd] love to slip [your shorts] off you . and [grab] the one-eyed snake," Foley messaged the teen.
Why repeat these perverse details? To demonstrate that House Republicans were not simply negligent in failing to investigate allegations regarding Foley's pedophilia -- they were downright malfeasant. When a 16-year-old page informed top House Republicans that Foley had e-mailed him and asked for a picture, the Republicans did nothing. When Republican officials confronted Foley over the e-mails, Foley explained that they were innocent mentoring -- and Republicans did nothing.
Trusting Foley at his word was inexcusable. If Foley had
contacted a female page asking for her picture, there is no doubt he would
have been grilled. House Republicans should have known better than to trust
Foley here. Foley has been accused of closet homosexuality since his entry
into politics; studies show that homosexuals are disproportionately prone to
pedophilia. The fact that Foley had contacted a male page for his photograph
should have set warning bells ringing across Capitol Hill.
But Republicans did nothing. Perhaps it was out of a sincere
hope that Foley was not a closet homosexual; perhaps it was out of a
disreputable hope that Foley's sickening behavior would go unnoticed until
after the 2006 midterm elections. In either case, this information should
have been investigated months ago -- and Foley should already be sitting in
a jail cell.
Democrats are surely correct to bludgeon House Republicans with
the Foley scandal. Nonetheless, their outrage seems somewhat incongruous
when we take into account their moral belief system. House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who labeled House Republicans' behavior here
"abhorrent," is a vocal opponent of parental consent laws with regard to
abortions for underage girls. This is the same Democratic Party that
repeatedly endorsed homosexual page-molester Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA), even
after his affair with a 17-year-old male page had been revealed. This is the
same party that consistently defended Bill Clinton, calling his affair with
White House intern Monica Lewinsky a private matter.
Democrats cannot condemn Foley for his proclivity for
16-year-old boys; they are the party that supports both homosexuality and
reduced age of consent. Democrats cannot condemn Foley for his exploitation
of Capitol Hill employees; they are the party that calls such exploitative
imbalance-of-power situations "matters of personal choice."
On what moral basis do Democrats condemn Foley? They have no basis for moral
outrage, since they have championed the destruction of traditional morality
for decades. Instead, they condemn Foley and the Republicans for hypocrisy.
Foley, when he wasn't spending his time molesting teenage boys, pushed for
legislation to crack down on child pornography. House Republicans, when they
weren't busy ignoring Foley's scummy behavior, pushed for legislation to
uphold traditional values. The big sin here, according to the social left,
is that Foley and the Republicans tried to bolster antiquated sexual mores
while simultaneously bucking them in personal life. Were Mark Foley a
liberal Democrat from San Francisco, liberals would be hard-pressed to spot
a problem with his behavior.
But Republicans should not have been. The Republican Party is
the party supposedly dedicated to those antiquated value systems that made
this country great. It should not have been difficult for Republicans to
identify the problems with Foley's behavior: pedophilia, exploitation, and
yes, homosexuality. And yet, because the Republican Party has become
infected with either the unchecked will to power or the milquetoast
tolerance of the social left, House Republicans did nothing. Shame on them.
Ben Shapiro, 21, is a graduate of UCLA and a student at Harvard
Law School. He is also the author of the recently published "Porn
Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future" as well as the
national best seller "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's
Youth." To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate
website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
