Media/Democrats Trying To Bash Entire GOP Party With Foley Mess
As I’ve stated before, I really don’t think this matter with Foley necessarily reflects poorly on anyone outside of Foley himself. As much as the Democrats and their allies in the media might want to blow this up into some giant Republican scandal, I just don’t think the actions one Republican politician can be used to criticize the GOP as a whole.
Here’s why:
- What he did wasn’t illegal. In Washington D.C. the age of consent is 16.
- The boy’s parents contacted Republican leadership in Congress to alert them of the problem, but didn’t want the matter to go any further than that.
Given that Foley didn’t break any laws, and that the boy’s family didn’t want the matter to go any further, what could Republican leadership have done? I’m positive they were probably a bit mortified and creeped out by their colleague’s leisure-time activities, but outside of getting him to stop bugging this kid what were they going to do? Ask him to resign? That would have gone against the family’s wishes who just wanted the incident to be over.
And let’s not forget that this sordid incident isn’t all that different from Bill Clinton getting a hummer in the oval office. Both instances involved inappropriate, but completely legal, sexual contact (in Clinton’s case physical, in Foley’s case simply electronic) between a politician and a subordinate. In Clinton’s case Democrats defended this inappropriate infidelity. In Foley’s case, he immediately resigned.
I’m not going to defend what Foley did. I find it repugnant. But neither am I going to sit idly by and watch Democrats try to turn this into a campaign issue. That’s just plain ridiculous.
