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Opinion

Dems to blame for Foley scandal

Explaining "Scourge & Minister," intentions

Enjoying time with friends and family

Stating the obvious...

Dems to blame for Foley scandal

Republican party justified in pointing fingers at the Democrats

"J'accuse...!"
Bradley Hart

I WAS PLEASED TO see last week the GOP has decided to start hitting back at the Democrats for their hypocrisy in the case of Rep. Mark Foley.


Foley, as you’ll recall, was the U.S. Representative that resigned several weeks ago after suggestive e-mails and downright dirty instant message logs were made public.


Since then evidence has emerged that some members of the House Republican leadership may have known about Foley’s “page problem” previously — possibly as far back as 2000 or 2001.


But, as I argued at the time, it’s clear that Foley was just doing his job by sending such messages to underage boys.


As the head of the House’s Missing and Exploited Children caucus it seems obvious that he was simply doing research on Internet predators by becoming one himself.


Now it seems that Foley’s page problem might have been real — but don’t let that make you think less of the man.


In fact, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see House Majority Leader John Boehner lay the blame for the Foley case squarely where it belongs — on the Democratic Party.


It’s true that Foley is himself a Republican (despite how Fox News identified him several times with its on-screen graphics) — as is the leadership of the House of Representatives, as well as the Senate, White House and, well, everything else that matters.


But don’t let those pesky little facts get in the way of your ideological inclination to blame the godless liberals for every bad thing that happens.


As Boehner told a political gathering on Friday, it’s clear that the Democrats endangered the Congressional pages by learning about Foley’s e-mails and using them for political gain.


“Someone who had this information allowed those 16-year-old pages to be at risk while they were playing their political games,” said Boehner, according to the Associated Press. “I do not believe thus far that Republicans knew about these sexually explicit instant messages.”


You see, as Boehner says, this scandal is very easy to understand and rationalize.


Sure, Foley was the one who sent the e-mails and instant messages and it’s the Republicans who are the ones in charge of the House of Representatives.


But let’s not let reality get in the way of our beliefs.


Clearly, as Boehner so wonderfully articulated, the Democrats are to blame for the whole thing because they not only tried to capitalize politically on a scandal within the other party, but they also failed to call attention to the e-mails and messages they knew about.


Except when they did try to do that by capitalizing on them. So there — it’s the Democrats’ fault. The logic is irrefutable.


I, like Boehner, am disgusted by this blatant abuse of the institution of Congress.


The opposition party is clearly responsible for any bad things that ever happen to those poor pages — who may or may not have been trying to bait Foley into it in the first place.


I’ll bet the whole lot of them are 16-year-old Democratic Party activists trying to advance their agenda of appeasement with terrorists and mandatory abortions.


Poor Representative Foley is now languishing in rehab for alcoholism after these brutal political ploys.


If I were a Republican Congressman seeking reelection this year I’d be hammering the Democrats for exactly this abuse of power.


It’s obvious, as I’m sure Boehner would be happy to tell us that Foley, that great American protector of children, is the real victim here.


If we can’t trust the opposition party to protect young and vulnerable pages from the abuses of the majority party’s members, how can we trust them to protect America?


The answer, of course, is that we clearly cannot trust the San Francisco liberals like Nancy Pelosi to take keep our children from harm. Did I mention that she’s from San Francisco? That fact alone should disqualify her from public office. We all know what people from San Francisco are like.


And that’s why I refuse to let your so-called “facts” and “evidence” sway my belief that the Democrats are to blame for not only this scandal but also every other bad thing that has ever happened to the country including the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Hurricane Andrew and the 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire.
So there.

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