Sex Scandal is a Human Problem

What Representative Mark Foley did is disgusting; it’s reprehensible; it’s sleazy, and it’s immoral. It should not have happened, and his resignation was the right thing. He has no business representing the people of Florida’s Sixteenth Congressional District. If he is found to have broken the law, then he should also be prosecuted.

Having made that clear, let me make this clear as well: the democrats’ attempt to exploit the Foley scandal for political gain is also disgusting.

News of Foley’s e-mails and text messages became public barely over a month before an important mid-term election, even though the e-mails and text messages were written three years ago. Within hours, leading democrats were already accusing republicans of knowing about the messages and participating in a cover-up. They were almost immediately demanding the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Even if Republicans were complicit in a cover-up, how would democrats know about that within hours of the story breaking? They wouldn’t unless, well before the story broke, they also knew about the Foley messages and cover-up, which would mean that they, too, were guilty of keeping quiet.

Furthermore, the hypocrisy of democrats condemning Republicans for a sex scandal is astounding. The democrats have had more than their share of sex scandals.

1978 - Democrat Rep. Fred Richmond was arrested for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old. He remained in Congress and won re-election before eventually resigning in 1982 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and drug possession.

1983 -Democrat Rep. Gerry Studds had sex with a 17-year-old male page. He was censured by the House, but when the censure was read, Studds turned his back on the Speaker and ignored him. He was subsequently re-elected for five more terms.

1989 -Democrat Rep. Barney Frank admitted that he had lived with male prostitute Steve Gobie who ran a gay sex-for-hire ring out of Frank's apartment. It was later discovered that Frank had used his position to fix 33 parking tickets for Gobie. Frank is still a Democrat member of Congress today.

1994 -Democrat Rep. Mel Reynolds was indicted for sexual relations with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer. He denied the charges, claiming they were racially motivated; continued his campaign; and was re-elected in November of 1994. In August of 1995, he was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault and was sentenced to five years in prison. Reynolds was later convicted on 15 counts of bank fraud and sentenced to an additional 6 ½ years in federal prison. However, after Reynolds had served 42 months on the bank fraud conviction, President Clinton commuted the remainder of his sentence.

1995-1998 –Two names: Clinton - Lewinsky.

Understand, the point is not to dismiss what Foley did as OK just because democrats do it too; the point is that democrats are trying to paint this as a republican problem, which it is not. It's also not a democrat problem. It’s a human problem. And for democrats to try to paint it as anything else is outrageous.