Rusted Sky

Damn.

The Blotter

Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages.

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.

First - Foley's out of office. That's good. That's the right thing to do. He did this sort of crap, he doesn't deserve to be in office. And that's as far as it needs to go. All Hastert had to go on were some suggestive e-mails - not IMs. (and it does make you wonder - where were the IMs all this time? Who'd keep a copy of them, and NOT turn them in? Someone waiting to use this for blackmail? Someone planning on using this for political purposes?) and he told Foley to keep his hands off the kids based on the Emails. If he wasn't aware of the IMs, I don't see why Hastert should resign. Oddly enough, Congress is full of adults - and adults are responsible for their own behavior. That Foley was behaving badly, got called on it (and I presume was told not to do it again, only he did in secret) was what Hastert was supposed to do. When Foley did the IM thing, there was no reasonable way to expect Hastert to know about it. But that Foley interrupted a vote to go pull his pud over IMs - damn, that's sleazy. Good riddence to the man. If Hastert knew about the IMs, then bounce him out also.

Second - if the kids were 16 or above, in DC that's good enough, they were old enough for consensual sex. THAT doesn't excuse his actions, and doesn't make it right by any means. This is a classic case of misuse of power for sexual purposes (IMHO) and his providing booze (and maybe other things) WAS illegal as hell. As such, I don't care if he's an alcoholic and goes into rehab (hey, it works for damn near everyone else caught with their pants down in Washington, or a celebrity doing something stupid - go into rehab and all's supposed to be forgiven) I want to have them indict and prosecute his ass.

Third: We seem willing (at least some are) to give a pass to reprehensible behavior based on our political affiliations. Personally, I think Foley should have been tossed out ASAP when the original emails occured. Frankly, I'd like to see a house cleaning by BOTH parties, though I know that's not going to happen. Too many of the senior 'statesmen' on both parties have crap in their histories that would get them booted out. I'd love to see a tightening of standards, and as I said, it needs to come from both sides. No fingerpointing, no hysterics - just quiet withdrawls and resignations, from both sides.

Jay Tea's summary of things over at Wizbangblog pretty well sums it up for me.

Foley: Rot in hell, you sick bastard. I don't care if you actually broke the letter of the law or not.

Hastert and the rest of the House leadership: Shame on you for not keeping a closer eye on him. But if you had access to the Instant Messages, then to hell with you, too.

The "get Hastert" people: Unless you have solid evidence that they knew about the Instant Messages, shut your pieholes, you partisan hacks.

The people who exposed Foley: You have our thanks. But if you sat on that information for one minute longer than necessary, just to further your own political ends, then you're almost as guilty as Foley, and ought to rot in hell, too.

Update: Looks like the page was 17/18. Doesn't make it any more right, but it does make it a bit more legal. Still, I'm not sorry to see Foley go.

J.