A Big Scoop of Schadenfreude
The Republicans start an unwinnable war against the wrong country, bankrupt this country, wipe their asses with the Bill of Rights, and ultimately a sex scandal is what will bring them down?
The wingnuts are in full spin mode - Tony Snow says Predatorgate is nothing more than "naughty emails." Our favorite wankers at The American Thinker are nearly incoherent with fear. Over at Fox, Brit Hume invoked the memory of Bill Clinton to try to make you forget that Foley is a Republican. The Tyrannosaurus of Turpitude is nearly apoplectic and has lashed out against, you guessed it, the messenger. Greenwald sez:
Whenever someone exposes wrongdoing on the part of Beltway Republicans, their reaction has been to attack and threaten those who expose the wrongdoing. When Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill published a book with Ron Suskind which revealed that the administration was planning to attack Iraq long before 9/11, they began immediately threatening O'Neill with a criminal investigation over documents they claimed he improperly took. When The New York Times exposed the President's illegal eavesdropping, they threatened a criminal investigation of the reporters and editors who published the story. And now Hastert is attempting to depict as the real criminals those who exposed the conduct of the House GOP leaders in the Foley scandal.
Too late. Denny, Boehner, and the boys knew about this for quite a while (and are busily covering that up) - they not only deserve to lose their leadership positions, they deserve to lose their seats. Donate to Hastert's opponent here, and Boehner's here.
Bonus schadenfreude: ThinkProgress has a Foley Coverup Timeline. Atrios has more "naughty emails." And Greenwald explains why Foley's conduct may (or may not) have been illegal and why that's not that important - the GOP's failure to stop Foley is the issue. Petrellis has a photo that's just creepy.
I see where you are coming from. Although pedophilia is an important crime, the gutting of the US Constitution is more important in the long run to more people (all of us), yet gets far less exposure. But I'll gladly take any course available to get rid of the ruling regime.
Posted by: Miss Cellania | October 02, 2006 at 10:33 AM
Personally, Freude, MissC, I think they go hand-in-hand (no pun intended and you can refer to my blog for an explanation).
Posted by: actor212 | October 02, 2006 at 10:42 AM
Although pedophilia is an important crime ...
Interestingly, this is one thing that Foley didn't do - Greenwald explains that the sex act that Foley, er, was trying to arrange would not have been illegal in DC. I linked to a later post of his that discusses whether the solicitation is illegal under federal law (maybe yes, maybe no) and why that's not the real issue.
Posted by: blogenfreude | October 02, 2006 at 10:57 AM
Wouldn't it figure that things that are ILLEGAL in the rest of the country are NOT in DC! I wonder WHO can arrange that sort of thing? OK OK, but wasn't it Foley who pushed through a "lewd messages to minors on the internet" law? Even if he can wiggle out of that, the entire lot of them should be called on the carpet for endangering a minor (probably more than one).
Posted by: Miss Cellania | October 02, 2006 at 11:05 AM
Criminals...One and All.
Predators...One and All.
Liars...One and All.
GOP...Almost to the One.
November is getting more interesting every day!
Posted by: gary | October 02, 2006 at 12:56 PM
MissC,
Pedophilia is illegal in DC.
The page, however, was above the age of legal consent, which in DC is older than in many states.
Posted by: actor212 | October 02, 2006 at 01:20 PM
Woot! Drudge blames the pages!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/02/matt-drudge-blames-the-kids-for-predatorgate-they-are-16-and-17-year-old-beasts/
Posted by: blogenfreude | October 02, 2006 at 01:23 PM
ahahahahahahahhahah!!!
Posted by: Fred | October 02, 2006 at 01:31 PM
Foley's behavior is that of an experienced sexual predator of minors who knows full well how to groom his prey to become his victims.
Bad thing is that no one has confiscated his computer; rather, they've given him days and days to scrub it.
Wonder what Denny Hastert and Closet Cupcake Karl do for fun?
Posted by: No Blood for Hubris | October 02, 2006 at 06:46 PM
A little research has revealed that Mr. Foley was a Democrat before he switched parties. Now, if one agrees that it is unlikely that he developed his attraction to young boys during his relatively short (since 1994) time in office, it follows that Foley was a pedophile while still a Democrat.
Thus, simple logic demands that this is all Bill Clinton's fault!
Posted by: Rex Kramer, Danger Seeker | October 02, 2006 at 07:14 PM
actor212, the law which applies here is the Internet Perdator law. That means if an individual is over18 you can say anything but if UNDER 18 is a felony. And Foley was one of the laws sponsers. Talk about irony.
Posted by: druidbros | October 03, 2006 at 04:53 AM
Karma can be a mean bitch, can't she? They took us to hell and now they are in it too.
No big old pile of excuses and bullshit will make this go away.
Posted by: pissed off patricia | October 03, 2006 at 05:10 AM
True Druid and the irony is amazing.
Posted by: actor212 | October 03, 2006 at 08:36 AM
I'm enjoying this like nobody's business. Can you imagine the scrambling and the finger-pointing and the huffing and puffing, the shredder must be working OT and you just know the valium's being passed around.
HAW!
Posted by: HelenWheels | October 03, 2006 at 09:32 AM
The devil rebuking sin. Anchor.
Posted by: Anchor | October 27, 2006 at 10:34 AM