Here's a question for you: now that Mark Foley has caused such a stir, does anyone remember Jack Abramoff? Or, more to the point, does anyone care about Jack Abramoff, and his misadventures with the White House?.
Last week, a congressional report was scheduled to be released that confirms "hundreds of contacts between the White House and the now disgraced Abramoff and his colleagues" including nearly 100 with the president's right hand, Karl Rove. (LA Times) With all the fuss and focus on e-mails and instant messages sent by a Florida congressman to an underaged male page, nobody seems to have noticed the findings of a report by the House Government Reform Committee which comes after scrutiny of no fewer than "14,000 pages of e-mails and other documents obtained from Abramoff's law firm" that document that the fallen lobbyist had 400 contacts with Bush's inner circle between 2001 and 2004. (LA Times).
Capping their months' long investigation by the Republican-controlled House, the report offers "an unusually detailed glimpse into a sordid subculture of fraud and attempted influence peddling." (LAT) Indeed, but who cares about a "sordid subculture" that tries to corrupt, subvert, and buy elections when we have more captivating "sordid," and salacious things to contemplate, and salivate over, like an attempted seduction in cyberspace,
Yes, yes, yes, instant messaging 16 year old boys is scandalous, and in this land founded, and peopled, by card-carrying Puritans, one is not at all surprised that the corruption that gets the most spin is the kind that sells the most newspapers.
But think about this for a minute: this entire Foley debacle has managed to deflect attention away from the crucial disclosure of irrefutable evidence that this president lied about his acquaintance with Jumping Jack Abramoff... why isn't anyone talking about that? And, more importantly, why is the Democratic Party sitting on its hands and allowing the Repugs to manipulate what this country will, and will not, talk about only weeks before a critical election? Once again, the Republicans have stolen the ball, and are working overtime to make it to home base.
http://ladyjaynestahl.blogspot.com
Widely published, poet, playwright, essayist, and screenwriter; member of PEN American Center, and PEN USA. Jayne Lyn Stahl is a Huffington Post blogger.
I have not forgotten the Abramoff scandal. As a matter of fact, I recall seeing a few reports on it, both on CNN and on the ABC national news. I don't think anyone will soon forget that scandal.
I believe personally that the scandal involving now ex-Rep Foley could wind up being the log jam breaker as far as the scandal-ridden Republican controlled congress is concerned. The cries for the resignation of Hassert are coming loudest from the conservatives, not from the Democrats. The Religious Reich has their panties in a serious bunch.
Also, pedophilia, even if it wasn't ever consumated physically, is incredibly distasteful to almost all Americans. Furthermore, sex scandals ALWAYS get people's attention! Part of it is because of the "puritan" roots of our country. Another part of it is people can never get enough of drooling over the sexual conduct of others. As most advertisers will tell you, "sex sells!" It also gets our attention like nothing else.
So, don't be too upset. Abramoff is still there on the back burner. He isn't going anywhere, and neither are the reports of his misdeeds. Perhaps the newest iteration of pages as playthings will be the surge in the gas line that lights the fires under all those other issues on the back burner.
You can bet America is going to be watching the news like never before so they can get their daily fix of revulsion and titillation over the Foley sex scandal. That might wind up being a very good thing for a turnover of congress this November.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 2:29:25 AM
Actually, literally from the greek, pedo means children, philia means love, ergo literally the word means "child love". One can be a pedophile and never act out on the impulse, either from fear of retribution or shame over their impulses. The desire remains whether or not the act is carried out.
By your arguement, you smash the idea of sexual harrassment to bits. How many women have had to face leering, inuendo, sexually explicit talk, or other things that do not cross the line into physicallity, yet claim harrassment? What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
Whether or not you see harrassing emails as consumation isn't the issue. The law not only covers actual acts of pedophilia, but also enticement to pedophilia by means of the internet. Yes, it's a fantasy, but by he definition of the law Foley helped create, he has engaged in criminal action. That point cannot and should not be disputed.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Wednesday, October 4, 2006 at 4:24:10 AM
Do you remember the "Willie Horton" commercials Bush the First put out in the '88 election showing iron bars of people Micheal Dekaukis pardoned? They ran every day and night here. The Democrats need to go back, use that same political hit ad, and show Abrahamoff, Cunningham, Delay, Nay and Foley as the new Willie Horton. As the iron bars are slammed shut in that graphic prison door sound on each one, the words written and spoken should be, "Had enough yet" with the Republican candidate's picture shutting behind iron bars ending with soothing words from the Democrat running for office. As long as Democrats play by the rules dealing with issues of importance and the Republicans play by Bush the Second's rules, the Democrats will never win.
I believe the Republicans came to power mainly because of the Civil Rights issues and the busing issues of the fifties and sixties. Democrats were responsible for allowing those "Blacks" to integrate our military, our schools, run for political office, drink out of the same fountains, sit in the same restaurants, use the same potties. The arch conservative right wing Dixie Crats fled the Democrat Party by the hundreds of thousand to the Republican Party. These Southern Democrats were Republicans all along, but after FDR no Republican could be elected. They changed to the Democrat Party but were never true Democrats and opposed the Democrats from within the Party until the final break in '68, not because of Vietnam but because of Johnson's War on Poverty with the passing of Medicare and Medicaid. The porn, drugs and Vietnam were just salve for their conscience as they fled to suburbs to get away from "them downtown blacks." Most of them did not use the word, "black" in private.
I think if the Democrats play this right it could very well bring the true middle class white back into the Democrat Party for the next twenty-five years. This is a combination of moral values and economic distress for the average American combined with the lying and denial of what has taken and is taking place in the Middle East.
Phil.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments)
on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 7:19:08 PM
