Comments on Mark Foley & Me
"Altar boy" is a good comp. The RNC and the Vatican have identical approaches. They knew but covered it up, and are denying that it's a systemic problem. It IS a systemic problem. That's why we need never fear the end of creepy, hypocritical Republican sex scandals, until the day that sexuality becomes permissible in Republican ideology.
I think writer Cenk Uygur summed it up best:
"They left Foley in charge of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus. Come on!
If you put it in a movie about a corrupt Congress, I wouldn't believe it. It's too over the top. You'd walk out of the theater saying, "That's too much. No one would do that." Apparently they would and they did.
Remember this is the same Republicans who spent 140 hours investigating Bill Clinton's Christmas card list. I'm not kidding. They even started an investigation into his cat. If you put it in a movie, no one would believe it.
Not one investigation into what's gone wrong with the war in Iraq, the $9 billion dollars missing in Iraq, why a CIA agent's name was leaked, why Osama bin Laden hasn't been caught or any of the corruption scandals. But they spent 140 hours on the Clinton Christmas list (it turns out they were just Christmas cards, in case you were wondering). They're not even trying to appear fair. They think there's nothing you won't let them do. They're in charge and they can get away with anything."
Drudge is blaming the victims. I kid you not. "They are egging him on" "These are not innocent babies"
I'm jealous. You were referred to as a "militant homosexual" and a "purveyor of filth" in the comments of the link to your NYT column. Thank you for being willing to be a target. I hope more of us get the chance to join you at the whipping post, Dan. We all need to raise our voices.
Foley is out of his mind (apparently) and I am holding my breath waiting for him to come out of the closet. He might as well do it now. That would frost the cake for the Republicans. They can blame it all on homos.
Whatever political gain the Democrats capitalize on (as they try to keep it respectfully quiet), I fear the backlash (figuratively or literally) this will unleash on those of us that are out. Assuming he does consider himself a homosexual, he chose to keep it quiet to advance his career. What do the people who call Savage a militant homosexual think about guys like Foley?
After his alcohol "rehab" (whatever...) he will start writing the book and then he'll join Jim McGreevy on the tour to promote his memoir.
Their sexcapades are dissimilar, but their opportunism is frighteningly unsurprising and a result of America's sexual cravenness.
These former congressional pages are clearly traitors who hate Amerika.
Now it's up to the brave, Christian Republican voters to make sure that every member of the party led by their god, Jesus W Bush, is not only re-elected, but dipped in gold and worshipped. No doubt they will be speaking in tongues as they dark the oval next to the (R) on the scantron ballot.
Supplicate yourselves!
All hail Big Bush!
PS - Pope John Paul II also blamed the victims. Nice.
Disgusting filth like the book Lolita are to blame for this crap. Straight men get off reading about underage sex. Gay men get off writing e-mails to young boys.
Ancient Rome fell because of all the man-boy sex. Dan Savage you're the only one in Seattle with guts enough to speak out against the perverts who read and dream about sex with teenagers.
when did they start getting called STI's instead of STD's? it seems like, until very recently, i've never heard this.
Damn, that comments thread makes me want to crawl in a hole and die. Or live in a city of robots. Humans sure suck.
Dan >going back to your first point about "what would they do if it were BC?"...At every disaster, I used to think, "this is it. People can't ignore Bush's BS after THIS!" Especially after Katrina.
But here we are. 2700+ lives lost in Iraq, the Lower 9th still fucked, and NO ONE seems to mind.
Thinking back to the witch hunt that was BC's last term blows my mind. Are we ever going to change this course?
STDs became STIs because having a "disease" is less stigmatizing than having an "infection". Apparently.
Humans don't suck, Noink. Free Republic commenters do. Big difference.
that's a stupid reason. std rolls off the tongue much better.
Teenagers are not children. The law says as much in almost all countries where age of consent is typically 14-16. The indidividual states as well have lower ages of consent than the federal govt uses to define a “minor” for internet/telephone contact. Even in DC, age of consent is 16.
Get over it.
Actually Foley has not committed a crime because the age of consent in District of Columbia is 16. Furthermore, the page in question was not in his employ, so sexual harassment is not a probably charge either.
Oh... well then, Jude... I suppose what Foley did was okay. Thanks for straightening things out.
Yes, 16 is legal in DC, but it is NOT legal no matter where you are according the internet protection legislation which Mark Foley WROTE. What a boob.
Personally I never switched to "STD" from "venereal disease", which is so much more Gothic and Olde-Worlde Catholic sounding. Ah, Venus, the warmth hidden in my veins.
Keenan?
I'm straight, and when questioned in person I deliberately refuse to reveal which way I swing.
You know, Dan, I used to walk to work passing directly by The Stranger's office, and I'd occasionally see you walking by, scruffy and carrying a cup of coffee. You spoke at my Gay and Lesbian Studies class when I was in college. I thought you were pretty damned hot. I think if you were skeevy enough to take up those offers, you wouldn't get rejections when they saw the real deal.
Still, I'm glad you're smart enough not to indulge any temptations that are e-mailed your way. It makes you much, much, much smarter than Foley.
Well, AOC is 16 in DC? That sure is a inch of rope... I sure hope more repubs try that justification, Matt Drudge seems to be the vanguard of the movement...but even an inch is enough to hang oneself when justifying pedophilia (that AOC thingy is pretty much what NAMBLA advocates, and look at how respected that Political Action Committee is across the board).
Really, not many people give a flying shit about peds to begin with and with a violation of public trust, well, it will be interesting to watch.
The October Surprise might be all those ships heading to the Persian Gulf. But that's off topic.
Best Slog posting ever. Thanks Dan.
When I was in the Junior Homo League, I pined for plenty of men in their 40s--and was lucky enough to be turned down, gently, by most of them. They set a great example, which is particularly valuable now that I'm on the verge of 40 myself.
I think everyone is missing the bigger picture here: Savage actually referred to himself as "middle-aged." Pretty presumptuous for a 27-year-old.
I'm sure it was unintentional, Paulus. Dan was trying so hard not to claim credit for the Scissor Sisters' shows tonight and tomorrow that he forgot to lie about his age.
Foley is a pedophile. He preys on kids. He is abusing them via an imbalance of power, i.e., he's a fifty-something male, they are young teens, who even if they aregetting interested in sex, really don't have much of a clue about it. Beasts, indeed. Foley is the hoary old beast here.
That isn't homosexuality, it's pederasty. About wanting to stick your viagra-stoked pole into some young thing's hole, real or virtual.
And if anyone dares to defend Foley on this, and you have children, I want you to imagine them being skewered by some shit like that.
A Log Cabin Repug favorite goes down (no pun intended!). Where's the Gay Proud Repuglican now??
My response to this post, Dan, is: well, duh!
After 6 years of a Bush and Rove, does anyone really pretend anymore that right-wing logic is at all logical, or that they apply principles in a fair and consistent mannger? The only principle underlying all of their efforts is do whatever it takes to gain power.
To that end, they are far more consistent and logical then the left.
Where's Dateline when you need it?
dan, you make a good point about how hypocritical the radical right's claims are in regards to homo "conversions" to straightness, one that had never occurred to me: of course they don't want their own daughter to marry one, because they don't trust such "conversions." and actually, this test works in other contexts as well. remember michael moore's experiment asking members of congress if they had their own kids in the military fighting in iraq?
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