Teenagers all over America are clamoring to become… congressional pages?
In September, news broke that [Mark] Foley, a Florida Republican, had sent sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages to a male former page in 2005. Foley immediately resigned, and House Republican leaders came under fire for not taking any action…. House Democrats demanded an investigation, and a handful of Congress members called for the page program’s immediate suspension….Six months later, the Democrats have taken over Congress and a House Ethics Committee investigation concluded that Republican leaders did not break any rules in handling Foley’s actions toward the pages. Not only does the House page program remain intact, it has received a record number of applications since the Foley scandal broke, according to the House’s Office of the Clerk, which runs the program. A year earlier, the House page program couldn’t even fill all of its available slots.
Insert your own “available slots” joke here.
Dude, every politically minded gay teen in America probably signed up. The boys' dorm is gonna be a non-stop nerd orgy next year.
They are all just a bunch of slots! SLOTS!
I interned in Congress for a while, and was a House page in Washington State. I was in Congress during Tom Delay's last, ugly months in power. Frankly, any teen that did sign up 'round then was a Republican-haircut wearing GOPer. And we all know from national polls that young people are increasingly Democrat.
It makes sense that kids weren't flocking to the program---you'd have to spend hours bumping up against people you *hated* and were rumored to be pedophiles. And miss homecoming.
Now that Democrats are in power, a lot of kids who volunteered on their local campaigns are getting applying with letters of recommendation from their new members of congress. All together, it makes sense that there's a big up tick in applications.
I interned in Congress for a while, and was a House page in Washington State. I was in Congress during Tom Delay's last, ugly months in power. Frankly, any teen that did sign up 'round then was a Republican-haircut wearing GOPer. And we all know from national polls that young people are increasingly Democrat.
It makes sense that kids weren't flocking to the program---you'd have to spend hours bumping up against people you *hated* and were rumored to be pedophiles. And miss homecoming.
Now that Democrats are in power, a lot of kids who volunteered on their local campaigns are getting applying with letters of recommendation from their new members of congress. All together, it makes sense that there's a big up tick in applications.
I would have loved to have been a Congressional page, but I didn't know about the program 17 years ago. (Fuck, I'm getting OLD!) As soon as the scandal broke I tried to convince the 15 year old that I mentor that she should apply. Unfortunately, she's not interested.
I would have applied for the program--I seriously looked into it--but as was pointed out earlier...as a Democrat-supporting(wishing I could vote) libertarian, I was loathe to be around so many goddamn Republicans. Too old now.
Was it really so *shocking* to a 16 year old boy to be proposistioned by an adult male?
Maybe my own experiences as a straight female can't compare. But I was propositioned any number of times by adult men when I was a teenager.
Am I just being naieve not to understand how awful Foley truly was?
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Who _doesn't_ want to be molested by an old white guy with legislative powers? I know when I was a teenager, all I dreamt about was my congressman Jim McDermott... But it does go to show that there really is no such thing as bad publicity.