Alright, so let me get this straight.

A group of House Republicans say they warned J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, of disgraced Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s inappropriate internet messages with a teenage page, some which definitely instigated meeting with the minor, and he didn’t do anything about it. He says he won’t resign, and that he doesn’t recall anyone telling him anything about it. http://www.republicanmainstreet.org/foley.jpg President Bush says that Hastert, third in line for the presidency should Bush and Cheney be relieved from office, “is a father, teacher, coach, who cares about the children of this country.”

Alright, that doesn’t make much sense. Surely the president would be outraged that a Speaker in his party would have not taken action if there was any kind of inappropriate messaging between Mark Foley and an underage assistant, right?

No actually. “I’m confident he will provide whatever leadership he can to law enforcement in this investigation,” Mr. Bush said. Whatever leadership? He sure showed that leadership before the story broke.

Now there’s evidence that Mark Foley even had internet sex with a high school student who served as a congressional page, while waiting for a House vote in 2003:

Maf54: I miss you

Teen: ya me too

Maf54: we are still voting

Maf54: you miss me too

The exchange continues in which Foley and the teen both appear to describe having sexual orgasms.

Maf54: ok..i better go vote..did you know you would have this effect on me

Teen: lol I guessed

Teen: ya go vote…I don’t want to keep you from doing our job

Maf54: can I have a good kiss goodnight

Teen: :-*

Teen: kiss

Ouch.

I mean seriously, I wonder what Mark’s doing at home when he reads that on ABC.com. Needless to say, this could be a serious blow to the Republican campaign for re-election only five weeks until ballots are cast, and the Republicans will keep digging themselves a deeper hole if they don’t relieve everyone within a close proximity of the scandal of their duties. And the Washington Times definitely knows this. The title of a Tuesday editorial reads, “Resign, Mr. Speaker.”

The speaker would be hard-pressed not to resign especially with colleagues spraying quotes like these around:

“We need to admit that this was done on out watch.” “This is a political problem, and we need to step up and do something drastic.” “It’s almost like the perfect storm forming against us.” “The House has to clean up the mess.”

And then there’s Mark Foley.

You got to love the strategy of Foley’s lawyer, disclosing that he was molested by a clergyman, but of course, he accepts full responsibility for sending salacious messages to teenage male pages. I’m sorry representative; I don’t feel sorry for you. You’d think that maybe he’d look at it as something that he could try to prevent because it affected him so deeply, just like the façade he created with years of lies that positioned himself as “Congress’ leading defender of children on the Internet.”

That’s right. It was none other than Mark Foley who “spearheaded a legislative crackdown on Internet sites that post provocative photographs of teenage and preteen youth. He had pushed to open FBI databases to track sex offenders. He tried to force sexually explicit Web sites to label themselves accordingly.” Sneaking a little peak while you’re there supposedly protecting our youth, huh representative? I’m sorry. But I’m really not.

It seems like the Republican Party is in kind of a pickle here, and it would be prudent to make the statement that behavior like this is absolutely intolerable, and criminal. But I guess loyalty within the party is something that the Republicans cherish, and maybe they’ll make like the Catholic Church heads, who reshuffle disgraced clergyman into the church system, instead of expelling them indefinitely. It’s just sad to see that people have to protect their party members even if they’re exhibiting extremely inappropriate behavior, especially for a public official. Maybe Hastert didn’t know, and the House Republicans are flat out lying. Either way, the Republicans just continue to sink. There’s always a time where you just cut your losses and move on, and it seems like it’s already passed.