Warning: The following includes some language from Right Wingnutistan that may require a hazmat suit before proceeding further. You have been warned.
You knew it was coming.
With all of the "yes, Foley should have been run out of Congress, but..." or "the messages are outrageous, but..." and "the GOP has some `splianing to do, but..." that is inevitably oozing from the dungeon that encompasses Right Wingnutistan, the stench of hypocrisy, justification and double standards is overpowering.
For starters, the bullshit that must be called on the latest display of unbelievable gall by those who are even attempting to minimize or deflect from what is truly another sick and disgusting chapter in what most certainly is not "your dad's Republican party" can only be exceeded by the bullshit that must be called on the hypocrisy and double standards with respect to the "evil lib'rul media" in its "handling" of l'affair Foley.
Predictably, the early wave includes the typical throwaway caveats of how Foley was "wrong" or "outrageous", or of course as the White House says, "naughty emails", but then reserves the outrage (and infinitely more time and space on their pages than to, you, know, things that have rightfully gotten so many others who have done the same or similar things and deserve no pity) for the "partisan Democrats" and "liberal media".
Witness wingnut extraordinaire Clarice Feldman's latest piece:
Pardon me, but I smell something very peculiar in the way we have learned of the disgrace of Rep. Mark Foley.
The email scandal which led to the resignation of the Republican Congressman is reverberating throughout the capital and the nation, as Democrats attempt to capitalize on bad news for Republicans.
---snip---
But Democrats are attempting to make hay by alleging that the Republican leadership may have known about the inappropriate emails and covered them up for months. Their hope, no doubt, is to discourage turnout by disillusioned evangelical and other voters sensitive to moral issues. But the emerging background detail suggests that this is simply not the case, and that an attack strategy has been devised by parties anxious to damage the GOP and swing the coming election.
Now, if you do a google search for Clarice Feldman, you will find all sorts of wacky wingnuttiness. Of course, she also lashes out at ABC (who of course, was just A-OK a few weeks ago with their little lies about 9/11), as well as CREW (since they receive money from Soros they must be bad, unlike, say, Armstrong Williams or anyone who spews the right wing lies).
And our favorite lunatic, Michelle Malkin brings this all back to, yup, Bill Clinton. Because, consensual sex between 2 adults is the same as online sexual predators in a position of power targeting underage boys (or girls for that matter).
But amidst all the "who-knew-what-when" posturing and "hypocrisy" jockeying and media coverage dissecting, I hope we don't lose sight of the core scandal here. There are simply too many adults in Washington who cannot be trusted to ensure the safety of young people under their wing.
Not in the White House (go re-read the Starr Report, if you have the stomach).
Or this one and also this one, both from Erick at redstate:
So, let's put some perspective on this. The Republicans should have run Mark Foley out of Congress last year. Some who we can reasonably presume are faithful to the party opposite, also knew about this information and had piles of information about it. Instead of also working to drive Mark Foley out of Congress a year ago, they held on to the information and waited until a month from the election.
In the process, a year went by without anything substantively being done and a man with a known predilection for young boys stayed in Congress. How those faithful to the party opposite handled this is as much an indicator of how they operate as how the GOP operates. The GOP operated as the party faithful to the institution, much as Speaker Hastert did in the William Jefferson matter -- putting Members of Congress first. The Democrats operated just as they are operating with the war -- play politics with smears, but offer nothing substantive to make any of us, including House pages, safer.
To be sure, the blame for the mishandling of this matter rests with the House Republican Leadership. But I'm struck by a letter released this weekend by Nancy Pelosi. In it, she wrote:
The fact that Mr. Foley was engaging in this behavior with underage children, that the Republican Leadership knew about it for six months to a year and has characterized the inappropriate behavior as "overly friendly" and "acting as a mentor" and that apparently no action was taken to protect these underage children is abhorrent.
Shouldn't we also call on the media to tell us what exactly they knew and when they knew it. And shouldn't we also ask the leakers of the information, who were undoubtedly Democrats, what they knew and when they knew it and why they waited almost a full year to leak the information instead of taking immediate action to stop Mr. Foley.
Um, sure....."yes the blame is with the GOP, but it really is with the evil democrats for holding onto this story as well as the media for not being more forthcoming".
But the media is just fine and dandy when they sit on a story like, hmmmm, let me think:
Leaking the name of a covert CIA agent who was working on anti-nuclear proliferation activities; and
Illegal spying on American citizens by its Executive Branch without warrants;
Exit polls that didn't match the actual results, with thousands of reports of intimidation, voting machine "errors" and other irregularities;
Lies about what is going on in Iraq;
Lies about Iraq and its WMD capacity; or
Lies and other corrupt activities of the Republican party in Ohio, Texas, with Jack Abramoff.
Yup, that is fine by the wingnuts. All in the name of "protecting us" and "national security".
But Erick can't let it go - he goes on in a subsequent post:
This, my friends, is just how the Democrats have operated and would probably operate if they took back Congress. This is just like how they've handled Iraq. Instead of offering any plan to make any person or House Page safer, they've leaked damning information to the media at politically opportune times.
The Democrats have no plan except surrender in Iraq and they are doing everything possible to distract from their plan.
But the question still remains: What did ABC's Democrat leaning sources know, when did they know it, and what did they do once they knew it to protect House Pages?
Um, what does Iraq have to do with this? And as for leaking information, well, I think the republicans have cornered the market there.
Of course, we can't forget Mark Levin at the NRO who knows EXACTLY who is to blame here (even though we shouldn't be playing the blame game):
The media are playing their predictable role in the lead up to this election, showing remarkable restraint when it comes to pursuing Democrats, and regurgitating the Democrat line when it comes to Republicans.
---snip---
If the Foley messages are so outrageous (and they certainly are), why were they made public by ABC News and other news outlets only now? Where were the parents of these kids? I hope there is a full investigation and we can get answers to all these questions. But the politicization of the Foley messages by the Democrats and the media shouldn't be missed in all of this.
I have 2 words here for Mr. Levin: Jack, and Ass. "Dems suck, media is to blame, blah blah blah. While we should look further, gotta blame the media and the Dems".
And now there are those who are now questioning whether Foley's emails were doctored (just like Bush's AWOL docs). Well, you know what, even if there was it doesn't change what Foley did.
Or the lengths that his own party went to cover it up. And excuse it. And let it continue. Sorry, wingnuts, you can't praise the media for one thing and then condemn them for doing that same thing. You can't pin this one on Clinton, you can't excuse this. You can't explain it away. You can't hope the media lets this one go.
No matter how hard you try. You know why?
Because, after all of the scandals, after all of the corruption, after all of the war crimes and outrages against humanity, after all of the lies - you forgot one thing about the media:
Sex sells.
Enjoy your just desserts and side order of crow, wingnut bastards.
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