"The List" was originally created to BLACKMAIL gay repubs AND DEMS.

[Leopolds Ghost]

In a recent thread on the propriety of outing gay Republicans, a poster wrote:

This is turning bad. Lanny Davis last night warned the party
not to keep at it or it is going to turn. I hope we have not taken it that far.

Pelosi indicated something similar to Ed Schultz to explain why she and Dean could not comment at length on the Foley issue. What do they mean?

They mean the same thing as when they said Karl Rove knew "every trick in the book":
They are being BLACKMAILED. Closeted staffers on both sides of the aisle are being threatened with blackmail by association with Foley, a known pedophile and tainted politician who DeLay deliberately kept in power for ten years, as chairman of the Child Protection committee, in an effort to recruit, find out and use his associations to threaten and taint closeted gay staffers.

Brock warned us about this.

DeLay and the "Velvet Mafia" run out of his office created and used the original "LIST" -- for 10 years.

Rove inherited it.

That's why Dems like Lanny Davis and Pelosi are so afraid to speak out on ANY ISSUE.

They are afraid of being blackmailed.

They are afraid of Rove outing their colleagues.

That is why Rove has kept all his ammunition on Dems in reserve.

They have been so cooperative until now -- except when Rove was tied up with his own legal difficulties.

Foley was part of the scheme. As Brock and others warned us years ago, he was using his office as a casting couch to recruit new members of the "closeted Republican club" who were then subject to blackmail by DeLay and Rove. As Brock and others noted, all too many current hill staffers got their start as pages thanks to FOLEY.

Think about the ugliness of this, and how difficult it is even to expose without damaging the people who have been blackmailed for being gay on both sides of the aisle.

More Background on the Blackmail Angle:

Was Foley used as bait to attract and recruit blackmailable future staffers?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2313002

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2314623

How DeLay kept tabs on closeted gay Republicans (the "velvet mafia")

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2298454&mesg_id=2298454

Remember DeLay's ties to Foley -- and to the Marianas islands?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2326455

[panader0]

1. Don't forget about Rush Limpballs and his Viagra fueled trips

A joke..(not really)

[mom cat]

2. This could get real ugly, but it usually is when you lance a boil.

Getting the pus out is the only way for there to be any healing, but a lot of innocent people are going to be hurt in the process. Lets all be real careful to keep the focus on pedophlia and not get caught up in the Repuke attempt to morph this into a homophobic free for all!

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. Hear hear.

The problem is that for 10 years, Republican leaders have been using staffers' fear of being outed -- or associated with known creeps like Foley -- to keep them in line and voting for neocon priorities.

That is of course blackmail and highly illegal, with or without photos of Foley taking future Congressional staffers on junkets.

How do you expose blackmail without damaging the staffers on both sides who were blackmailed simply for being gay?

Foley was being kept around in order to catch flies and name names if necessary.

Just like Ronald Reagan did to lefties in Hollywood during the red scare (which is why they rewarded him with a governorship).

[sandnsea]

4. Sometimes you just have to let chips fall

There was always going to come a time when Congress needed to be cleaned out and I would hope none of us thought it would be a Dem-free cleaning. If this is the problem in the House, or both houses, then this is the time to let the chips fall. Don't wait until this blows up on our leadership. We've been through Clinton for chrissake, when the chips are really really down, we do know how to circle. We'll stand by anybody who is being treated unfairly simply because of their orientation, regardless of political party.

[Leopolds Ghost]

5. Blackmail is the issue, folks

How can people be so naive as to believe that revelations that dozens of people are -- horrors -- gay, and associated with Foley, a Rovian tar-baby, is a "scandal"? These consequences were engineered to happen if GOP improprieties were ever revealed. Mutual assured destruction. Keep the troops in line.

THAT IS HOW WASHINGTON HAS ALWAYS WORKED to cover up corruption.

Call me corrupt? I happen to know yor chief of staff is gay!

The gay pages (whose exploitation was part of a patronage scheme to recruit blackmailable, closeted evangelicals into important Hill jobs) messed up the scheme by outing Foley, who was near the center of it all (DeLay and his "Velvet Mafia", who threatened to out any colleagues that got in their way, were at the center).

[Jacobin]

6. If we have members who won't do their jobs because they are being

blackmailed, then they need to get a new line of work and let someone run for the office who CAN do their jobs.

:mad:

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. At this point I think ALL their indiscretions should be outed

because their desire to cover up skeletons in their closet and their resultant fear of Rove is interfering with their ability to do their jobs.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. I Agree 100%

And if any Democratic congressmen are hitting on minors they have to go too...

A new broom sweeps clean...

[bryant69]

8. This has the potential to be an extremely contentious issue

It does explain a few things though.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[seemslikeadream]

10. Blackmail

It's been going on for a while now

[Leopolds Ghost]

11. BLACKMAIL/PATRONAGE SCAM revealed on Scarborough == "Velvet Mafia"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2323080

O'DONNELL: But Joe, this is very, very important piece of the story. This is going to be part of where we track the information about how it flowed. And it' going to be a very important question on the staff level, not necessarily on the elected level. But people are going—Republican base is going to be shocked

SCARBOROUGH: And I...

O‘DONNELL: ...when they discover within a week where the closetted gay men are positioned in this story who have not yet been revealed.

SCARBOROUGH: And Ana, you were talking about--earlier with me--we were talking about the fact that the Republican Party has some issues on the gay issue.

ANA MARIE COX, WASHINGTON EDITOR, TIME.COM: They do. (The Republicans) have a kind of split personality about it. On the one hand, they have a base who is largely, not to be put too fine point on it, pretty homophobic, and they really count on that. They got out the vote by campaigning against gay marriage in the past few years.

And on the other hand, they have a somewhat more sophisticated, somewhat more worldly, let's say, elected leadership who not only know gay people but know gay Republicans and work with gay Republicans. And Lawrence is right. At the staff level, the House has quite a few gay people. And those are the people—are the "Velvet Mafia" of the House, of the Hill, and those are the people that are counted on to keep the other closeted members of Congress and staff members in line, and that is how they tried to deal with Foley this time around.

SCARBOROUGH: Lawrence O'Donnell, I think the Republican Party is doomed. I think even if they throw Denny Hastert overboard, that does absolutely nothing to save him. What do you say?

O'DONNELL: I agree with you, Joe. This is one of those things where there‘s no good political choice to make. The story is completely out of control.

I just want to stress, today it moved to the staff level. It's going to stay now at the staff level for the next news cycle. This is now a very, very important staff credibility issue. The battle between Kirk Fordham and Scott Palmer, who, as reported in the initial report tonight on your show--Scott Palmer, chief of staff for Denny Hastert, who is denying, very specifically denying that he was ever told that there was a problem with Foley by Fordham. Now, that is a crucial--those two guys are going to become the stars of this story over the next couple of days, and it's going to make the story something different.

[Bucky]

12. Jesus, what is this--1959? So there are gay people in the world. Boo!

How can blackmail even begin to work? This is transcendingly bizarre. This is utterly nuts, as there is no reason in the world to worry about being outed as gay in today's world. I just don't get this stuff at all.

[Leopolds Ghost]

13. I guess it's the gay evangelical political staffers who see it that way.

DeLay et al. appears to have set up a system for recruiting and manipulating these people in order to keep "moderate Republicans" in line, as Ana Marie Cox implied.

[Bucky]

15. I'd love to see that headline: "DeLay Involved in Gay Recruiting"

heh

[sadiesworld]

14. I have a difficult time imagining that dem staffers are susceptible

to blackmail for being gay. Dem reps in southern states? Maybe. But staffers?

[ShaneGR]

16. This is a COMPLETE non-issue

So some Republican is going to start pointing fingers at a Gay Democrat? Who? Barney Frank? Or some guy with no connection to anything? A vast right-wing gay conspiracy to out gay democrats? Ummm, please take your tinfoil hat off. The reason Nancy Pelosi is minimizing her reaction is because she DOESNT HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING!!! The story speaks for itself.

[madmusic]

17. I propose a National Kink Day.

Nothing illegal, but everyone, EVERYONE, in the country has to do something naughty and kinky that they maybe could get blackmailed for. No need to be disloyal with one's spouse. They could work it out.

If everyone could be blackmailed, no one could.

Time for everyone to come out of the naughty closet. That would settle that.

[madmusic]

19. Hell, make it a national holiday on voting day.

Every gets a paid day off, votes and does a little civil disobedience in bed.

[JerseygirlCT]

18. Here's my question, though

What's he got on them?

If it's just their sexual orientation, I say let rip, let's get this festering wound of homophobia open to the sunlight to disinfect it.

If they've been involved in any less-than-legal activities involving minors and pages (like Foley), then I don't give a damn if they're Dems or Republicans. They need to be cleaned out, and yesterday.

They need to call Rove's bluff, and loudly. Homophobia exists everywhere, but it's a hell of a lot more rampant in the GOP ranks than among the country's Democrats, I'd venture to guess.