The very sad, scary truth about the Foley affair

[dsc]

I am afraid that this Foley thing is going down a terrible road. So far Hassert, Reynolds, and Foley all have gay chiefs of staff. Kolbe, literally the sole openly gay Republican in Congress appears to be up to his neck in the scandal. I can see exactly where this is about to go. A vast gay mafia is the real problem here. They conspired to keep the truth about Foley covered up. It is all the evil gays fault. The worst part about it is that it might have a grain of truth. It is beginning to appear that a bunch of gays conspired to protect Foley. I don't think they did it alone but they did some, and some is too much.

On edit: I apparently messed up with which staffer of Hastert is gay. That makes the whole post less relevant. As Gilda Radner used to say nevermind.

[mondo joe]

1. Here's why I disagree: the big deal is not that there was a network

of closeted gays - the big deal is that the elites of the anti gay GOP knew about it and tacitly approved of it.

That can't go over well with their fundy base.

[Buzz Clik]

2. This is the quandary that a lot of underrepresented conservatives face:

Is there a place for them in the Republican Party?

[LibraLiz1973]

3. I don't think the gay mafia covered up for him...

I think the REPUBLICAN mafia covered for him.

I do not think the situation would have been any different had he molested a 10 year old girl.
Of course the press will latch onto the gay aspect of the story and it will be played out as being the fault of
homosexuality... but we all know thats not true.

The question we might want to ask is: WHY ARE ALL THE SCAPEGOATS GAY?

[MichiganVote]

4. Gay or straight, nobody should mess with the pages, cover it up,

or insist on knowing what innocence for youth is all about while standing knee deep in pig slop.

This is a republican mess. Until I hear otherwise, they are guilty and I really don't care what their orientation is.

[Leopolds Ghost]

5. The gays were recruited, hired and blackmailed by non-gays...

In order to create a disciplined front for DeLay to work with.

Now they are trying to purge these guys before their blackmail scheme is revealed... and some Dems are all too eager to let the whole thing fall out so as to avoid hurting anyone's feelings.

[radfringe]

6. catch-22

if you are gay you have to hide, if you hide you have to protect yourself from being outed, to protect yourself from being outed you have to hide

if the repubs really had a big tent and were all accepting there would be no reason to hide, no reason to fear being outed because someone else is gay and screws up - being gay would be no more of an "issue" than if you were straight.

the fact these guys participated in a cover-up shows the level of fear within the gop tent.

Gop says they welcome gays, yet want them hidden so as not to offend the fundies. Fundies are welcomed but keep them from looking in the closet. Gays fear the fundies, fundies fear the gays.

it's GOP's only tool for hanging onto power- behold the power of fear

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. I thought that Hastert lived with his chief of staff.

[goodhue]

10. He does

Scott Palmer is Hastert's chief of staff. Not to be confused with Sam Lancaster, his director of operations.

[Rockstone]

12. You forgot the doorman Ollie Takock

[Sad4world]

11. He does

Follow that can of worms.

[Hepburn]

8. I have to agree with what most have said.

The problem is the REPUBLICAN leadership covering for Foley. I could not give a rat's butt if they are gay, str8, bi, or trans-gendered. They covered up for someone who was sexually exploiting minors under their control. Matter of fact, I would just as pissed off over the Congressional leadership if it had been DEMS doing this. There is no excuse for what went on. Simply NO excuse. The sexual exploitation of minors has nothing to do with sexual preference or party membership. It has to do with someone being a sick pervert like Foley and having others in power cover for him. That is just plain WRONG...no matter who did it.

[goodhue]

9. Hastert's director of operations, not his chief of staff

Scott Palmer is Hastert's Chief of Staff. Sam Lancaster is Hastert's Director of Speaker Operations. Lancaster has been identified as gay. I haven't seen anything to suggest Scott Palmer is gay. Palmer is the staffer who said that what Fordham said did not happen. Fordham is the former chief of staff to Reynolds and to Foley, and Fordham happens to be gay. He is the only gay chief of staff outed so far. Jeff Trandahl former clerk of house who oversaw the page program is also gay I believe.