Bad Foley! Bad!

As a teacher and parent of teenage boys, I was admittedly disgusted when I read the released e-mails attributed to Mark Foley and the teenage boy who was a page. Not only was I shocked, but I was embarrassed -- he is a Republican! I supposed this means that my party (I am registered as a Republican) will now be the target of ads depicting them as a group of dirty old men. Lovely. How proud I must be.

But wait! As I sat in saddened silence, I started to think--have political sexual scandals happened before? Ummm, YES! And was it President Clinton who not only talked about it but did it as well? I do believe that's so. Yeah! So we'll just say that "OK, we admit he did wrong, but really, wasn't Clinton worse?" Yes! Bounce the blame right back on them. Whew, my status as a morally superior Republican is safe.

I realize that many Republicans will do just that. But I can't. I was horrified at Clinton's behavior, and I'm no happier at what is alleged against Foley. I suppose that I have to admit that like much of the rest of humanity, there are some good Republicans, some bad Republicans, but most are somewhere in the middle. We need to allow this man to be one man, not an indication of party excellence or decay.

This means that I can join in neither in the bashing or the savvy throw-backs. Sigh. The view from the fence is rather broad, but the fence isn't necessarily a comfortable place to be.

I suppose this means you Republicans aren't tolerant of gays after all. Seeing as this "boy" was 18 years old, you see it fit to scorn a man who is expressing his choice of lifestyle?

Ken, I will just scorn him because he's creepy. There is also the issue of being in a position of "power" over someone else he works with. Male or female makes no difference to me.