The Foley Fallout: Worse for America than North Korea?

House Representative Mark Foley(R., Fla.) resigned last month after a string of sexually explicit Internet messages and emails he sent to young, male House pages were made public. Mr. Foley is reported to have written some of these messages from just off the House floor and has been up to no good since at least 1997. Foley’s folly is but another scandal in a year ridden with Republican cover-ups, conspiracy, and corruption. On January 3, Jack Abramoff pled guilty to conspiracy in knowingly bringing Congressional members. In April, Tom DeLay resigned from the House due to money-laundering charges in his home state of Texas. Unfortunately, the list continues, creating gloom among the G.O.P and glee among Democrats. Luckily, Democrats easily forget scandals, especially involving sex among members of their own party.

Republicans, however, are undoubtedly to blame for mishandling the Foley incident and allowing it to dominate national headlines for the past two weeks. They initially considered forcing Republican Congressmen, such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, to resign if they had prior knowledge of Mr. Foley’s vile flirting record; no action was taken. Other members argued it would be better to blame Democrats for releasing the emails just five weeks before elections. The result has been an incoherent mixture of both approaches, leading to useless finger pointing and party divisions. The scandal has also clouded more pressing issues, such as North Korea’s nuclear weapons tests, from public consciousness.

It is high time Foley resigned, but he should have been forced out long ago. Republican leaders knew of the emails over a year ago, but claim the parents of an abused 16-year-old boy didn’t want a formal investigation. Last spring Rodney Alexander (R., La.), who was originally contacted in the fall by the boy’s parents, alerted Rep. Thomas Reynolds—the House Republican Campaign chairman—about Mr. Foley’s licentious behavior. Mr. Reynolds says he then alerted Speaker Hastert, although Mr. Hastert claims he doesn’t recall the conversation. Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Hastert, and a host of other Republicans have been trading shots over who knew what when. Apparently, these Republican leaders are suffering from the same disease as Mr. Foley, namely, an inability to take responsibility for their action or, in this case, inaction. Rather than handling the scandal with the discipline Republicans were once known for, these men have allowed infighting to dominate national headlines and further tarnish the G.O.P. So who’s to blame? Mr. Foley, first and foremost, is at fault for willingly disgracing Republicans, the Congress, and America. Republican leaders should be ashamed of themselves for not stopping Mr. Foley earlier.

What is to be done? Americans have a sorry history of re-electing sexual deviants. Frank Barney (D., Mass.), for example, confessed in 1990 to paying a male prostitute for sex who later ran a prostitution ring from Frank’s apartment. He was reprimanded in 1990, but is still in office. Do not re-elect these lawbreakers! They are a mockery of our government and country. I worry that repeated cases of indecent behavior among representatives is telling a sign of indifference or worse yet, acceptance, among the American public. This should not be so. Republicans, elected officials, and voters need to get their act together NOW and keep jerks like Mr. Foley out off office.