A Foley Hodgepodge

Flying this morning. I'll have time later to think about this a little more. In the meantime:

Jamison Foser at Media Matters scored CNN on its coverage of the Foley coverup:

But questionable personnel moves are only part of the story; CNN's on-air content tells the story best. The channel's reprehensible treatment of Hastert's bogus allegations that Democrats were responsible for the news stories about Mark Foley speaks for itself -- but it isn't the only way CNN has made a mockery of its claim that it is "the most trusted name in news" this week.

Think Progress spreads the net:

Top conservatives have fanned out on television to defend House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s role in the Foley scandal.

A key talking point: when ABC made Foley’s sexually explicit communications public, Hastert “dealt with it immediately” by going to Foley and telling him, “Resign or be expelled.” Both Ken Mehlman and Ed Gillespie said Hastert’s bold ultimatum to Foley was something not seen “in thirty years in this town.”

In fact, their entire story is a fabrication. Hastert could not have issued an ultimatum to Foley after the sexually explicit instant messages were made public, because by that time, Foley had already resigned. ABC did not make Foley’s sexually explicit communications public until Friday, September 29, at 6pm ET. Foley had already resigned three hours earlier, at around 3pm ET.

(Hat tip to Atrios on both stories.)

It gets better. From Digby:

House Republicans sought to put Democrats on the defense over the Foley House page scandal Friday, asking House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Illinois, to appear before the House Ethics Committee investigating the matter.

Vice Chairman of the Republican Conference Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Georgia, along with several of his GOP colleagues, said the page scandal "should not be a partisan issue," in a letter to the top Democrats.

Another talking point: It's the Democrats' fault because the Republican ledership did not tell them what was going on.

Another smokescreen

The blog Passionate America has revealed the identity and published a photograph of an alleged victim of disgraced Rep. Mark Foley in a post that was pulled and later re-posted with additional information.

RAW STORY can verify that the young man in question is not the Congressional page from the emails that originally surfaced; with that in mind, a direct link to the Passionate America post is not provided here.

RAW STORY has learned that the recipient of the Foley emails is currently 17 (and was 16 at the time of the correspondence).

Passionate America contends that the young man they identified took part in some of the instant message conversations obtained by ABC news. In those messages, the boy explicitly identified himself as being under the age of 18.

Read what poputonian has to say about this:

And like Pavlov's Dog, the right-wing reptiles know without thinking what to do next: attack the media and attack the victim. (Yesterday's post outing the young man already has 21 trackbacks and 61 technorati links, and the story is seeping into the MSM.) For those keeping score at home, the victim is being accused of being of age at the time he was allegedly victimized by the pedafoleyac, and ABC News is being accused of knowing that.

And it's not just Democrats that are in the sights. There are, of course, the Christianists lining up to repeat once again the completely fabricated idea that gay men = pedophile.

Here's Pat Buchanan (found this quote at Box Turtle Bulletin, but it's been all over the Internet):

BUCHANAN: Let me make one more point. Ms. Pelosi has marched in gay pride parades with the North America Man-Boy Love Association, NAMBLA, which—who are pedophiles who are trying to get the laws repealed for sex between men and boys! If she’s been marching with pedophiles, is she credible standing up there saying, I’m shocked, shocked that some Republican is after 17-year-old pages?

OK -- we all know that Buchanan's grasp on reality is tenuous at best, so there's no point in calling him a liar. Lying is probably his first reaction to anything, at this point. Fact: over 98% of pedophiles who claim an adult sexual orientation identify as heterosexual (I've probably still got some links to studies in here somewhere. I'll see if I can find them. That also squares with the FBI's figures.). Fact: NAMBLA is, as far as I know, routinely denied slots in Pride parades. They have certainly been repudiated by all gay advocacy organizations. Fact: Foley is not a pedophile. He's irresponsible and not very well in control of himself, but he's not a pedophile. Congressional pages are by law all above the age of consent in Washington, D.C.

This is from Gary Bauer, also via Box Turtle Bulletin:

Groups like NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, continue to be given positions in “gay rights” parades and, without shame, continue to promote their governing slogan, “Sex by eight or it’s too late.”

Here is a good discussion by Jim Burroway at BTB, with refences.

I'm bringing this up again because I think it's illuminating of the Republicans' reaction to the scandal: when the former page and his parents complained to their congressman, Rodney Alexander (R-La), Alexander went to Tom Reynolds. Reynolds is chairman of the NRCC. That translates as National Republican Campaign Committee.

Get it?