Truman's Conscience

The Deafening Silence From The Self-Righteous

It's still fresh in my memory. The GOP's hand wringing moralizing about the Clinton WH and Monica Lewinsky. "What will we tell the children?" became the crying question of anguish. It seems they were so wrought with indignation the only recourse was impeachment. A consentual sex-act between adults outside the sacred institution of marriage the GOP keeps harping about was just to much to bear. Impeachment HAD to be the only recourse.

This brings us to Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL16). His resignation Friday regarding suggestive e-mails and Instant Messages to two underage Congressional pages has rocked the GOP 39 days before the November mid-term elections. Mr. Foley was a strong supporter of anti-gay marriage amendments as well as a supporter of President Clinton's impeachment. Mr. Foley's suggestive come-ons to two 16 year old Congressional pages who happen to be males only serves to underline the hypocracy of Mr. Foley's Congressional career as the Co-Chair of the Missing & Exploited Chidren caucus.

What's almost as interesting though is the deafening silence from the religious right. This silence has been particularly evident regarding the debate on torture as an official policy of the detainee bill. You would think that a scandal involving underage children and elected members of Congress would draw a cresendo of indignation from the likes of Falwell and Robertson. But so far, silence. I think this is very noteworthy. It will be interesting to see how long this silence lasts as the scandal unfolds and the subsequent cover-up. The party of "Traditional Family Values" indeed.