I don't usually post links

[maribou]

Let alone angry political links. But Dan Savage hits the nail on the head about Mark Foley, here:

http://www.thestranger.com/savagelove/foley

Comments

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

I can't speak about the others, but what Rush Limbaugh said about Foley was that he deserved to be censured and hounded from Congress. Limbaugh also said that the Democrat response was hypocritical because they accepted sexual predator behavior from Clinton and Gerry Studds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Page_sex_scandal). I check the webpage every day, even if I don't always listen to the program, and at no point did Rush Limbaugh defend Foley.

Savage is entitled to his opinion and interpretation, of course. I just thought I'd point out that he got at least one actual fact dead wrong.

[entelein.livejournal.com]

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/05/limbaugh-blames-pages/

[entelein.livejournal.com]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610020013

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

Heh. I actually remember this exchange - I was listening that day, and also read it that evening. I haven't plunked down $50 for a membership and so can't quote the entire transcript verbatim, but one of those ellipses contained a line about Foley not being right, but the pages not being a shining white example of innocence. It'd be like me only quoting part of your last post and then adding a sentence about how your ego is so big that you think your voiceover work influenced the one movie being nominated for an Oscar.

[entelein.livejournal.com]

I wish I could find that quote/sentiment, then. I tried!

I think it's likely that Savage, wrt Limbaugh, is referring to the criticism towards the pages as being something approaching defense (and adding up the punditry gives a net effect). I mean, he addresses that issue specificially in his article, where he speaks to his own experience of being approached by underage boys.

Limbaugh may have stated a more direct disapproval of Foley, but his ambiguous and unfounded speculations on the motivations of the pages is pretty dodgy. At the end of the day, no one forced Foley to ask for a size check.

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

At the end of the day, no one forced Foley to ask for a size check.

Very true. Regardless of any of the circumstances surrounding the matter, Foley did wrong, and resigning is only the beginning of the consequences that need to happen to Foley.

[maribou]

I do appreciate the extra info about Limbaugh.

That said, I kind of felt like what Savage was most frustrated by was the apparent years of knowing what was going on (by Hastert, etc) and not really doing much about it then. That's where the 'you can do whatever you want as long as you're closeted and try to make stuff you do yourself illegal' comes in - not once everything was made public. (sorry for my horrid grammar, i just woke up.)

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

I can understand the frustration, and I can also understand that anyone not into politics would assume that Foley is the first to be in the circumstances of using (or attempting to use) the page program as a dating service. I'd argue that the mindset is not limited to Republicans, or to homosexuals - Lord knows there's enough infidelities and sexual predation going on in Washington to make a parent's blood run cold, on both sides of the aisle - but I believe that Savage was speaking in good faith from what he's heard... And that he's only heard about Limbaugh secondhand, since very few people make it a practice to follow politically themed entertainment/commentary that doesn't follow their own beliefs.

I guess I just wanted to point out that disagreeing on other issues, like "coverups", doesn't mean disagreeing that Foley is slime.