The Foley Affair: Partisan hypocrisy, personal abuse

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Mark Foley may have been in a deep, dark closet, but that doesn't excuse his despicable hypocrisy:

At the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a young Republican congressman from Florida did something that seemed ordinary at the time: He condemned President Clinton on moral grounds for having a relationship with the White House intern.

"It's vile," Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, told the St. Petersburg Times. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

And his fellow Florida Republicans aren't amused: "'The hypocrisy is very hard to swallow,' said Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, a prominent Republican. 'I think he needs some serious help. He has some mental-health issues, but he was a person that people put their trust in, and he had a lot of power. He betrayed that trust, and he abused the power.'"

Alas. Foley may have abused his power, but he also abused a teenager. And Clinton's behaviour was "vile"? Clinton had the addiction? Clinton threw it all away?

How refreshing to find such moralism exposed for what it is: a fraud.