feminist blogs

The red blog says so, noting:

Not sure what "later this year" means...but I'm not sure who will attend the pity party.

Is the GOP timing for Mark Foley backlash? (Ha!) Or just another instance of a Republican acting ahead of the public radar? Health? Disgust? Fatigue?

This really is just sad:

The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 72, described several encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. They include massaging Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being nude in the same room on overnight trips.

While it seems pretty clear that people are born heterosexual or homosexual (or bisexual, which perhaps explains why so many right-wingers insist that their sexual orientation is a choice), it seems less clear what makes for child molesters. Are these incidents of molestation by a priest in his boyhood contributing causes of Mark Foley's own child predations? Do we have the Catholic Church molestation cover-ups to thank?

Earlier this month, Roth said: "Mark does not blame the trauma he sustained as a young adolescent for his totally inappropriate" e-mails and instant messages. "He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct."

How ironic that it's Mark Foley who stands out as virtually the only man in this sordid mess actually taking responsibility for his own actions.

The scope of the cover-up widens:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican colleague of disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley knew of his sexually charged computer messages to teenage assistants as far back as 2000 and confronted him about them, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

A congressional page showed Arizona Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe inappropriate messages he had received from Foley six years ago, the Post reported.

The news indicates that Foley's sexually charged communications with pages were known to other lawmakers five years earlier than was previously acknowledged.

As the Washington Post reports:

The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's behavior with former pages. A timeline issued by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) suggested that the first lawmakers to know, Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.), the chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), became aware of "over-friendly" e-mails only last fall. It also expands the universe of players in the drama beyond members, either in leadership or on the page board.

So why did the Republicans cover for Foley for so many years? Did they think it wasn't important?

Or was protecting their image and holding on to power more important? (Duh!)

I am just totally disgusted. I never thought anyone would stoop so low -- not even those Republicans in Washington who are driving the country right into a ditch.