Surprising October

The Mark Foley timeline just keeps getting pushed back farther and farther. First it was the revelation of emails sent in 2005 which the FBI has known about for months, and the Republican leadership heard about last year, seemingly soon after they were sent. Then the much more explicit messages emerged, including some from 2003.

Then the story that pages were warned by Republican staffers to watch out for Mark Foley's attentions in 2001. And now it turns out that those warnings--including pages warning other pages about Foley--go back to 1995. That's eleven years. That seems to be plenty of time to deal with the situation.

Update: Now there's the claim that Speaker of the House Hastert (or his staff, the story has changed) was alerted to Foley two years ago. Also according to Bob Novak, Foley hadn't wanted to run for re-election this year but was persuaded to do so by House leaders. Consider the source on that one.

Despite Foley announcing (through his lawyer and others) that he's alcoholic and had been sexually abused by a clergyman, and despite the attempts of some conservatives and Republicans to make this an anti-gay story, these are not the most important storylines for most of us.

In Washington, it is a political story. It is a story of a party leadership that wanted so much to hold onto power that it would turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to predatory behavior, because Foley was a safe seat, a good fundraiser and campaigner for other candidates, and much beloved by the religious right. It involves not only cynical negligence but attempts to make deals with news organizations to not tell the Foley story. Since several news outlets didn't go with the story, some of these may have succeeded, we don't know. It also involves an apparent quid pro quo early on, when Foley apparently responded to questions from the leadership about the first emails with a $100,000 contribution to the Republican campaign fund.

Washington Republicans have fought back with counter-charges of Democrats exposing Foley for political gain, though without producing any evidence. Some are trying to minimize Republican ownership of the scandal, while others try to shift the responsibility for bad behavior to the permissive Democrats.

The political story will continue, because so much is at stake. There may be a former congressional page out there willing to bargain a charge against a Democrat for an assured political career, and the only question is whether Karl Rove will find him in time.

But the other story is happening out in the country, and it is a combination of morality and politics, which the Republicans are used to exploiting to their advantage. There's been this drone about the values war. But it's not really about values; it's about virtue. It's about what makes people feel virtuous, and what supports their sense of their virtue, or the virtue they aspire to.

This time there is no way to spin this story. A prominent conservative religious right Republican Congressman was permitted to engage in predatory behavior, for more than a decade by the Republican leadership. Or, if you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, mostly for the past year. They knew he used the Internet to prey on underage boys. Those messages are echoing across the nation. There is no way to vote for the people who allowed this to happen, and feel virtuous.

The American public is already very upset about Iraq. Most (nearly 60%) feel the Bush administration lies to them about Iraq. They see billions of dollars a day disappearing into the flames and insanity of that war. They are sick to death of it. And I believe that when people think about "Iraq" they also are rejecting torture, for it was in the context of Iraq that this country's adoption of torture as policy first came to light.

The country may have reached a tipping point of disgust and anger. Those more disgusted and discouraged will stay home from the polls. That likely will include a lot of the core religious right voters and local activists. Those more angry will vote against Republicans, though some will vote against any incumbent. At least that's how it seems to be shaping up right now. October is young, but so far it has been surprising.