Mark Foley's dad just passed away after battling cancer.
David Roth, Foley's attorney, has asked the media to respect the privacy of the family during this difficult time. The sins of the son should not distract the press from display of a dignified show of respect for the father.
On the flip side, as the former Florida congressman has been politically rehabbing sight unseen for well over a month, the media is chomping at the bit for a photo, a comment, an obscene gesture, anything at all from Foley.
Foley has lost all control to his privacy.
Counsel knows far too well that the deceased and the Foley family-as nonoffending family members of a loved one caught up in sexual offense freefall hell-will now and forever suffer the collateral damage of the former congressmen's actions.
Politicians like Foley himself-state legislators and members of Congress-motivated by public response to highly publicized cases, such as the Florida murder of Jessica Lunsford, have opened the dam on a stream of public shaming laws that impose subsequent consequences on those convicted of a sex-related offense and through association, to those nonoffending family members who stand in support of them.
The loss of privacy rights-guaranteed by the Constitution-is just one ramification-one lifetime consequence Foley's Folly brought down on himself and his loved ones.
Why should the press behave any differently during the Foley services than the usual full press onslaught? Should Foley's family be off-limits while Joe Blow's family pulls poorly constructed "Sex Offender" signs out of their front yard because the neighbors-vigilante zealot types-decided to take matters in hand and inform all of "just who lives on the street?"
The basic "Protect the Children" public stocks announcement broadcast by the "Stay Very Afraid" neighborhood watch crowd.
The children who live in that same home, well, friends no longer visit. Not since that fun soccer mom stood out in front of the neighborhood school during dismissal and distributed FDLE flyers featuring Dear Old Dad, convicted of behavior similar to Foley's...except the email receipient was an online undercover cop, born to sting all those under the mistaken impression that words on a screen are protected under the Constitution as free speech.
Some feel the press will maintain decorum toward the Foleys. Others, like myself, are thinking Mob Scene. Foley's "out of sight, out of mind" hopes have only created super-motivated reporters and extremely patient photographers, armed with high tech camera equipment.
In fact, it would be of no surprise if Foley himself approached the media in a vain attempt to spin the press his way or offer some sad, pathetic appeal in attempt to shield his loved ones from a media circus that lives to document his fate, cosmically plummeting from bad to worse.
The right to privacy is never fully appreciated until yanked away and one finds themselves stripped naked, exposed and subject to full-fledged shaming and shunning.
How ironic that the stony judgmental stares now fall upon Mark Foley, the very person who proved influential in the passage of the Adam Walsh Act, a witchhunt-type federal law that dealt privacy rights of nonoffending family members one heckuva ex post facto blow.
Floridians are sorry for the Foley family loss.
Just no sorrow for sorry Mark Foley.
May the Press Be With You.