This is a story that just hit the
Nation Web site a few minutes ago.
The Coming Gay Republican Purge
Read it, then meet me on the flip side.
The point of this diary is not to go off about the innate injustice of blaming gays -- Republicans, Democrats, whatnot -- for the Foley scandal. That's a given. We all know how ridiculous it is to paint this as a "gay" issue. The issue is not Mark Foley's sexual orientation, it's the fact that he preyed on underage boys, and the fact that his Republican masters covered it up for at least ten months (if you believe Hastert), or six years (if you go by Kolbe's estimation). Whatever, it doesn't matter if it was five minutes. They covered it up to try to keep the House. That's established fact.
We also know that the vast majority of pedophilia is perpetuated by heterosexual males on children -- somewhere between 98 and 99 percent, according to an article in the Journal of Pediatrics. Again, not the issue, but it's getting closer.
The issue, at least what I'm diarying about, is the strong possibility that the Republicans will flip the Foley scandal into a witch hunt against gays and lesbians. Politically, it's got a good chance of getting some traction, and not just among the rabid rightists. I hate it, but it seems likely. For the Rethugs to begin by purging all of the gay staffers among their own staff members -- or a selected few to serve as honorary scapegoats -- is not a bad idea, for their own political purposes. (Again, I'm strictly talking politics here. You know and I know that the gay staffers weren't responsible for covering this up, it was that fat bastard Hastert and his accessories, Shimkus, Reynolds, et al.) They not only seem to have taken some direct action in response to Foley, they can back-twist it to tie it in to their long-running jihad against homosexuals in general. It's a twofer, not only working to lift some of the weight of Foleygate off of their backs, but shifting the blame away from their own sorry politics-at-all-costs behavior onto a subject they'd much rather go at, the persecution of gays.
The question is, how to respond? Democrats can't just stand back and let it happen, because if they do, it will quickly become a matter of "them damn fag-loving libruls letting this shit pollute the precious bodily fluids of our sweet innocent kiddies."
My thinking is simple and direct (since I'm of the mind that simple and direct works best in politics anyway): keep hammering away at the responsibility of the Republican House leadership for not taking action against Foley years earlier. Refuse to let them sluff off on their staffers, gay or straight. Keep harping on the Rethugs wallowing in Foley's money. Keep reminding the electorate that the House leaders allowed this to go on, and that their staff are merely employees -- it's dishonest and specious to blame staff for an issue they themselves should have long since addressed. Keep reminding voters that Hastert admits to knowing about this in November 2005, and other congresscritters -- not staffers, office holders -- knew about this years before.
Ideas? Framing? Angry fuck-you-Republican-hypocrites responses?