Breaking: Foley Plays the Gibson Card: "I Was Drunk!"

This is unbelievable - Foley has now announced that he's seeking treatment for alcoholism.  Even Soledad sound incredulous about that - "Are we supposed to believe this is why he was sending e-mails to a minor?"  Uh, yeah, guess we are.

Now the question - JUST HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE!!!  Sorry for the short diary. Edit to add: CNN is playing this up now, reporting on the story of Foley going into rehab (ho, ho, ho) and I have to say the skepticism is fairly dripping from the voices of the CNN anchors, both O'Brien and the substitute for Miles this morning in conversation with Candy Crowley. Crowley made the point that the guy is of course still responsible whether or not he's an 'alcoholic'. Myself, I think it just gives Jon Stewart MORE material for tonight, as if he needed it.

•  Drunk at work, huh?

  So I guess the Republican House leadership has two crimes to answer for now.

  by RequestedUsername on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:06:50 AM PDT

  •  Foley's friends say.. no alcohol problem

    CNN reporter mentioned earlier that Foley's friends said they never heard of Foley's alcohol problem before. What do you say??

    by Observer on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 08:49:15 AM PDT

•  Look for him to be...

  ..."born again" after re-hab.

  by gonzoliberal on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:07:54 AM PDT

•  Saw the headline...

  ...and thought he was blaming the Jews. Because, you know, everything is our fault.

  Maybe that's step 2...

  by wiscmass on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:08:16 AM PDT

  •  LOL!

    and I haven't even had my coffee yet!

    by srkp23 on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:12:38 AM PDT

    •  About 10 1/2 hours until I can have mine...

      No coffee is the hardest thing about Yom Kippur.

      Off to services I go...

      by wiscmass on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:20:18 AM PDT

•  BFD - no mitigating circumstances justify

  by anotherCt Dem on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:11:09 AM PDT

  •  bingo! as with drunk driving....

    Drunk drivers don't get off the hook for alcoholism.

    Aside from which, the disease makes him drink and the drunkenness affects his judgement, but then he would also have to claim that the time he took another teenage boy for a "cruize" in his BMW, he was drunk also, i.e. drunk driving!

    Sorry Mr. Foley, we're going to throw the book at you.  And all those ho covered up for you.  

    by G2geek on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:23:04 AM PDT

    •  Good catch n/t

      by SCFrog on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 08:43:28 AM PDT

  •  No, the apprpriate reaction is

    Oh my God, he's an alcoholic TOO?!!!

    by Sparkygal on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:25:18 AM PDT

  •  Yes

    Alcohol doesn't change character, it reveals it. That's why we all like to have a drink or two at parties, to loosen up.

    I like the comment a couple of places up where somebody says "You mustn't condemn me for driving dangerously—I was drunk!"

    by Del C on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:31:22 AM PDT

•  Well, they know exaclty how stupid

  52% of us are.

  by illinifan17 on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:12:17 AM PDT

•  Well, if he was that drunk for so many years

  how was he able to handle the job of a congressman?

  by Naturegal on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:14:18 AM PDT

  •  I think you answered your own question n/t

    by dennisl on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:14:56 AM PDT

    •  I meant

      without falling down a lot. haha

      by Naturegal on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:21:50 AM PDT

  •  Phil Crane did it

    Phil Crane was a Republican from Illinois (and, interestingly, the brother of the other Cong. Crane who was censured in 1982 for having sex with a FEMALE page) and was dead drunk, more than once, during evening committee sessions.  He was legendary for being drunk on the job.

    by geordie on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:24:11 AM PDT

•  Purported copy of rehab letter.

  http://www.drudgereport.com/...

  by MTmofo on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:15:54 AM PDT

•  Because, you know

  anything is better than admitting you're GAY.

  If these idiots would take a lesson from Barney Frank, Studds, McGreevey, etc, they would realize that coming out and dealing with it is always the best decsion.

  Of course, he'd still be left with the little matter of being a sexual predator with minors....

  by Flinch on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:17:42 AM PDT

•  Robert Bauman did the same thing

  Blaming his actions (trying to solicit sex from a 16 year old male prostitute) on alcoholism.

  Foley is gonna so the same thing. Ya see, it's the beer that made him do all those things.

  Foley, also being someone who "barely graduated high school" (in his own words), would have to be a bit less coherant if he was drunk while on IM.

  by RBH on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:23:36 AM PDT

•  Bob Ney did the same thing.

  But I'm unaware of a program that will cure you of being a lying, mendacious piece of shit.  If he successfully completes rehab, he'll just be a sober, lying, mendacious piece of shit.

  by roxtar on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:24:45 AM PDT

  •  ....and still gay (n/t)

    by Flinch on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:27:17 AM PDT

    •  He still hasn't come out yet has he?

      by Arken on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 07:25:06 AM PDT

•  Drunk on power. n/t

  by boran2 on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:33:16 AM PDT

•  I'd like to see the date/time stamp on his emails

  and his IMs.  If any of them came during the day when he was at work, then we need to ask how long he had been drunk on the job.

  by davidkc on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:34:02 AM PDT

•  This is the whole

  "I'm not a perfect man and am trying to repent for my previous sins. I'm begging for your forgiveness."

  "I mean, since I got caught and all."

  Watch, next he'll have found Jesus, or perhaps, found him again, and then his closest family (and "community") will rally around him since he's really not that bad a guy. He just has problems.

  I mean....don't we all have problems?

  by Stand Strong on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:42:13 AM PDT

  •  And of course,

    this will create a whole new diversion of how alcohol destroys families and drives otherwise normal, law-abiding, good citizens to do these sorts of things since they're "not themselves" under "the pow-a of da evil booze."

    Republican legislators will draft some type of new bill that will increase penalties even further for normal, run-of-the-mill sexual predators (avg. citizens, IOW) who commit crimes of a sexual nature while under the influence of alcohol, compounding previous separate penalties under a new blanket criminal statute, complete with mandatory minimums and, hmm...who knows? Maybe if one particular SC Councilman gets pulled in on the legislation, we'll see an actual move towards forced sterilizations of men and women.

    by Stand Strong on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:47:18 AM PDT

•  I F'd your 15 year old son. But I was drunk.

  It'd work as an excuse right??????

  by DABush on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 06:52:01 AM PDT

•  So he's a drunken pedophile?

  Well, geeze, I guess that's different.  Maybe Bill Clinton should have explained he was drunk when Monica's big behind started looking so good.

  by bobdevo on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 07:10:16 AM PDT

•  Cool. I'm going to rob a convenience store

  and claim I was drunk at the time.

  Oh wait, I'm not a Republican Representative so it's a crime when I break the law.

  by Arken on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 07:24:39 AM PDT

•  the "Gibson card" ? What does that mean?

  I have never heard this term.

  by centerdem on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 07:56:04 AM PDT

  •  Mel Gibson

    "I get anti-Semitic when I drink"

    by Shawn on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 08:36:14 AM PDT