The key conversation of Dennis Hastert's life was the one that never took place. It was the one that, with 20/20 hindsight, Hastert must wish he had. It was the one in which he confronted Mark Foley, demanded he stop contacting the pages, suggested he get help with any problems of alcohol or mental illness that he might have, threatened him with an Ethics Committee investigation, and suggested that Foley's inclination not to seek re-election in 2006 might be in everyone's best interest.
Hastert might have been too busy or too distracted to have this conversation or just too conflict adverse. But his failure to have this conversation also reveals an ugly truth about many conservatives: they see sexual abuse as a purchasable indulgence for the powerful more than as an absolute evil.
Whether it is Bill O'Reilly settling for millions with his accuser of sexual harassment, or the head of the House Republican Campaign Committee accepting and not returning a $100,0000 contribution from Foley, a major thread of conservative belief is clear: you can buy your way out of sexual problems.
Liberals and moderates tend to favor expansions of rights for all: gays and people seeking divorces or remarriages. Liberals and moderates want social rules that bring out the best in people. They favor bringing sexual desires within the ambit of societal regulation by clearly allowing practices that are widespread among adults and clearly banning practices that demean the weak, the young, and the immature.
The conservative disinclination to allow sexual rights--contraception, abortion, divorce, remarriage--or to make such rights readily available--converts them into priviliges. States used to have private legislation which granted divorces for affluent and well-connected people. When abortion was illegal, there were frequent shakedowns of one kind or another against abortion clinics, their doctors, and their patients. The ultimate sin was not paying off the powerful.
There has always been tolerance for gays at a personal level. Scholars have documented friendly letters written to and about James Buchanan, America's only bachelor President, who lived openly with other unmarried men with distinguished records as well. Congressional Doorkeeper Fishbait Miller's memoirs are full of anecdotes about gay and heterosexually unfaithful members of Congress. It is only when gays have asserted that they should have rights--thus ending shakedowns and threats of shakedowns--that members of Congress have gotten antagonistic.
By cloaking themselves in the rhetoric of moral superiority, Hastert and company missed a key point of agreement among people of all ideologies: that young people should not be sexually exploited or sexually pursued by mature adults. This agreement is broader than is whatever is encompassed in any criminal code, making the question of whether Foley violated criminal law a minor issue in determining Hastert's lack of meaningful response.
The longer the Hastert saga goes on--and it will go on a long time whether or not Hastert resigns--the more it will be clear to the average citizen how hollow the self-proclaimed conservative role as America's moral protectors really is.
"Protecting" citizens against gay rights is far from the same as protecting young people against gay predators. "Protecting" citizens from expanded availability of contraceptives is far from the same as protecting lower-level employees from sexual harassment.
The lack of moral seriousness among many conservatives and Republicans is today obvious to many. It will be a contributing factor to the 2006 national Democratic Party landslide.