Oldspeak

According to the Washington Post, there were multiple sources for PageGate (I prefer "BuggerGate") IMs and emails sent by Mark Foley, and getting them into the public eye was a truly bipartisan effort. Effort is the right word, because what's amazing is how long it took for any news outlet to publish what they knew was a US Congressman's obviously predatory, pederastic, and thus genuinely criminal, behavior. The material went to the St. Petersberg Times a year ago and they sat on it. Even frigging Harper's, that money-losing haven for liberals, took a pass on the story five months ago. Liberal blogs Talkingpointsmemo.com and Americablog.com, along with The New Republic, The Hill, Roll Call, and Time magazine apparently all had the Foley story and sat on it.

So who really got the story out? It was a mix of people, originally Republican staff and then Democrat, who were disgusted enough to come forward. But the pages themselves, of course, were the real original sources; it looks like some attempted to go through established channels for years and kept getting muffled. Unlike the press, the pages didn't see much gray area. Let's listen to the kids as they engage in a little Oldspeak:

The Republican former page said he had decided it was up to the victims to come forward with them, but once ABC News published the e-mails, "I knew everything I had already known about Foley was finally going to come out. His attraction to young men. His sexual conversations with them, etc."

"I decided that it was in the best interests of kids in general, pages and my friends specifically that Foley be dealt with quickly and swiftly so that he couldn't hurt anyone else," the Republican student wrote in his e-mail. "We've seen how long the Justice department and every other government bureaucracy can take to deal with criminal issues and abuse. I knew the media would be the fastest way to get Foley the justice he deserved."

As for The Post's source, Foley's initial response to the disclosure of the e-mails finally persuaded him to share his information, he said.

"When the first e-mails came out, Foley's campaign came out saying it was all a well-timed Democratic smear. Those rumors were unfounded, and I knew that to be untrue," the Democratic former page said. Before the ABC News report, "we were reluctant to take on Congress as young politicos ourselves, but when first blows were made, there was no harm in coming forward," he added.

If there's any doubt about how politically complicit the Fourth Estate has been, and how scared journalists and their lawyers have been of the current Administration and its courts, let them hereby be dispelled. Foley's intentions are obvious through all his communications with the congressional pages, and you can't read them in isolation or entirety without knowing what was going on.

My gut is telling me there's a whole string of gay hypocrites in the Republican Party protecting each other. Feel free to call me nutty, but it's not like other organizations in the past haven't been ruled through blackmail and sexual favors. Like the Greek and Roman Senates at various points, pretty much every royal court before the 1800s, various churches and religious cults, totalitarian states, and a number of contract bridge clubs. I’m still having a hard time buying it, but the data is piling up rapidly. Fordham, Foley, Reynolds, Hastert, Kohle, Santorum, Mehlman, all the way back to Rove. You've seen enough Marty Scorsese movies: if you have the same secret blood on your hands you can be easily controlled, and the Pugs are all about lockstep.