Journal bethanie's Journal: [NYT] Hitting a Self-Destruct Button 2
Thoughtless
Hitting a Self-Destruct Button
By MARK LEIBOVICH
WASHINGTON
POLITICS incubates all manner of gaffe, scandal and humiliation, and then there are those rarified doozies that become classics at I.M. speed.
Hello, Representative Mark Foley, here's your special membership pin and thanks for joining Washington's "What On Earth Was He Thinking?" Caucus.
The illustrious club includes a special "Sex Scandal" subcaucus that features, among others, Wilbur Mills (D-Tidal Basin), Gary Hart (D-Monkey Business), Bob Packwood (R-Senate Elevators) and, of course, Bill Clinton (D-Oval Office).
Mr. Foley, the six-term Republican from Florida, gained slam-dunk admission Friday when he resigned from Congress and apologized to his family and the people of his state over reports that he sent sexually explicit messages to underage male pages.
Note the inclusion of the terms "sexually explicit," "underage," "male" and "page," in addition to the tidbits tidily extracted from the instant messages that ABC News reported were exchanged between Mr. Foley and his 16-year old, er, friend:
"Do I make you a little horny?" Mr. Foley reportedly asked under the log-in name "Maf54."
Teen: "A little."
Maf54: "Cool."
Mr. Foley gets double bonus points for his helpful if imprudent use of electronic mail, which made it so easy to spread around the mirth and amusement and -- oops, scratch that, we mean genuine sadness and compassion. This is Washington, after all.
The exchange was quoted verbatim in the lead story of ABC's "World News Tonight" Friday and linked in its entirety on ABC's Web site under the heading of "READER DISCRETION STRONGLY ADVISED: Foley's Exchange With Underage Page."
Career-ender, in other words. At least until Mr. Foley does his confessional interview on Oprah, gets his very own talk-show ("Mark!") and secures the requisite seven-figure book advance. The book would divulge all the sordid details, except that it's hard to imagine things getting any more sordid than what's already on the Internet. The snippet quoted above is just the PG-13 teaser.
The "Sex Scandal" club is only one subcaucus in the big tent of Washington infamy and shame. There is also the "Blatant Financial Improprieties" subcaucus (with the guest star Duke Cunningham), the "Ill-Advised Nazi Comparison" subcaucus (Howdy, Senator Dick Durbin) and the "Racially Insensitive Remark Directly Into a Video Camera" ("You're an animal, George Allen").
But the sex subcaucus is easily the biggest.
"You always seem to have politicians doing bizarrely self-destructive things, especially involving sex," says Lawrence Kestenbaum, creator of "Political Graveyard," a history Web site that includes an exhaustive cataloging of transgressions by politicians.
Under the heading "Politicians Who Were Ever in Trouble or Disgrace," the section contains 420 entries, in chronological order, many of them involving present and former members of Congress. Among the escapades:
- Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, was reprimanded when it was revealed that a male lover had been running a prostitution business out of his Capitol Hill apartment.
- Donald (Buz) Lukens, Republican of Ohio, who was convicted of a misdemeanor for having sex with a 16-year-old girl.
- Dan Crane, Republican of Illinois, and Gerry Studds, Democrat of Massachusetts, both of whom were censured by the House for having sexual relations with teenage pages -- Mr. Crane with a female in 1980, Mr. Studds with a male in 1973.
The "Politicians Who Were Ever in Trouble or Disgrace" section comes with the devastatingly simple disclaimer "Very Incomplete!"
Mr. Kestenbaum says improprieties in the political realm tend to resonate more than in others. First, they tend to become public, necessitating apologies and, in many cases, resignations. He points out that if Mr. Foley were a purchasing manager at some store, he might actually keep his job.
"The political world tends to be very judgmental," Mr. Kestenbaum says. This creates towering spectacles of dishonesty, famous last words that are often caught on tape. Mr. Clinton created the gold standard for this when he looked into a camera and indignantly declared, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
Mr. Foley gets triple bonus points for hypocrisy. As co-chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children, he has been a fierce advocate for tough sanctions against people who sexually exploit children over the Internet. Not that Democrats have been pointing this out relentlessly since the news broke or anything.
Or reminding people that Mr. Foley was a big supporter of President Clinton's impeachment.
"Part of his thing was, 'What do we tell the children?'" recalls the longtime Clinton aide Paul Begala. "Apparently, we'll tell them in a sexually explicit e-mail."
Gleeful, anyone? It's unclear exactly where this fits in, but any story about politicians and sex scandals feels incomplete without the iconic quote from Edwin Edwards, the rascally former governor of Louisiana: "The only way I can lose this election," Mr. Edwards once boasted to reporters, "is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy."
He said nothing about instant messaging, however.
love that quote (Score:2)
Bwahahaha... (Score:2)
The dude has a cast fetish. A freaking plaster cast fetish.