You Call It Lazy, I Call It Research

I have been wasting away a morning when I could have been doing some witty writing by reading what others have penned. There is some good stuff out there today.

Congressman Attacked by 'Beasts'
Just about everyone is talking about Matt Drudge's creative defense of Congressional Predator Mark Foley. According to Drudge last Monday, the "poor congressman" was "being played for all he was worth" by "16 and 17 year-old beasts." In the perverse little world that Matt Drudge lives in, 16 year-old boys are all slavering sex beasts prowling for naive, sexually inexperience congressmen three times their age.

Hastert's Fat Is a National Treasure
Dennis Hastert has been way too fat for way too long, even his metaphors are getting fatty. In an interview with Rush Limbaugh (no stranger to fat) where the House Speaker call the Mark Foley scandal a vast left-wing conspiracy he dropped this little bon mot, "We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well." Dennis Hastert is the blubber that surrounds the vital organs of the American Heartland. Without his quivering lipids embracing the body politic we would all freeze to death in this cold world.

After several days of struggle, the Republican talking point on the Foley scandal has resolved into blame the Democrats. Democrats knew all about this for years while Republicans were clueless because ... well, they can't seem to explain that yet. But Vast Left-wing Conspiracy has become the universal talking point.

Not Funny, Just Scary
One of the teenagers harassed by Foley has been receiving threats. The only possible source is right-wingers trying to terrorize the child. Heard it first at Dependable Renegade.

Torture...Secret Detention... oh look, Sex
Steve Bates points out that the obsession with Foleygate has buried the more important story, the fact that Congress passed laws legalizing torture and outlawing Habeas Corpus for anyone that the President deems unworthy of human rights. He wonders if Republicans are using Foleygate to do a little "dog wagging."

Hey, Mark, how did you vote...never mind
Hecate caught something I had missed. While on the House floor, Foley had cybersex with at least one page and ABC news has the transcript. They sit close together in Congress. It makes me wonder how uncomfortable it was for Foley's colleagues when Foley got itchy fingers. Did his congressional neighbors have to get up and go to the vending machines when Foley started text-messaging a page? Or, is a little phone sex SOP on the Republican side of the aisle during those boring roll call votes? I would love to know who was sitting next to Foley during his sex-messaging sessions.