Sanctimonious Republican Congressman, Mark Foley, caught in his own intern (gay) sex scandal…

In a desperate attempt to compete with the trash cable news channels put out 24/7, news divisions at the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX) have resorted to purveying enough sensational and inconsequential crap to make the National Enquirer seem respectable. But where cable news channels rarely, if ever, produce any investigative reports that serve the public interest, the networks still do so occasionally.

Of course, nothing pleases network-news bosses more than when those occasional reports are both sensational and consequential. And such was the case last week when ABC aired its investigative report on U.S. Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla).

ABC reporter Brian Ross has distinguished himself over the years by reporting on the hypocritical behavior of U.S. politicians; especially those who sell their souls to lobbyists for a few dollars or paid vacations. But, even though sensational, those reports were generally of little consequence.

On the other hand, his report on Rep. Foley’s hypocritical behaviour was clearly consequential because it forced the Congressman to resign on Friday right after Ross aired details about his inappropriate sexual conduct with little boys. And, just imagine the stench of hypocrisy when people learned that Foley chaired the Congressional committee on missing and exploited children and wrote the sexual-predator provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which President George W. Bush signed in July.

Indeed, having Foley in charge of protecting children from sexual predators was akin to having the fox guarding the chicken coop. After all, Ross reported that Foley has a sordid history of lewd and lascivious behavior in this respect. Moreover, that instead of having to cruise schoolyards and shopping malls, the Congressional page program – which has teenagers living in Capitol Hill dorms and attending school while working as Congressional interns – provided a steady pool of impressionable boys for Foley (52) to seduce.

Incidentally, it’s interesting to note here that on 22 May 2003, Foley held a news conference to denounce rumors about his gay sexual orientation as “revolting and unforgivable tactics employed by Democrats to slur him.”

According to Ross’s report, Foley’s grooming of these boys invariably began with flirtatious mentoring in the halls of Congress. But, once he set his sights on his prey, it soon escalated to Internet sex (like the session excerpted below with Foley using codename Maf54 ) and, one infers, on to more personal contact:

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NOTE: Other news outlets are reporting that Republican Congressional leaders have known about Foley’s perverted behavior for years. Yet, instead of removing this menace to little boys entrusted to their care, they acted like Catholic Bishops indulging the pedophile misdeeds of priests; i.e., they did nothing and prayed that Foley’s molestation of these boys would remain secret!

But now that Ross has exposed this sensational scandal, Republican leaders are feigning shock and moral outrage and promising not only a Congressional investigation but also an FBI probe into Foley’s dalliances….

However, justice in this case requires not only that Foley be criminally prosecuted (ironically enough, under the same sexual-predator laws he drafted, which calls for mandatory 10-year prison sentences for perverts like him); but also that all Republican leaders who knew (or should have known) about his predatory behavior and did nothing be expelled from Congress – as a consequence of their dereliction – of duty to the Congress and due care to these Congressional pages.

ENDNOTE: Apropos wayward Catholic priests, click here for another Ross investigative report on two of them whose “secret bank accounts, gambling trips, cars, condos and paramours were all part of what police say was a multi-million dollar theft of church funds.”

Keep up the good work Ross!

UPDATE (Oct. 3, 6:40pm): Evidently, my allusion above to pedophile priests was more insightful than I realized. Because, just moments ago, Foley dispatched his lawyer to offer the abuse excuse that – as a teenager – he was molested by a clergyman….

As if scurrying off to an alcohol rehab center to hide from shame were not contrived enough. Forget spanking….What this guy needs is to be thrown in prison to get really banged (up) as soon as possible!

Congressman Mark Foley