Gay and straight Republicans are now attempting to paint DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as either anti-gay or just plain partisan and hypocritical for her 2006 stance against then-Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) who had many inappropriate conversations with underage Congressional pages, and was forced to resign.
Michael Alan, who writes for William A. Jacobson, (amazingly, an Associate Clinical Professor at Cornell Law School,) at the blog, “Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion,” states that Foley “made advances towards 18 and 21 year old young men.” No mention whatsoever of the fact that Foley sent “over-friendly” emails to a minor, along with “sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages.”
Why would Alan totally ignore the inappropriate underage contacts Foley made for ten years?
“The boy who received the e-mails was 16 in the summer of 2005 when he worked in Congress as a page,” reports a 2006 USA Today article. After the boy returned to his Louisiana home, the congressman e-mailed him. The teenager thought the messages were inappropriate, particularly one in which Foley asked the teen to send a picture of himself.”
There’s also this article from ABC News, titled, “Foley Resigns Over Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors”:
“Saying he was “deeply sorry,” Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.”
“Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.”
Alan writes, “Earlier this week, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told CNN that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is dealing with “a personal matter.” That “personal matter” includes not knowing “with certitude” whether or not the, er, picture that was tweeted to a 21 year old college student belongs to the Congressman.”
(There has been zero proof of underage contact from Weiner, to date.)
Alan continues:
“Well, that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz should really get acquainted withthis Debbie Wasserman-Schultz:
This goes beyond Rep. Foley, it goes to the values of the Congressional leadership. These are not family values, these are not American values.
“What was Wasserman-Schultz referring to in that 2006 quote? The behavior of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL . . . are you watching those party labels?), who made advances towards 18 and 21 year old young men.”
As I have no doubt that Foley may have also “made advances towards 18 and 21 year old young men,” I won’t call Alan a liar. But an obfuscator? Yes. See above.
Worse is B. Daniel Blatt of GayPatriot, who asks, “Is DNC chair anti-gay?” (The answer is a resounding “no.”)
Blatt claims Wasserman-Schultz, “has called for a much harsher censure of the man sexually drawn to members of his own sex while seeking to excuse the behavior of an apparently heterosexual federal representative,” and adds, “Could it be that she used the pretext of the 2006 scandal involving Congressman Foley to draw attention to these misdeeds of a gay man, so reminding people of the shibboleth that gay men regularly prey on teenage boys? And yet she finds it excusable that a married straight man would use electronic media to flirt with a woman less than half his age. This Democrat appears more ready to criticize a gay man than a straight one.”
Again, no mention of the fat that Foley was hitting on underage Congressional interns! So, for Blatt, it’s OK to cover up an inappropriate relationship with a minor, but it’s important to be prejudiced when it’s two consenting adults?
Let me make this clear. Foley was hitting on UNDERAGE Congressional interns. (To make it worse, they were far, far away from home. Imagine being 16, getting hit on by a Congressman and you have no where to turn.)
Do B. Daniel Blatt and Michael Alan think hitting on underage children is acceptable? Do they also think covering it up is acceptable?
Disgusting.
For the record, I think what Weiner did was also disgusting, but there are degrees. And what Blatt and Alan have done is worse than what Weiner did. They literally told dozens, possibly hundreds of then-underage boys that the email and instant message sexual harassment did not happen to them.
Pathetic.