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With the understanding that I believe that what Mark Foley did was inexcusable and that he should have resigned, here goes...

...let's compare the Foley scandal with the Monica Lewinsky scandal which overshadows much of Bill Clinton’s “legacy”.

Some of my more liberal friends ( yes, I do have liberal friends ) say that the comparison is unfair since Lewinsky was an adult and the comparison makes conservatives look overly partisan.

Where ARE the people who kept screaming that President Clinton's Oval Office sexual escapades were his "private business" in the Mark Foley scandal? At least Foley resigned, Clinton wouldn't even admit to more than making a mistake in judgement.

My take is that there are legitimate comparisons between the two situations.

The comparisons:

1. Both situations involved an extremely powerful figure who was using his power to gain sexual gratification from a person or persons who were in positions of responsibility under them and who could reasonably expect to gain career or professional benefits from the relationship if the powerful figure was satisfied, or to be hurt by the relationship if the powerful figure was unsatisfied. This has very little to do with age, it is mostly about abuse of a position of power. Although in the Foley case there was no physical contact.

2. Both situations involved an implied employer/employee relationship which brings in the entire issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.

3. Both situations involved a public figure in a position of trust who is working with idealistic young people sent to our nation’s capital by parents and family members who believed they could trust the system and the people who run the system with their sons or daughters.

The age of consent in Washington, D.C. is 16.  This doesn't excuse what Rep. Foley did but keeping in mind that, as of right now, there was no physical contact between Foley and any page, even if there had been Foley broke no laws. Is he a pervert? In my opinion, yes. But as far as I know the only place he has stuck a cigar is in his own mouth.

Some of my liberal friends have stated that the GOP is now the "Gay Old Party." Excuse me? I thought being diverse was an admirable quality? A, dare I say it, DEMOCRATIC quality. Homosexuality is wrong, plain and simple. Republican or Democrat or Green Party or Pink Party. But we all should show homosexuals compassion.

The Democrats have an "unusual" strategy going into the mid-term elections. Telling the American people how terrible the Republicans are. But they seem to be also condemning the very things that they have stood for many years.

Things like:

So I think it is completely reasonable to condemn Foley  for his actions, just as we needed to condemn what President Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky.

100% of the issues I have with Rep. Foley, apply equally to former President Clinton. But my two faced liberal friends just don't see the comparisons. Who is kidding themselves here?

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

Thanks for spending part of your day reading about mine.

Tim "cobra74" Kenney