October 1, 2006, - 2:24 pm
My “Mark Foley Moment”: How GOP vs. Dems Treat Their Sex Offenders
By
While liberal Democrats snicker over Florida Congressman Mark Foley’s sex scandal–his graphic e-mails with underage pages, they really need to look at their own side of the aisle in Congress.
Foley resigned, as he should have, and Republican’s called for an investigation. Now, the libs are screaming and yelling about “What did the GOP know and when did they know it.” But the fact is that whenever GOP leadership learns of a likely illegal sex scandal involving their members, they’ve always called for his (there have not yet been any “hers,” but someday there will be) resignation.
I know this first-hand. When I was in high school and college, I worked as an intern on Capitol Hill for three Republican Congressman–Mark Siljander of Michigan, Phil Crane of Illinois, and Donald E. “Buz” Lukens of Ohio. During my junior year of college, just after I worked for Lukens, he was caught in a sex scandal, broken by tabloid show “A Current Affair.” Lukens was blackmailed on tape (all set up and arranged by the FOX show) by a teen-age prostitute and her mother, who was apparently her pimp and “marketed” her as “of legal age.” Lukens was apparently one of their “customers.”
It gave new meaning to the Christmas cards he sent me that said “Debbie, We hardly knew ye.” It was the other way around, apparently. I hardly knew him. Still, I felt bad for him–it was a sleazy situation created in part by a sleazy, sick pimp mother (to whom nothing happened) and a sleazy TV show. Buz Lukens was always nice to me (no, not in that way) and all of those who worked for him. And I saw him lose everything. He lost his Congressional seat, the scant money he had, was forced to take AIDS tests, and had to attend sex offender education. He lost everything.
Of note is how Republicans treated the situation. The House GOP leadership immediately called for an ethics investigation and Lukens’ resignation. When Lukens refused, GOP leadership recruited a primary opponent whom they supported against Lukens. The man, John Boehner, won–and, as a Congressman and GOP Majority Leader, now in his district.
Contrast his and Mark Foley’s treatment with the way Dems treated Congressman Barney Frank, a gay, far-left Massachusetts Democrat. In 1985, he engaged the “services” of gay prostitute Stephen Gobie, who advertised in the Washington Gay Blade that he had a “hot bottom.” Soon Gobie was Frank’s live-in boyfriend, and Frank was soliciting the House clerk to clear Gobie’s many traffic tickets. And Gobie was running his prostitution business, clear as the day, out of Frank’s Washington, DC residence.
And there’s more. According to The Boston Globe:
He [Frank] and Gobie carried on a clandestine affair, during which time Frank hired Gobie as a driver despite knowing Gobie was on probation for drug possession and for possession of child pornography. Frank used his House privileges to fix Gobie’s parking tickets. He wrote a memo trying to clear Gobie from probation that was disingenuous at best and an outright deception at worst.
So what happened to Frank for illegally hiring a prostitute, for fixing that prostitute’s tickets, for trying to fix the guy’s probation, and for allowing the prostitute to run his “business” out of Frank’s Congressional residence? Nada. Nothing.
And guess who was in charge of the House of Reps. then? Hint: It wasn’t the GOP. And guess what they did about it? Hint: NOTHING. And guess what else? No-one asked, “What did the Democrats know and when did they know it?” By the way, they never called for an ethics investigation of Frank. The GOP did, but since they didn’t run Congress then, nothing happened. And there were never any calls for his resignation by the leadership of his party. None.
The e-mails by Mark Foley are outrageous and unacceptable. He should have been ousted, as he was. There is no indication that he ever went beyond e-mails with House pages or that Republican leadership knew of the more explicit e-mails, just the more benign, but suspicious ones. But he is gone.
And all the Republican sex offenders are gone–ousted by their own party’s leadership. But Barney Frank is still there. And he’s celebrated by Democratic Party leaders. Tells us all we need to know.
Ditto, regarding Monica’s boyfriend.
Tags: Barney Frank, Barney Frank Did Much Worse, Christmas, Congress, congressman, DC, Debbie Schlussel, Democratic Party, Donald E. "Buz" Lukens, Golf, Illinois, John Boehner, Lukens, Majority Leader, Mark Foley, Mark Foley Wrote Inappropriate, Mark Siljander, Massachusetts, Michigan, Monica, Ohio, Phil Crane, Republican Party, Stephen Gobie, the Boston Globe, Washington
Few types of harassment and abuse of authority are as disorienting and maddening — and common — as those of a sexual nature. Women occasionally harass men, too (it’s happened to me). How fitting, in a way, that this story is breaking as Yom Kippur approaches.
“Judgment comes from experience and great judgment comes from bad experience.”
— former Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR)
Jeremiah on October 1, 2006 at 3:37 pm