Hastert & Foley sitting in a tree...

It would seem the Foley "buck" is going to be stopping at the office door of the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert (R-IL).

It's election season. In essence, it is every man and woman for himself or herself. Even at this time of year your political party can be put on the back burner, when it doesn't benefit you in a meaningful way. The Mark Foley scandal is going to be around a month from now when elections are about to go into full gear. It will be election day on November 7, after all. No doubt there will be lots more to discover and learn about the Foley scandal between now and then. Many Republicans are moving the blame to the top very quickly. Some Republicans in the top echelon of power wanted to "spread" the blame around, in order to minimize the damage any one member of the House would be forced to endure. It doesn't seem that idea is going to pan out. No one is going to be sharing in the blame of this fiasco unless they absolutely were involved in the scandal cover-up. And even then some members of the House are not going to be accepting blame right away.

So, what have we learned exactly? We found out from Foley's attorney that he is an alcoholic who was abused as a teenager by a clergyman. Is that the makings of a class "A" pervert? According to some of the experts I heard on television the other night, yes it is. It is very interesting that he is suddenly meeting the criteria for being a "no-fault" deviant.

Now what about Dennis Hastert, who is the lead Republican in the House of Representatives? Yes, he doesn't deny that he knew about some "inappropriate" communications between Foley and a congressional page that took place a few years ago. In fact, he's known about it since 2005. But what did he do about it? Nothing at all. He turned a blind eye to the facts. He stood in complete party mode. He chose not to rock the boat, because if he did he might give Democrats some leverage to rock the boat in a different direction. Honestly, would the fall-out from the Foley scandal be as broad as it is now if Hastert, and other Republicans, made this issue public in 2005? I doubt it. It would have been almost as if they were doing the right thing. Now there's a novel idea for Washington!