I finally figured out why the Foley case makes me mad!

I have figured out why this whole Mark Foley scandal is got me so mad. It is because the Republicans are acting like Democrats. Perhaps that's been the problem with the Republicans for the last several years. They have been over spending like Democrats. They have been growing bigger government like Democrats. And now in the midst of a sex scandal, they continue to act like Democrats.

You know the Republican Party is supposed to be the party of family values. They are supposed to be the party of traditional moral values. And because of that republicans are held to higher standards than Democrats. We expect better from republicans.

Please, let’s not hear any more arguments about moral equivalency over this case. It is just not so in this one.

I have received numerous of e-mails over the last two days about how Democrat Barney Frank allegedly ran a homosexual prostitution ring out of his DC home. Also received e-mail trying to compare this scandal to the Bill Clinton and Monica situation, but it is just not the same. In those cases everyone involved was a consenting adult. In the Foley case we have a man pursuing a 16 year old teenage boy. This is far worse in my opinion.

Scandals involving pages in DC are not anything new. In 1983, Gerry Studds, a Democrat congressman from Massachusetts, and a Republican named Dan Crane, from my congressional district in Illinois, were both caught having sexual relations with pages. Crane was busted with a 17-year-old female, Studds with a 17-year-old male.

The republican congressman from Illinois Crane apologized for his actions and resigned his seat. He never got involved in politics again and is currently a dentist in Illinois. Congressman Studds however refused to apologize, and made the claim that his sexual encounter with the male page was nobody else's business. Congressman Studds took this 17-year-old boy to Morocco for their sexcapade, so that he wouldn't be violating any laws here at home. So what was the reaction of democrat voters in Massachusetts over this scandal? Well, the people of Massachusetts continued to re-elect Studds until he retired in 1996.

There also was not a Democrat House leader back then saying that the republican leadership had failed to protect the children that were entrusted to them as Nancy Pelosi is doing in the current scandal. In the Studds matter no Democrat suggested that the Democratic leadership be questioned as to what they knew about Studds' behavior, as Pelosi is doing now.

In fact Pelosi, who claims she's "for the children," was so outraged by the Studds scandal that she voted five times to make Studds a chairman of a congressional committee! And this is who's complaining about Dennis Hastert not doing enough in firing Foley immediately upon learning the content of IMs! Hypocricy is exhibited perfectly in the Democrat Party!

Trust me on this one. Pelosi's main concern is not protecting "the children." Her main concern now is maximizing the political advantage from this whole ordeal.

I still think that democrats and republicans knew or should have known that Mark Foley was preying on pages, and did little or nothing to stop it. Republicans were more concerned about loosing a seat in congress than getting rid of a sexual predator. Democrats were more concerned to holding on to the information until just the right time to destroy Foley and gain his seat instead of getting rid of a sexual predator. I'm sorry, but none of the excuses are working for me. In one of the many columns that I read on this issue the point was made that if a male congressman was writing a 16-year-old female page and asking for pictures, alarms would sound throughout Capitol Hill. Well, why not when a openly gay congressman asks for a picture from a 16-year-old male page? No red lights go off???

Right now I have had it. I am completely fed up with the Republican Party. My frustrations run way deeper than Mark Foley though. Over spending, immigration, and failure to privatize social security are just a few. Foley is just the tip of the iceberg.

One advantage that the Republicans used to hold over liberals and Democrats was their strong sense of traditional moral and family values. Can the Republican Party make that claim today? Did they take the steps necessary to protect young men in their charge from the advances of a seemingly predatory homosexual congressman?

No, I don’t want to hear the argument about what Democrats and Gerry Studds do or did. I know that Democrats excused the behavior of Ted Kennedy. I know that Bill Clinton was let off the hook for his conduct with Monica in the Oval Office ... and for the alleged rape of Juanita Broaderrick, which he has never to this day denied. They are Democrats; this kind of behavior is accepted for them. It is their pattern. Does this mean we have to now excuse the same actions for Republicans?

Unfortunately, there is just not much difference between the Democrat and Republican Parties any more.

Something extraordinary is going to have to happen in the next three weeks or so to keep the republicans in control of the House. Things could change, but as of right now I expect to see Democrats take control of the house and maybe the Senate this November. Stand by for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Maybe some good might come out of a Republican defeat. Which scenario would you prefer? Would you rather have the Republicans gloating over another victory over the Democrats and thinking we must be doing it right we keep getting elected? Or would you rather have the Republicans in exile for two years wondering where they went wrong, and developing a plan to regain the support of the voters?

The choice is becoming increasingly clear for me.