RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2006, AND THEREAFTER
THE HYPOCRITES' CAUCUS
by Susan Estrich
They knew he was gay. They knew he was in the closet. No, it wasn't sexually explicit, but what's a 52-year-old man doing asking a 16-year-old boy for his picture? He wasn't asking everybody for their pictures. It was a special request. And a very inappropriate one, as everyone who saw it recognized.
If this were a corporation, there would be lawsuits left and right. Supervisors would have been expected to do something, not sit on their hands.
If it were the Catholic Church, we'd be screaming bloody murder about why the priest wasn't removed from his position, why he was left where others could be harmed. Who was responsible, we would ask.
But it's Congress, and they think they're above it all. Because so much of the time, in so many ways, they are. And then, every once in a while, there is a crack in the wall of secrecy.
There is a closet caucus on Capitol Hill, and now we find out that he was a member of it. Don't ask, don't tell, big time. The hypocrites huddle. This is not a bipartisan issue. Democrats don't feel the need to lie as much. At least most of the caucus members stick to grown-ups. This one liked them young. It was, apparently, no secret. Interns were warned. Pages were told. He asked boys out for ice cream. Now we read interviews of young men from a decade ago, boys then, warnings passed from one class to another. The leadership was told. Are you disgusted yet?
I'm not homophobic. I'm a mother. I don't like heterosexual predators any better. Not when the kids are underage. And I have a special place for hypocrites. They talk a great game, but when it comes down to it, they don't care about kids or values. They care about protecting a safe seat and giving high-minded speeches about family values.
The Republican leadership should be ashamed of themselves. What claim do they have to call themselves leaders? Dennis Hastert isn't a leader, he's a gutless wonder.
Sorry is not enough. They let him get away with it. They knew it was wrong enough, bad enough, to tell him to stop, but not bad enough to protect the rest of the kids.
They left him where he was. He had his own special subcommittee on children; he was a member of the most powerful committee on the Hill. He was not tolerated; he was prized. No wonder no one ever said anything. He wasn't just any congressman. He operated in public. He had no reason to be afraid. The boys did.
This is what is worst about Washington.
Every once in a while you get a glimpse, or a sniff, of the true extent of the abuse of power.
What they tolerated was, plain and simple, an abuse of power. And in doing so, they abused theirs.
These high-minded preachers of Christian values, who practice not one word of it.
I don't care who did it in the past to whom. That's what they're all trotting out. No one can defend Foley, so instead they want to remind you of what this one did to that one, or to that one. As if that makes it better. As if we should care. Whatever it was, it was wrong, too. How about that? And it certainly doesn't matter if you play the alcoholic card. Enough with that excuse, too. How about a new rule? Congressmen are responsible for what they do wrong. Whatever party they belong to. Especially if they do it to children.
