We Undermine the Perverts at Our Own Peril

I can't add too much to the debate at this point, except to point out my astonishment that the GOP would be willing to cover up for this creep for years, illustrating their utter hypocrisy concerning family values and supposed moral superiority. The newest sickening twist, and there have been several, is that pundits such as those employed by The Wall Street Journal are so desperate about the political fall-out that they're trying to turn the whole Foley saga into an example of liberal hypocrisy. As everyone from Andrew Sullivan to Jon Stewart has noted by now, equating pedophelia and homosexuality is repulsive, and trying to blame Foley's actions on the Democrats' fight for homosexual rights is just...sick.

Hastert, of course, has to go. He thought it was just fine to allow a predatory creep to remain in a position that allowed him access to underage pages, and to keep this information confined to a small circle, and that's just not acceptable. Hastert, hilariously, sees the widespread criticism of him as some sort of attack on the country itself:

But, you know, this is a political issue in itself, too, and what we've tried to do as the Republican Party is make a better economy, protect this country against terrorism -- and we've worked at it ever since 9/11, worked with the president on it -- and there are some people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well.

Yes, undermine the perverts at our own peril, so to speak.

And it's fascinating that he chose Rush Limbaugh's show to defend himself. Let's let Glenn have the last words:

If the term "moral degenerate" has any validity and can be fairly applied to anyone, there are few people who merit that term more than Rush Limbaugh. He is the living and breathing embodiment of moral degeneracy, with his countless overlapping sexual affairs, his series of shattered, dissolved marriages, his hedonistic and illegal drug abuse, his jaunts, with fistfulls of Viagra (but no wife), to an impoverished Latin American island renowned for its easy access to underage female prostitutes.

Yet that is who Hastert chose as the High Priest of the Values Voters to whom he made his pilgrimage and from whom he received his benediction.