Foley Enters Rehab

In what's becoming a recurrent theme among congressmen in trouble, former Rep. Mark Foley is entering rehab. That's what Patrick Kennedy did after crashing his car in D.C. a few months ago, and now he's playing it for all its worth. I saw a press conference with him in the last week or so in which he was ranting about his "mental illness". Oh well.

At least Foley didn't hold a press conference and come out as a "gay American". That's so last year.

There's an interesting juxtaposition to be made between how Republicans handle scandals like this, and how Democrats have handled them in the past. Back in 1983 there was another page scandal, but there was a very different outcome for the GOP and Dem congressmen involved (from Wikipedia):

The 1983 Congressional page sex scandal was a political scandal in the United States involving members of the United States House of Representatives.

On July 14, 1983 the House Ethics Committee concluded that Rep. Dan Crane (R-Ill.) and Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) had engaged in sexual relationships with minors, specifically 17-year-old congressional pages. In Crane's case, it was a 1980 relationship with a female page and in Studds's case, it was a 1973 relationship with a male page. Both representatives immediately pleaded guilty to the charges and the committee decided to simply reprimand the two.

However, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) demanded their expulsion. On July 20, 1983 the House voted for censure, the first time that censure had been imposed for sexual misconduct. Crane, who tearfully apologized for his transgression, lost his bid for reelection in 1984. Studds, however, refused to apologize (even calling a press conference with the former page, in which both stated that they were consenting adults at the time of the relationship and that it was therefore not the business of others to censure them for their private relationship), and he continued to be reelected until his retirement in 1996.[1]

Draw what conclusions you will about the priorities of the Dems versus the GOP.

I think the Foley episode will turn out to be a mixed blessing for the Dems. On one hand it gives them the opportunity to crow sanctimoniously about a GOP sex scandal, which is better for them then having to talk about Iraq, national security, or their complete lack of an agenda. On the other hand, with Foley going into rehab, the shelf like on this scandal has been dramatically shortened. Had he gone home to Florida he would have been subject to camera stakeouts and ambush interviews, and we would have seen his guilty mug on the TV news every night for the next couple of weeks. With him out of pocket until probably after the election, the Dems will have to scramble to keep this issue alive, and pretty soon it will become more and more obvious that the Dems are simply trying to change the subject prior to the election and keep the focus off of their flaws.

It certainly doesn't help the GOP cause in November, but I don't think it's going to hurt them all that bad either.