Laying off Foley was part of GOP self-preservation

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/hines/4234535.html

How many people knew Mark Foley is gay? About 96.8 percent of the relevant political universe. How many people knew he was a chicken hawk? Well, now that's an interesting question, isn't it? Along with when they knew and what, if anything, they did about it.

It is simply not credible that a succession of House leaders — Speaker Dennis Hastert, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Thomas B. Reynolds and page board chairman John Shimkus, among others — knew for months about "overly friendly" e-mails from Foley to a former page and the penny didn't drop.

Even if these men want to plead guilty to obtuseness, almost all of them have gay aides or associates who could have taken one look at the "overly friendly" e-mails, even with Foley's name blacked out, and advised them what seemed to be afoot. A psychologist could have told them that the e-mails had the earmarks of a classic predatory warm-up.

Hastert says: "There was nothing explicit in this e-mail that I understood." Don't these guys watch any of the gotcha shows about Internet solicitation of minors?

Send Foley a picture? Oh, spare me. By Monday, even Hastert had to admit "that would raise a red flag."