The Irresponsible Congress
When he received his honorary doctorates of law at Harvard University in September 1943, Winston Churchill proclaimed, the price of greatness is responsibility. In his acceptance speech, he argued that those who seek greatness can neither flee from their own responsibility nor their communal responsibilities. Now with less than four weeks before the mid-term elections, the Republicans in Congress are doing just that – shirking their responsibility in protecting our children. In doing so, they are also abandoning their responsibility to the very people that they were elected by.
The events and circumstances surrounding the meteoric fall of former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida has produced what can only be described by many a Republican in and out of the beltway, as a devastating blow to an already uncertain campaign cycle. It will possibly spell disaster for many Republican candidates and incumbents.What I fear most is that this incident will cause the right wing of the Republican Party, the religious extremists and evangelical crusaders to seek to purge the Republican Party of anyone who doesn’t share their “moral” beliefs. If this were to happen, it would demonstrate to moderate Americans what I have felt for many years since the rapid fire rise of the religious right; the singular exclusivity of the national Republican Party and how out of touch they are with their own principles of limited government.
As a person, I am disgusted by Mr. Foley’s acts. Any person with an ounce of moral fiber would find that sending solicitous emails to underage kids is appalling to any one, conservative or liberal, gay or straight, or parent or childless. When someone who suffers from Mr. Foley’s condition attempts to abuse children in that most disgusting manner, than the consequences of his sin must be delivered with speed, efficiency, and a firm hand.
I find that the media’s fixation on what other gay Republican staffers knew or did not know to be troublesome. The issue is not whether Mr. Foley is gay or not. The issue is not whether other gay Republicans attempted to protect Mr. Foley from criticism and reprimands from his colleagues. By all accounts, many senior leaders on both sides of the political aisle knew of his sexual orientation. I protest the media’s current fixation on gay Hill staffers (mainly the New York Times and the Washington Post) because it draws attention away from the real issue; the Republican leadership’s failure to adhere to its own principles of responsible government.
Responsibility to protect children doesn’t stop because you’re not a parent or because your children have grown up. Everyone has some measure of responsibility to protect children whether they’re the parent or not. As an elected official and members of the leadership team within the House, it fell upon everyone with knowledge of Mr. Foley’s “interests” to report it. It was also their responsibility to take whatever actions were necessary to remove him from his leadership post on the House Caucus for Missing and Exploited Children. How could the Republican leaders have allowed Mr. Foley to lead such a group of people when they were at the very least aware, of his interests in young teenage boys? How could a person with this mental condition be allowed to have enormous influence in writing the very laws that will eventually punish him? Were the laws he helped write to protect children, also written to protect him in the event that his condition was exposed in this manner?
These are the questions that the public should be asking. Not who in the Republican hierarchy is in the “Velvet Closet.”
It’s not important that Mr. Foley happens to be gay. Pedophilia, which is classified as a mental condition, can affect people of any sexual orientation. We are equally disgusted when it is a grown man preying on little girls.
The question that we should be asking is who is responsible for issuing committee assignments and leadership spots and for convincing people to run for Congress? The answer is the Republican Party leadership. For the past twelve years, the leadership of the House has been in the hands of the Republicans. The few people who made up the leadership when this problem first surfaced were Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Mr. Conservative himself, former Representative Tom Delay. Although Mr. Delay is no longer in Congress, Mr. Boehner the current Majority Leader bears much of the responsibility because he has explicitly acknowledged his awareness then and now when he became Majority leader, he should have immediately taken steps to remedy the situation. These are the people that should stand up and take full responsibility for their actions or lack thereof. I certainly don’t want Mr. Hastert or Mr. Boehner to write, sponsor or vote for legislation that would protect my 11 year old cousin or my 7 year old godson.
What makes this sordid affair ironic is that it is the Republicans who now have to deal with this. Had they not taken great pains to pursue and cultivate the “values” voters to turn out in droves and collect huge sums of campaign donations from, this might have simply turned out to be another Washington scandal, not unlike many other scandals that have plagued the corridors of power in our nation’s capital. Any political party that sets themselves apart from every other part because of their supposed values, ought not to be shocked and dismayed when they demonstrate that they are like everyone else, humans full of faults.
In the past, Republicans in Congress have demonstrated their ability to assume the mantle of responsibility whenever one of their members strays away from the issues that get them elected time and time again. Mr. Livingston had to resign from Congress when it was discovered that he was having an affair with one of his staffers - hot off the-heals of the Clinton impeachment. I ask where is that degree of responsibility now?
The only person currently embroiled in the controversy to accept any kind of responsibility is Mr. Reynolds, the chairman of the National Congressional Campaign Committee. He recently proclaimed his sorrow for not doing anything stronger than inform a couple of staffers in the Speaker’s office. Mr. Boehner seems content to place the blame solely in the lap of the Speaker and the Speaker is refusing to accept any responsibility what-so-ever. Regardless however, they have at the very least, been aware of the issue and should have taken steps to remove Mr. Foley from the position to write laws that protect our children long ago.
Recent surveys suggest that conservative Christians view this affair as a personal sin and that the only person that should be held responsible is Mr. Foley. I agree, that this is Mr. Foley’s sin, but his sin was helped by those who had the power to take away his responsibilities of writing laws aimed to help our children. Committing sin is a deeply personal experience. But in many cases, it requires assistance either technological or personal. In this case, the assistance that Mr. Foley counted on was the greed of the Republican leadership. Their greed forced them to look the other way so that they could keep control of his Congressional seat. Because of that greed, innocent teenagers had to suffer the degradation and humiliation of being stalked by a predator.
If this is the level of responsibility that our Republican Congressional leaders are willing to accept, why should we continue to let them lead us as we struggle against an intractable enemy overseas? Why should we continue to let them serve as examples to our children when they seem unwilling to accept their own responsibility for their inactions? In my humble opinion, we shouldn’t. We should usher in a new period in government and give the Democrats a chance to demonstrate if they are better than the power grabbing, irresponsible and reckless leadership that we have had for the last few years.
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