From Media Matters, hat tip HuffPost

In response, Dobson again criticized Clinton and then suggested that the sexually explicit instant messages allegedly sent by Foley to underage male pages were the result of "sort of a joke":

DOBSON: We condemn the Foley affair categorically, and we also believe that what Mr. Clinton did was one of the most embarrassing and wicked things ever done by a president in power. Let me remind you, sir, that it was not just James Dobson who found the Lewinsky affair reprehensible. More than 140 newspapers called for Clinton's resignation. But the president didn't do what Mr. Foley has done in leaving. He stayed in office, and he lied to the grand jury to obscure the facts. As it turns out, Mr. Foley has had illicit sex with no one that we know of, and the whole thing turned out to be what some people are now saying was a -- sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages.

Read it all here.

Richard Cizic, the vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals

Ted Haggard's sidekick, Richard Cizic, finally addressed Foleygate on NPR. Turns out, the leaders of the largest coalition of evangelicals in America, the NAE, are willing to give Hastert "a break." Evidently, being the key player in the cover-up of a sexual predator is no big deal:

"I give Mr. Hastert a break here and say he did what he probably should have done."

Cizic went on to say that only a "small percentage" of evangelicals will be "turned off" to the GOP by the scandal.

"There are other issues that will impact their vote, but I'm not sure this one will"

Haggard calls the NAE “the representative of evangelicalism worldwide." Let's hope not.

Related Stories

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (no relation to Anthony Perkins of Psycho)

The Radical Right's reaction to the Foley scandal is getting progressively more disgusting. First, they blamed Foleygate on the Internet. Then they blamed the gays and political correctness. Now, they want to divert attention away from the GOP cover-up by demanding an investigation of the "outside help" responsible for an alleged October Surprise. [From Focus on the Family's primary DC lobby, Family Research Council]:

...the media and homosexual networks, also owe a public account, because they have helped turn what could have been one man's tragedy last year into this year's politics-laden "October surprise." Congress should authorize its own internal investigation, make it fully independent, and empower it to look at everything, including the role of outside groups. If we've learned anything about members of Congress gone wild, it's that they usually have plenty of "outside help."

The homosexual networks?! The only homosexual network we know of is the "Christian" Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Our DOBSON COUNTER is still ticking.... there's still been no mention of Dennis Hastert's wrongdoing by the king of the "values voters," James Dobson. As we've said before, is there any doubt he'd be on a rampage had the Foley cover-up been orchestrated by Democrats?

Related 1: DefCon sounds off on Foleygate & the Religious Right blame game

Related 2: "Have your religious freedoms been threatened by the homosexual agenda?" The Family Research Council wants to hear from you. WTF?! [HatTip Jesus Politics]

Randall Balmer sounds off on the Arlington Group (whose members include James Dobson, Ted Haggard, Gary Bauer, and Skeletor). [From Faithful Democrats hat tip Jesus Politics]

In a press release dated October 3, 2006, the Arlington Group, an umbrella coalition of Religious Right leaders, said: "We are very concerned that the early warnings of Mr. Foley's odd behavior toward young male pages may have been overlooked or treated with deference, fearing a backlash from the radical gay rights movement because of Mr. Foley's sexual orientation. It appears that the integrity of the conservative majority has given way to political correctness, trading the virtues of decency and respect for that of tolerance and diversity. No one should be surprised at the results of such a tragic exchange."

Let's see if I got this right. Foley's indiscretions were swept under the carpet by the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives not because of political considerations which would force the Republican majority to acknowledge the presence of a pedophile among their ranks and might endanger their majority status in the November elections. No, the Foley incident developed into a full-fledged scandal from fears of "a backlash from the radical gay rights movement because of Mr. Foley's sexual orientation." That explains why the speaker of the House and other Republican leaders allowed Foley to remain in office and, presumably, to continue making untoward advances to underage pages.

From the Boston Globe via HuffPost

Please allow me to offer Senator Rick Santorum a hearty Boston welcome to the world of the depraved. It wasn't all that long ago when Santorum, a conservative Republican from Pennsylvania, was blaming our entire city and seemingly every resident within it for the Catholic priest pedophile scandal that was unraveling all across the country.

Those were dark days, here and elsewhere, though we were fortunate enough to have someone like Santorum shed a little bit of his moralistic light. Specifically, here's what he wrote:

"When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."

A Santorum spokesman was kind enough to provide even more clarity last year, telling me, `"It's an open secret that you have Harvard University and MIT that tend to tilt to the left in terms of academic biases. I think that's what the senator was speaking to."

So do I. Priests rape young boys, the church hierarchy hushes it up for years, and academics and other assorted Democrats in Boston are to blame. That fact should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, which I think Santorum may have.

So, of course, I find it surprising -- no, make that shocking -- that the center of the storm has shifted from Boston to, of all places, Capitol Hill, and not just any part of Capitol Hill but specifically the offices of the Republican congressional leadership.

The scandal in Washington so mirrors what's happened in Boston and other Catholic dioceses the nation over to the point of being surreal. A rank-and-file member of an organization does wrong by a minor. The hierarchy, in turn, does nothing. Now, rather than a priest, it's a 52-year-old Republican congressman -- or make that a former congressman, given Mark Foley's resignation on Friday. Foley, by the way, has pulled the Patrick Kennedy defense, checking himself into rehab, as if everyone is supposed to applaud the courage of self-awareness.

Update: Late Tues -- Dobson still refuses to assign any blame to Hastert and his GOP buddies. His puppet, Tony Perkins agrees.

Update: Late on Monday, three days after Foley's resignation Focus on the Family quietly issued a statement denouncing House dirtbag Foley. Evidently, the Internet's to blame [from Focus on the Family]: "This is yet another sad example of our society's oversexualization, especially as it affects the Internet."

When will Dobson address the GOP cover-up that House leaders have already admitted to?

Here's the full Focus on the Family statement [from TPM Cafe]:

Focus on the Family Action Senior Vice President of Government and Public Policy Tom Minnery issued the following statement today about the scandal involving ex-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla: "This is not a time to be talking about politics, but about the well-being of those boys who appear to have been victimized by Rep. Foley. If he is indeed guilty of what he is accused of, it is right that he resigned and that authorities are looking into whether criminal charges are warranted. "This is yet another sad example of our society's oversexualization, especially as it affects the Internet, and the damage it does to all who get caught in its grasp."

And if blaming the Internet doesn't work, why not blame the gays, as Dobson's Family Research Council just did? [hat tip Defcon]


From Our Original Monday Morning Post: How long will it take James Dobson, king of the so-called "values voters," to denounce Rep. Foley and the GOP leaders who orchestrated the cover-up. Is there really any doubt he'd be on a rampage had the cover-up been orchestrated by Democrats?

We'll give Dobson the benefit of the doubt and start our timer at 12AM on Saturday, September 30, since the announcement was made late in the day on Friday:

DOBSON COUNTER

From DefCon

The question that needs to be answered now is, where is the outrage from the religious right? Focus on the Family derides those who support a woman’s right to choose as “predators” and those who seek to expand tolerance to gay and lesbian Americans as “anti-family”. The Family Research Council claims that homosexual adoption puts children at risk, despite contradictory findings by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

On Friday, after the Foley debacle erupted, the Family Research Council’s daily email alert lacked any mention of Foley and instead praised Sen. Frist for puting forth a bill that would erode a woman’s right to control her own body. READ IT ALL