_God_

I am not making this up--I wore out my scroll wheel on this thread.

In spite of that, a few factors have not been discussed here.

1. There is no way in hell that some Democratic members of Congress did not know about this situation. Pages talk.

2. Among the media sources who seem to have withheld the story are the New York Times and the LA Times. It wasn't just Fox News.

Conclusion: Republicans tried to hide it; Democrats wanted to save it until a month before the election. I don't see either as having the higher moral ground.

3. The parents of the page asked that it not be made public.

4. Foley was known to be gay. It doesn't go over well these days to imply that a gay person has ever done anything wrong. If you doubt the aggression that is increasingly emitted from the gay community, scroll back in this thread.

It is not inconceivable that "persecution" charges would be tossed around in regard to Foley's homosexuality. Barney Frank was able to play the victim when a prostitution ring was being run out of his basement--why wouldn't Foley's playing the victim (which he is doing, but in a different way) work equally well?

While I don't agree with it, I can certainly see why the Republicans weren't calling press conferences, particularly since there was no evidence of any actual sexual contact.

It's also easy to see why the Democrats waited until now to break the story. What's hard to decide is which side I respect the least in this matter.