BishopAccountability.org
	In the House, As in Church, Perverts Live under Protection By Margery Eagan Boston Herald [Massachusetts] October 3, 2006 http://news.bostonherald.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=160471 Why is the congressman and the page story so familiar? Let us count the ways. Familiarity No. 1: "The parallel is striking" with our own priest abuse scandal, says Anne Barrett Doyle, who collects data on the crisis at BishopAccountablity.org. Priest abuse is "the rare exception," said Cardinal Law in the midst of the Father Porter scandal, when he already knew - though we did not - of allegations against Paul Shanley, Joseph Birmingham, Ronald Paquin, Bernard Lane and some 250 other priests. Meanwhile top House Republicans - including Speaker J. Dennis Hastert - knew for months, in some cases years, about creepy e-mails between ex-Congressman Mark Foley and a former teenage page. They not only downplayed it and did nothing; they also kept him in his job as head of a congressional child abuse caucus. ABC News reported that the GOP House staff warned pages as far back as 2001 to keep clear of Foley. Yet that same year Foley spoke at the page farewell and was praised by fellow Republican John Shimkus for spending "a lot of time with" pages. Then and now Shimkus heads the page board created after previous scandals (Gerry Studds and a 17-year old boy; Daniel Crane of Illinois and a 17-year-old girl). Incredibly, Foley this same night told of taking a young page out to a private dinner. "We proceeded to cruise down in my BMW to Morton's," Foley said. Shimkus learned of new Foley e-mail problems late in 2005. He told Foley to stop e-mailing the teenage boy in question. And that was the end of that. More parallels with the church? Absolutely. The congressmen, like the Catholic hierarchy, didn't bother interviewing alleged victims. The congressmen, like the hierarchy, chatted to each other - not to police or child protective services. And as with the priests, the individual offender was bad enough; the cover-up could prove even worse. "Where I hope the parallels end," said Doyle, "is seeing the people who covered up here held accountable." Familiarity No. 2: Yet again, Mr. Big Moral Crusader turns out to be Mr. Makes-Your-Skin-Crawl. Mark Foley made a career railing against "animal" molesters, particularly those who exploit children over the Internet. This summer President Bush commended Foley as a member of a congressional "SWAT team for kids," a choice of words he may regret today. Foley, among other anti-smut crackdowns, pressed for investigations into a Florida nudist camp for teens and sponsored legislation to get easier access to child predator databases. Pushing for Bill Clinton's impeachment, Foley asked, according to former Clinton aide Paul Begala, "What do we tell the children?" "Apparently we tell them in a sexually explicit e-mail," Begala deadpanned to The New York Times. Beware those too wrapped up in child sex abuse and/or pornography. There's always a reason. It's never good. Familiarity No. 3: These guys give alcoholics a bad name. Does anyone believe that a nonpedophile, after a few too many, suddenly starts hitting on 14-year-olds? Yet Foley's immediately checked into alcohol rehab, just like ex-Congressman Bob Bauman, the ultra-family values guy who got caught having oral sex with yet another teenage boy; and Sen. Bob Packwood, who planted unwanted French kisses on at least a dozen female staffers; and Congressman Bob Ney, who pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff scandal; and scores of priests, of course. Even Mel Gibson blamed his anti-Semitic tirade on liquor. Does anyone buy it? It's the same old story. Obvious parallels; excuses the same; patterns in lockstep. We never learn.
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