Okay, the GOP/Foley scandal thing

This is a good day to just go to the Media Matters main page. They have a lot of good coverage about the way spinmeisters like Brit Hume and Newt Gingrich are trying to lessen the damage from the allegations.

At the moment this interests me a lot more than the allegations themseles. If they're true, then Foley should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. My sense of justice in matters of "inappropriate behavior" involving minors is remarkably simple.

Yet I marvel at how quickly people like Hume and Gingrich can try to turn any allegation, no matter what, against Bill Clinton or gay people. Seriously.

On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume asserted that there is a "difference" between the Democratic and Republican parties because former Republican Rep. Mark Foley is "out of office and in total disgrace in his party" after allegedly engaging in sexually explicit communications with underage congressional pages, while President Bill Clinton and Rep. Barney Frank were not similarly reprimanded for their "inappropriate behavior." However, neither the Clinton nor the Frank allegations involved minors.

Gingrich: House GOP would have "been accused of gay bashing" if it "overly aggressively reacted" to Foley's emails in 2005