The Catholic Church, Mark Foley and praying on young boys:

Well, we should have all known that the Catholic Church would eventually make its way into the Mark Foley scandal, sooner or later. When you're talking about older men preying (and praying) on young boys, you're talking the Catholic Church. The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota FL. has dug up a priest who is suspected of being the same person who Foley says he was molested by. Rev. Anthony Merieca, who now lives in Malta, says this whole thing is all a misunderstanding and that what he did with Foley was all perfectly innocent. The NYT reports that "Mercieca told of skinny-dipping with the young Foley, lounging naked in saunas with him, massaging him while the boy was unclothed. He said that once, while on tranquilizers, he might have done something that Foley found inappropriate, but that he could not recall the details." He told the WaPo that all these issues of sexual harrassment and molestation were "in the eye of the beholder," and anyway "it was not what you call intercourse. . . There was no rape or anything . . . . Maybe light touches here or there."

It's funny how memory can play tricks on you, isn't it? You see, he might have once done something that young Foley might have found inappropriate, but all the rest of it; the naked massaging and skinny-dipping etc., was basically SOP for priests with young boys. Nothing new there. Mercieca says Foley should just remember the good times they had together and "don't keep dwelling on this thing, you know?"

I'm sure the GOP would agree with that sentiment, but this story just won't go away. As bad as all the other Republican scandals are, 'sex with boys' really cuts right through all the back ground noise with the voters. How proud all those true-believers out there must feel to be supporting a Party that actively attempted to cover up Foley's boy hunting for all these years. I guess the old adage about the Democrats being better at sex scandals still holds true. (Geez, at least Bubba was screwing around with a woman who was of-age.)

So, it looks like the GOP really is the Party of moral values, right? No? The NYT reports that according to a new book written by David Kuo, the former deputy-director of W.'s office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Rove & Co. might have talked a good game about their love of evangelicals, but behind their backs they were called 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy.'

NYT: "While many conservative Christians considered President Bush 'a brother in Christ,' Mr. Kou writes, 'for most of the rest of the While House staff, evangelical leaders were people to be tolerated, not people who were truly welcomed.' He also writes that WH staffers "knew 'the nuts' were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness."

Why am I strangely reassured by that knowledge? I guess it's good to know most of the bigshots in the president's Brains Trust aren't religious whackos bent on bringing forth the Rapture. Of course, our "brother in Christ" president is, that's the problem.

Anyway, it really should be no big surprise that Rove is a cold-blooded political opportunist who would sell his own grandmother to white slave dealers if it would win him some votes. A perfect example of this is lust for power is the story about Rove going to see his gay step-father on his death bed, even as he was twisting arms to get the gay marriage ban on the ballot in Ohio.

Most folks might think that these right wing evangelicals, if they had half a brain, would now come to the conclusion -- especially after this whole Mark Foley thing -- that they'd been bamboozled by the Republican Party, but you would be wrong. What Rove and his evil minions -- and the Catholic Church for that matter -- know about people who believe in a vengeful God sitting on a golden throne above the clouds, is that they're incredibly gullible. Rove is kind of like the Jim Jones in that he's suckering evangelicals into drinking the Kool-Aid for the sole benefit of keeping his client -- W. -- in power. The only winner here is Rove, the evangelical leaders can have their telethons and drive around in their gold-plated Cadillac’s, but they're not getting anything they want in terms of politics if it contradicts Rove's master plan.