The Dish

A reader writes:

Interesting topic, fundamentalism as addiction. I would disagree slightly. Rather than seeing fundamentalism as an addiction, I would say that fundamentalism and addiction are parallel responses to the same underlying phenomenon: a deep insecurity and emotional woundedness. People who are addicted (whether to tobacco, drugs, alcohol, food, sex, etc.) often report that they are attempting to fill an emotional hole or void in their being. Fundamentalism may be another response to the same thing.

… well, weirder. I think I’d rather think about Iraq.

""Where’s the leader?" Bush, according to Woodward, has exclaimed in dismay about the Iraqi government’s dithering. "Where’s George Washington? Where’s Thomas Jefferson? Where’s John Adams, for crying out loud?" For a president to ask that question about Iraq, that tribal stew, is enough to cause one to ask it about the United States," – George F. Will, in today’s Washington Post.

Time for a little light Foleygate relief. You like movies about gladiators?

The real power-brokers in the GOP are now weighing in. Money quote from a press release I just received from Focus on the Family:

Those truly interested in protecting children from online predators should spend less time calling for Speaker Hastert to step down, and more time demanding that the Justice Department enforce existing laws that would limit the proliferation of the kind of filth that leads grown men to think it’s perfectly OK to send lurid e-mails to 16-year-old boys.

The right message, I think, from the Human Rights Campaign, the largest lobbying group for gay equality:

"Gay or straight, Democrat or Republican, it is completely inexcusable for an adult to have this kind of communication with a minor. Congressman Foley brought shame on himself and this Congress by his horrible behavior and complete lack of judgment. We strongly condemn his behavior."

The only problem with it is that technically, these teens were not legally minors in the District of Columbia, with respect to the age of sexual consent. I hate to insist on this point, and I don’t mean to excuse the interactions. But accusations of pedophilia as such – clinically or legally – are unfounded; and we need to be clear about the offense. This is about abuse of power with impressionable and vulnerable young people and immense, astounding hypocrisy. It would be the same offense if the victims were female and the congressman heterosexual. And it’s inexcusable.

A Bostonian responds to the Foley affair. (Re-posted with fixed link.)

How can you tell the difference between Hugh Hewitt and the House Republican Conference? Answer: often, you can’t. Listen to this:

The enormity of the double standard and the baseless nature of the charges against Hastert specifically and Republicans generally will backfire on Democrats and their soulmates in the MSM, but only if Hastert and others fire back, early, often and with the specificity and anger necessary to underscore exactly what the Democratic Party-MSM partnership is up to, again.

You can start with a contribution to the RNC. That will send a message to the party and to the media that conservatives haven’t forgotten episodes such as the dropping the DUI story on Bush the weekend before the 2000 election or the attempt by Dan Rather to use absurd forgeries or the New York Times’ hysterical last week charges about missing ammunition in Iraq to affect the 2004 election..  The purposeful conflating by MSM and Democrats of the Foley e-mail and the Foley IMs, combined the relentless attempt to obscure the media’s own indifference to the former makes for one more episode in the attempt to make politics and elections about other than the key issues, issues which significantly cut against a Democratic Party committed to appeasement in the war and silliness on a host of other issues.

Yep: Hugh Hewitt’s advice in the wake of the Foley affair is to donate to the RNC. You’ve got to hand it to him: he’s got chutzpah.

A reader makes a significant point:

First off, most young people today use an IM program called Trillian. The program allows you to use a single interface for all your IM contacts even though your IM friends may all use different IM programs (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc.).

As a by-product of using Trillian (and most other IM programs), all conversations are stored as a log file in the Trillian history folder. I’ve gone in and double checked and all of my IM conversations, going back years, are saved as long log files, one for each contact in my contact list. I believe that all of the main IM programs do the same thing.

So, no, people don’t actively or purposely ‘save’ IMs.  Most tech-savvy people know that IMs are automatically saved as a by-product of using an IM program.  So if anyone, at any time, has any reason to go back and track down a previous IM exchange, it’s relatively easy to do.

It’s scary to think, but unbeknownst to him, I’d assume that all of Mr. Foley’s old IM‚Äôs are probably stored on his PC, assuming a staffer did not go in and delete them once the story broke.

So this further undermines the notion that there was some nefarious plot at work here. The pages could have saved their IMs; or had their computers save them automatically.

"It’s now clear that Foley is a sick individual. But the question remains: Who would turn over the instant messages to ABC News rather than the police?  How long did they hold these explicit messages and further endanger more children?  In my mind, this person, group or political organization is as sick as Foley himself," – Congressman Patrick McHenry, supporting Speaker Hastert, in a press release today.