The latest news on the Mark Foley sex scandal and cover-up is that the Republican proxies are taking the offensive -- against the young victims.
I often wind up having the urge to tell people that I'm not kidding when I report the absurd tactics of the right these days. But, really, who attacks the teenage victims of a sexual predator?
It's hard to imagine that anyone could sink that low. In this case, we don't have to imagine it. Here are the people proudly attacking the kids: Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh and Right-Wing Bloggers.
Matt Drudge started the new blame game earlier this week when he flat out attacked the young boys as "beasts" and said they were "egging on" the "poor congressman." I couldn't believe it when I saw it in print, either. Listen to him say it here.
Drudge continued on the war path yesterday when he accused the victims of playing a prank on that "poor congressman." It was the kids' fault. They had it coming. Not that this story needed refuting, but just to be sure ABC News talked to the pages and they said this was no prank. They were asked many times about sex acts, told to get undressed and talk about their penis by the "poor congressman."
Now imagine if this happened to your kids and right-wingers started attacking them like this. Man, how angry would you be?
Rush Limbaugh, undeterred by the proof offered by ABC News or by any semblance of a conscience, soon picked up on this strategy and started hypothesizing that the kids were the ones who started all this. That they were pulling some sort of prank like he used to when he was kid. Remember, Limbaugh also said Abu Ghraib was nothing more than a prank. What kind of sick pranks did Limbaugh play as a kid?
Limbaugh finished off the attack on the victims by accusing them of gay bashing. That's what we call ironic. Pot we have Mr. Kettle on the line for you. Yeah, it must have been those beasts that were tricking the poor congressman into asking about their penises, over and over.
Finally, as if all of this was not enough, right-wing bloggers stepped in to make things significantly worse. A blogger named Wild Bill found one of the victims -- and outed him. I guess the kid had it coming. He shouldn't have egged on that sexual predator.
Not to be outdone, some of the top right wing bloggers joined in on the frenzy and they also posted the identity of one of the victims.
Classy.
If you like these tactics against young victims of sexual predators, keep supporting the Republicans and their hatchet men. Now, at least you know what you signed up for.