The problem with republicans

The big problem with the House Republican leadership that this Foley thing has brought to light is the tendency for them to think of everything in terms of the politics of it. They approached the Foley behavior as a political problem to be controlled, not as a safety issue or an ethical issue. That's the way they thought of it from the git go and it's the way they still think of it.

That kind of thinking leads to all kinds of bad decision making. An example of the bizarre conclusions that people like Hastert can arrive at is in a recent Columbia Journalims Review article.

The article describes a Fox News interview a couple of years ago where Hastert mentioned that George Soros was in favor of legalizing drugs and then concluded that he must be financially connected with drug dealing.

Hastert just can't imagine somebody supporting a law just because it's the right thing to do.