Ben Stein joins the screeching about Foley with a strikingly stupid remark...
(Found on ThinkProgress)

Ben Stein, American Spectator:
"On the one hand, we have a poor misguided Republican man who had a romantic thing for young boys. He sent them suggestive e-mail. I agree, that’s not great. … I hope it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that a big part of male homosexual behavior is interest in young boys. [Link]

The conflation of "gay" with sexual abuse was to be expected from wounded Republicans since it has always played so well, but in the year 2006, I hope we can anticipate a loud and angry response from gay and lesbian legislators who have been elected all over this country. Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin...there are a great number of gay folks in government who should expose this blood libel.

Mark Foley/Republican catastrophe: the spinning is nearing desparation as more (and more graphic) emails and IM's come to light... Drudge is seeking to shift the blame to the young pages involved; Tony Snow tries to minimize the IM's as "naughty"; Limbaugh tries to frame the whole trainwreck as a Dem set-up; and most amusing, the claim by Newt Gingrich that the right's reticence to expose this ugliness is due to the fear on the part of Republican leadership of offending gay people. That one surely takes the cake.

Coincidently, the BBC's Panorama airing tonight in the UK will examine the RC Church's cover-up of their own child abuse mess, and highlight the role in said cover-up of the former Cardinal Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict. I'm not sure if this report will air in the USA tonight, though. If it does, the unhappy similarities will be all the more obvious.