Why should I (or anyone else)

[Homer Wells]

give a rats ass if Foley was involved sexually with a priest 40 years ago??

How does this excuse him from doing what he did with the pages?

This guy is playing the "victim" card as far as he can, and trying to confuse the issue. He is supposedly a responsible adult, in a very high position of power, and there is no excuse for his behavior.

NONE
NADA
NIL!!!

[babylonsister]

1. I agree. He's clouding the issue, but also keeping

'the issue' out there. I think he's at the least annoyed with his buddies for throwing him under the bus, and this is his little 'get even' tactic. Otherwise, why make it so public?
I'm not inclined to sympathize either.

[hippiechick]

2. Oh, c'mon ... let's let the various factions of the GOP duke it out !!!

The 'A priest would never do such a thing' true-believer-fundies vs. the 'blame everyone but myself' neo-GOPportunists ...

I can't wait to see the party implode.

[uppityperson]

3. you shouldn't, except it keeps it in public view, which is good

No excuse, keep people thinking "eewwwww" for another couple weeks.

[Homer Wells]

4. That is a good point!!

Guess I can look on the bright side here, and enjoy the Repugs twisting slowly in the wind.

[seabeyond]

5. it excuses no one. and this board would jump on the victims side

of child abuse in a heart beat if the victim was anyone but foley, or a republican and especially make victim if it was a woman

[EST]

6. This is a tactic that always, always works.

Even when people know the offense and are familiar with the tactic.
It has also been referred to as misdirection. People, like other animals, aren't really very bright but we are hell at pattern recognition. We see patterns and pictures even where they simply don't exist.

As a quick aside to support this view, consider the "constellations"--pictures that we project on the absurdly random distribution of sights in the night sky.

I dabbled a bit in amateur magician-ism in my younger days and can testify to the fact that other magicians are, for the most part, the best audience.

Skilled politicians take advantage of this all the time and the only reason this is highly questioned for more than a day or two is that there is a bunch of highly pissed off partisans who are desperate at the state of the country to the point where some are seriously considering the possibility of armed revolution.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. As my wife pointed out to me after our divorce, an explanation is

not an excuse.

Bad behaviour has no justification.