Demagogue

Who is to blame for protecting Foley?

The Velvet Mafia.

As Kevin Drum points out, on some level this new talking point could backfire for it insinuates that enough gay GOP staffers exist to protect Foley, a fact that will not go over well with social conservatives. (Frankly, from what I know, there are quite a few gay GOP staffers in a lot of unlikely offices. Yeah, I don't get it either.) I also posit that they are also setting up the possibility of a McCarthyesque homo-witchhunt on the Hill, so that the GOP can say a true house cleaning isn't necessary in November, just the purging of all the untrustworthy gay people.

Regardless, it mostly puts a sharp focus on the evil stereotype that gay men are all sexual predators and that chasing young men is acceptable among gay men to an extent that they all protect one another. Awesome.

Thanks Mark Foley, you just set back the movement about 10 years.