Mark Foley’s Democrat Replacement Caught in Sex Scandal

 You remember Mark Foley don’t you? I am sure that you do but just in case the name doesn’t ring a bell I will give a brief back-story.

 Mark Foley was a Florida Republican in congress in 2006 and he was forced to resign after it was learned that he had sent inappropriate emails and text messages to his teenage male pages. It was portrayed, or at least implied by the media, that these pages were underage but that turned out to not be the case.

 He resigned and was used as the poster boy for the “culture of corruption” that the Democrats used to regain control of the house and senate.

 We now fast forward to the present. The man who won the seat formally held by Mark Foley was Democrat Tim Mahoney. Tim Mahoney is now embroiled in his own sex scandal.

West Palm Beach Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-FL), whose predecessor resigned in the wake of a sex scandal, agreed to a $121,000 payment to a former mistress who worked on his staff and was threatening to sue him, according to current and former members of his staff who have been briefed on the settlement, which involved Mahoney and his campaign committee.

Mahoney, who is married, also promised the woman, Patricia Allen, a $50,000 a year job for two years at the agency that handles his campaign advertising, the staffers said.

 How are the same Democrats who were so appalled at Foley’s behavior reacting to Mahoney?

Senior Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), the chair of the Democratic Caucus, have been working with Mahoney to keep the matter from hurting his re-election campaign

 Not quite the same reaction. This does give us a little insight on morality however. I am not talking about the morality of either Foley or Mahoney, but the general morality of the others in the two parties.

When Foley was caught he was instantly pressured to resign by members of his own party and by the Democrats also. Republicans quickly called for him to step down, putting a person’s actions above the person’s party affiliation. But when Mahoney was caught Democrats quickly rushed to his aide to assure that this issue wouldn’t hurt his re-election bid. In this case Democrats are putting the party ahead of morality. Suddenly a congressman’s indiscretions aren’t so important to them. Suddenly they are a private matter and shouldn’t be scrutinized by the public. This is in stark contrast to their reaction when the Foley story broke two years ago.