THE INEVITABLE FOLEYGATE CONTRARIANISM IS STARTING TO APPEAR:

This Florida ex-congressman Mark Foley stuff is totally lame ass crap manufactured and distilled way out of proportion to be some sort of scandal, when it is really little more than some idiot douchebag’s personal embarassment. What crime was committed? So far as I can tell as of this typing, none. What potential crime was averted through the breaking of this information in the national news media? None. What happened? Okay: some idiot wrote supposedly creepy and salacious instant messages to some teenager a couple of years ago, maybe apparently at the teen’s goading, maybe not. But, anyway, who cares?

Nothing happened to nobody. . . . Will any of these right wing commentators arguing that something bad and evil happened please explain what, exactly, was bad and evil? And, no, I wouldn’t want some douchebag creep writing my sons similarly, and I hope to raise them right enough to not even need to find themselves remotely close to the position of receiving such communication, but beyond the fact that one nitwit wrote highly embarassing instant messages to someone he shouldn’t have, and resigned as a result, where, exactly, is the source of outrage fueling all this?

Andrew Sullivan has a similar, if more restrained, take:

The most infuriating aspect of the Mark Foley fiasco is that we’re still unclear on what exactly it is we’re infuriated about. This was not pedophilia: The pages involved were all above the legal age of consent in Washington, D.C. It wasn’t exactly pederasty either, given that we have no evidence (at least not yet) of any actual sexual contact between two live human beings. Sexual harassment? It doesn’t appear that, at the time of the now-infamous instant messages, the pages were in Foley’s employ. The best phrase I have been able to come up with for Foley’s transgression is “virtual pederasty,” with a large dose of extremely creepy and abusive behavior toward younger, vulnerable people whose trust he clearly betrayed.

Something’s happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.

But as a preemptive move, Roger Simon has outed himself, the better to stay ahead of the McCornthyites.

UPDATE: More on “The List” and witch-hunts from Gay Patriot.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bob Owens continues to ask what Brian Ross knew, when he knew it, and who he knew it from. And A.J. Strata is asking questions, too.

Meanwhile, reader Michael Sauter emails: “Your various posts on FoleyGate and the coming elections brought a question to mind: whatever happened to the old saw, ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’?”

The GOP would be ahead by 50 seats if that were true. And reader C.J. Burch emails:

David Corn sort of makes it appear that the Dems are willing to crush the gay folk to get elected in ’06. The question is will the gay folk step into the meat grinder as willingly as the feminists did when Bill Clinton had his problems with Monica Lewinsky? I think what you’re beginning to see from Andrew is called a second thought, as in on “second thought maybe this is a bad idea.”

Feminism has never recovered from Monicagate, as even Maureen Dowd has noticed. But in a followup email, Burch adds:

Of course none of this changes the fact that Hastert has been a terrible majority leader for the Repubs, (William Jefferson, ethics reform, pork, etc., ect.) and the nation as a whole. The Repubs clinging to him so desperately is a sign of a deep rot in their party. A rot that is different from the rot that is eating the Democratic party away, (hatred of America, defeatism, political correctness, socialism, ethnic plantations) but disgusting all the same.

Yes, the two-party system would be more appealing if we didn’t have these two parties. . . .

FINALLY: “Outing closeted gays is good, but outing anonymous accusers is despicable!”