Michael Kinsley: US politicians are vying for the moral high ground, but it's a struggle not to laugh out loud

Saturday October 21, 2006
The Guardian

Here in Washington, we're all competing to see who can be more po-faced about Mark Foley and the congressional pages. Who can deplore Foley's behaviour the most? Democrats, sensing a wounded Republican party, are going in for the kill. It's the final evidence of terminal corruption: a congressman was cyber-molesting teenage boys and his party leaders evidently didn't care. Republicans answer: Hey, we invented child molesting! As an issue, that is. We own family values and we're not about to let the party of Monica Lewinski and Heather Has Two Mommies outflank us on sexual morality. Then gay voices remind people that being gay and molesting children are two different things, which of course they are. But to make the point clear, gays want everyone to know that they defer to no one in their distaste for Foley's behaviour.