Turns out GOP leadership knew about Rep. Foley's thing for young boys since late 2005 - yet did absolutely nothing about it. They allowed a sexual predator of children to continue to serve with them in one of the highest offices in the country.

I've been racking my brain, but I honestly can't think of how Republicans will explain away the fact that they knew one of their fellow members was cruising for online sex with underage boys, but didn't act. That's simply unforgiveable. Then again, they've slithered out of plenty of other shit before. But what are their options now? Admit that they did a poor investigation into the emails/situation, thus potentially allowing Foley to continue his online trysts? Or that they did know, but chose to do nothing? Or say that Foley lied to them about it all, and they were too incompetent to see through his fabrications?

As of Saturday, it looks like they're going to do a combination of scolding Foley for his actions and attempting to insulate leadership from any substantive knowledge of the emails. Kind of a "yeah! he is bad! bad! and we had nothing at all to do with his remaining in office!" type deflection. Judging from the headlines today, though, it doesn't look like that's going to be overly successful. Of course, statements like this from Rep. Shays (R-CT) don't really help their coverup cause: "If they knew or should have known the extent of this problem, they should not serve in leadership."

It should be noted that while leadership knew, they allowed Foley to push bills like this:

H.R.5749: To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other purposes.