US politicians keep hitting the self-destruct button

Foley, the six-term Republican from Florida, gained slam-dunk admission on Friday when he resigned from Congress and apologised to his family and the people of his state over reports that he sent sexually explicit messages to underage male pages.

Note the inclusion of the terms 8220;sexually explicit,8221; 8220;underage,8221; 8220;male8221; and 8220;page8221;, in addition to the tidbits tidily extracted from the instant messages that ABC News reported were exchanged between Foley and his 16-year old, er, friend:

8220;Do I make you a little horny?8221; Foley reportedly asked under the log-in name 8220;Maf54.8221;

Teen: 8220;A little.8221;

Maf54: 8220;Cool.8221;

Foley gets double bonus points for his helpful if imprudent use of electronic mail, which made it so easy to spread around the mirth and amusement and8212;oops, scratch that, we mean genuine sadness and compassion. This is Washington, after all.

The exchange was quoted verbatim in the lead story of ABC8217;s 8220;World News Tonight8221; on Friday and linked in its entirety on ABC8217;s website under the heading of 8220;READER DISCRETION STRONGLY ADVISED: Foley8217;s Exchange With Underage Page.8221;

The 8220;Sex Scandal8221; club is only one subcaucus in the big tent of Washington infamy and shame. There is also the 8220;Blatant Financial Improprieties8221; subcaucus with the guest star Duke Cunningham, the 8220;Ill-Advised Nazi Comparison8221; subcaucus Howdy, Senator Dick Durbin and the 8220;Racially Insensitive Remark Directly Into a Video Camera8221; 8220;You8217;re an animal, George Allen8221;.

But the sex subcaucus is easily the biggest.

8220;You always seem to have politicians doing bizarrely self-destructive things, especially involving sex,8221; says Lawrence Kestenbaum, creator of 8220;Political Graveyard,8221; a history website that includes an exhaustive cataloging of transgressions by politicians.

Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, was reprimanded when it was revealed that a male lover had been running a prostitution business out of his Capitol Hill apartment.

Donald Buz Lukens, Republican of Ohio, who was convicted of a misdemeanor for having sex with a 16-year-old girl.

Dan Crane, Republican of Illinois, and Gerry Studds, Democrat of Massachusetts, both of whom were censured by the House for having sexual relations with teenage pages8212;Crane with a female in 1980, Studds with a male in 1973.

Kestenbaum says improprieties in the political realm tend to resonate more than in others. First, they tend to become public, necessitating apologies and, in many cases, resignations. He points out that if Foley were a purchasing manager at some store, he might actually keep his job.

8220;The political world tends to be very judgmental,8221; Kestenbaum says. This creates towering spectacles of dishonesty, famous last words that are often caught on tape. Clinton created the gold standard for this when he looked into a camera and indignantly declared, 8220;I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.8221;

Foley gets triple bonus points for hypocrisy. As co-chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children, he has been a fierce advocate for tough sanctions against people who sexually exploit children over the Internet. Not that Democrats have been pointing this out relentlessly since the news broke or anything.

8220;Part of his thing was, 8216;What do we tell the children?8217;8221; recalls the longtime Clinton aide Paul Begala. 8220;Apparently, we8217;ll tell them in a sexually explicit e-mail.8221;

Gleeful, anyone? It8217;s unclear exactly where this fits in, but any story about politicians and sex scandals feels incomplete without the iconic quote from Edwin Edwards, the rascally former governor of Louisiana: 8220;The only way I can lose this election,8221; Edwards once boasted to reporters, 8220;is if I8217;m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.8221; He said nothing about instant messaging, however.

8212; New York Times / MARK LEIBOVICH