It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up

I had not planned to say much about the resignation of Mark Foley from Congress, after it was revealed that he was sending inappropriate emails and instant messages to teenage Congressional pages, but the story has now been to good to pass up.  The intro paragraph from today's Times really tells you all you need to know about how craven and corrupt the Republican leadership has become:

Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between
Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the
matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional
caucus on children?s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

As if that's not enough, both Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader John Boehner are already on record telling multiple versions of the story (i.e., lies) to try and cover their own rear ends.  The Republicans also kept the only Democrat on the House Page Board from learning of the allegations.  Josh Marshall has more details.  I am going to be very curious to see how this all plays out before the election.  What started as a short-term story about one bad apple could ultimately present some very serious problems for Republicans.  We'll see.