WTF Is It Now?!?

"Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, but there's a rapist in the president's office . . . ."

So how do the authorities today respond to allegations that a public official has committed rape? Well, if you're in Israel, the police investigate, report to the attorney general, and recommend charges:

There is prima facie evidence of a number of incidents, in which several women who worked under his authority were involved, whereby the President carried out sex crimes of rape, sexual molestation by force and without consent.

(Plus, of course, charges for illegal wiretapping, fraud, and misuse of the pardons process.)

Bonus points: Israeli police also declined to play "Blame the Victim":

Investigators also recommended that there was insufficient evidence to press charges against the original complainant, who was accused of attempting to blackmail the President over sexual harassment.

Of course, if you live in the good ol' USA [land of the free and home of the Grand Old Perverts], those in authority take such charges equally seriously, right? And of course, they'd never let such a predator run for office in the first place, right? And they'd enver, ever dream of blaming the victim, right?

Ummm, not so much:

Neither House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) nor his staff acted on information about Foley's transgression. And others in the Republican leadership who knew Foley was a potential problem, yet failed to act decisively, include House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH); John Shimkus (R-IL), head of the Page Board; Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), whose page was involved; and Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), chair of the House Republican campaign organization.

Not a single one of these five Republicans did anything more than tell Foley to behave himself - even though they were all hearing reports suggesting the Congressman was conversing with children on the web in disturbing ways. Appallingly, they even allowed Foley to remain as Chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus.

Sludge:

And if anything, these kids are less innocent, these 16- and 17-year-old beasts. And I've seen what they're doing on YouTube, and I've seen what they're doing all over the Internet. Oh yeah. And you just have to tune into any part of their pop culture. You're not going to tell me these are innocent babies. Have you read the transcripts that ABC posted going into the weekend of these instant messages, back and forth? The kids are egging the congressman on! The kids are trying to get this out of him. We haven't got the whole story on this.

[...]

DRUDGE: You could say, "Well, Drudge, it's abuse of power. This is a congressman abusing these impressionable, young 17-year-old beasts. Talking about their sex lives with a grown man, on the Internet." Because you have to remember, those of us who have seen some of the transcripts of these nasty instant messages. This was two ways, ladies and gentlemen. These kids were playing Foley for everything he was worth. Oh yeah. Oh, I haven't -- you know, they were talking about how many times they've masturbated, and oh, they didn't do it with their girlfriends this weekend. All this -- all these things and these innocent children. And this poor congressman sitting there typing about, "Oh, am I going to get any?" You know?

Savage Idiot:

Now, the kid himself, we don't know who it is. "The kid, the kid. All of a sudden, he's a boy, 16 years old." I read the emails back and forth. As I said to you, there's no excuse for Foley. You know, don't put me in a position of defending him because it's indefensible. He did it to my kid, I guarantee you, when the kid was that age, I would've, I would've been unhappy, let's put it to you that way. OK. But the kid was leading him on. I mean, this kid was leading him on. You know what I'm saying? You read these things. Who is the kid? Maybe he's a Democrat. Maybe it's a -- I don't know who it is. Is there a real kid? I could argue that the age of consent is 16 in Washington, he really didn't have sex, that it's not illegal to actually have sex with a 16 year-old, but it's illegal to write an email suggesting sex, to show you how crazy America is. I mean, there are other observations to be drawn here, like, the boy was playing along with Foley, the deviant. And it's all part of the American obsession with sex, which it is.

But Denny's getting support from local candidates:

Kane County Board candidate Brent K. Schepp [R-14 counts of criminal sexual assault, 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse and two counts of unlawful delivery of alcohol to a minor] may be headed to trial for sexually assaulting young girls (26 counts), but, according to this photo of his house, he knows who his friends are.

This picture of Schepp's front yard says it all:

-- L