Pervertgate

After everything that has happened in the last few years... After Iraq, the economy, Katrina, the deficit, all the lies and manipulation, torture, wiretapping, numerous ethical scandals, fearmongering, power consolidation, etc etc... After all that, is what could ultimately turn control of the House over to Democrats next month.... the resulting scandal from the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley, the Republican Party's own catholic priest???

National Review reporter John Miller thinks so, calling the Foley fallout "dynamite".

Recap for those out of the loop here: Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla) resigned on Friday after emails surfaced from a former young male page in which the congressman made suggestive comments and asked for 'pics'. Newly revealed (and much, much more graphic) IM conversations (see PDF) sealed his fate. House leadership knew of the problem for quite some time and covered it up.

TPMCafe has a detailed timeline of this coverup.

Digby, meanwhile, posts a list of actually larger scandals that are being ignored by the media as a whole (Woodward's new revelations about the Iraq war, the Abramoff/Rove connection, the Powell revelation, the NIE revelations, and the new bill okaying torture and sending habeas corpus on vacation) in favor of this. Sex sells, I guess.

UPDATE: The GOP blame-this-on-Democrats/shoot-the-messenger spin campaign is underway.

Ben Stein takes the cake, however.

UPDATE #2: Wow. Rep. Foley did attempt to spend a night with one of the teens.