(For those outside the U.S.: Foley, a 50-something Republican member of the US Congress, is alleged to have sent admits sending e-mails and explicit IMs to a 16 y.o. kid who worked in the Capitol. Foley co-chaired a committee tasked to protect minors from sexual predators. The Republican leadership is said to have known about it and alleged to have tried to paper over it to avoid a scandal so close to elections.)

Like the Catholic Church, the Self-Appointed American Morality Cops, neé "Republicans, the economic conservatives," apparently prefer to tolerate sin within their own ranks because ridding themselves of it conflicts with other, more important goals. There are ringing condemnations now that it's all public but that's the specialty of public moralists: declaring their outraged morality for the cameras.

I have never trusted people who can't seem to shut up about their morals long enough to live them and this scandal reinforces my prejudice. Rather than living a moral life and dedicating themselves to doing what is right, they pay lip service to the concept of morality by worrying about what other people are doing. Judging others is always more fun than judging ourselves.

I am disgusted but hopeful that this will help move some of our morality police out of Congress. Not that I think Democrats are inherently more moral but they tend to be more interested in letting me decide for myself what is moral.