Gay Old Party

According to the Washington Post, Jim Kolbe (R-Tucson, AZ) was told of Foley's emails in 2000 by a couple of pages. He told them to talk to Clerk of the House. Why, exactly, did they go to Kolbe? He's the only openly gay Republican congressman. So, let's put this together. Foley comes on to teenage pages. They go to... another gay man for help. Obviously, the pages didn't confuse gays with pedophiles. Obviously, these (presumably right-wing/"christian" Republican) pages were not afraid of gay men, nor horrified by homosexual activity. Obviously, they were not told to stay away from the evil queer Kolbe, nor did they. They came to him for help.

Furthermore, these pages also plainly assumed, perhaps wrongly, that Kolbe knew Foley and could talk to him. This suggests that it is known on the hill that there is a network of gay men throughout the Republican delegation and staff, and Kolbe - being the "out" one - is sort of the contact person. Note that they did not talk to Barney Frank or the openly gay Democrats. Either they knew the politics would be deadly, or they did not assume that "all the gays knew each other," just that the Republican ones did. Interestingly, these pages must have known that telling Barney Frank would stop Foley by creating a scandal, but they chose to handle it quietly by going to Kolbe for help.

Pity he offered little. He was still more loyal to being a Republican than anything else, and did not directly communicate with Foley (it seems) or take any further steps to protect these kids. He protected his party first. Kolbe was my representative for a good number of years, a moderate Republican, and this is the first time I was ever truly disappointed in him, and disgusted. The pages thought he was a good man who would help them. So did I.