Waterboard GOP Rep. Mark Foley

GOP Rep. Mark Foley of Florida was caught initiating a rather creepy email exchange with a 16 year old boy, a former congressional page. The emails include Foley discussing what a great body a teenage friend of the boy had, and asking the boy for a "pic" - or "picture" in America Online "pick up" vernacular.



Foley's office claims that there was nothing wrong with what Foley did. It was part of his normal outreach, they say. The boy begged to differ. He found Foley's emails "sick, sick, sick, sick, sick."

Foley's response to the scandal means Foley would do it again if given the chance. He thinks there is nothing wrong with what he did. He thinks it's part of his congressional outreach to email young boys and ask them about their friends' bodies. If given the chance, he would continue to solicit creepy email exchanges with underage boys.

We need answers.

The Co-Chair of the US House Missing and Exploited Children Caucus cannot be someone even under the appearance of possibly being a potential child sex offender (soliciting a minor is a crime). No one is saying Foley is a child sex offender, but his email exchange has raised understandable concerns in some minds. It's time to get to the bottom of this, for the sake of our children. It's time to waterboard GOP Rep. Mark Foley.

Why shouldn't we waterboard Mark Foley? Is there anything more important in America, and to our future, than our children? Is the molestation of a child somehow less a crime than terrorism. Aren't they both really a form of terrorism against the innocent, the weak? Isn't protecting those who can't protect themselves what America is all about? You know, putting the rights of the victims before the rights of the criminals?

Our law enforcement should be given all the tools they need to keep our homeland safe, to keep our children safe. After all, under the new pro-terror legislation that Mr. Foley voted for, Mr. Foley is guaranteed adequate rights while not hindering interrogations. We are dealing with an enemy at war with our children. As GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter said, "In time of war it is not practical to apply the same rules of evidence that we apply in civil trials.” Our nation is facing a faceless and brutal enemy that lurks in the shadows, requiring a new way of thinking on the part of the United States and giving new importance to the ability to freely interrogate them.

“Information is the key weapon we have to prevent them from killing us and prevent them from attacking others in the future,” said Representative Mac Thornberry, Republican of Texas. And he's right, God bless him.

In America, children and family are paramount. Nothing is more important to the Republican agenda than family values. It's time to defend those family values and protect our children from potential sexual predators.

It's time to waterboard Mark Foley.

And if he has nothing to hide, no harm no foul. After all, it's not like it's torture.

(Thanks to the NYT for liberally contributing content for this story.)