The former chaplain of the Miami Dolphins is accused of molesting a teenage boy over a five-year period in the 1970s.

[Rev. Donald] Walk worked as a priest at St. James Catholic Church during the same years as the Rev. Anthony Mercieca, who is now implicated in the sexual abuse of former Rep. Mark Foley when Foley was a teenage altar boy.  Read more 

“I don’t want to stop loving. I don’t want to stop sharing.”

So says former Monsignor Dale Fushek, who’s defying the Diocese of Phoenix by continuing to conduct worship, for worshipful crowds, while up on “sex charges stemming from his relationship with five teenage boys between 1984 and 1993 at St. Timothy’s. Fushek is accused of engaging in explicit conversations about sex with the boys, inviting one into his bed and his hot tub, ’kissing and snuggling’ the boys and exposing himself to a boy.”

The Church previously settled, for $100,000, “a civil suit [that] accused him of watching and performing a sex act on himself while another priest had sex with a boy.”

Poor bastard (huge fair-used slabs of the story here, since the details of the abuse of power are so vivid. Now we know who really wired up the bomb, eh?

The suspect arrested for allegedly holding hostages at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire presidential campaign headquarters claimed a history of abuse at the hands of a priest, who has since been defrocked amid allegations of sexually abusing young men.

Leeland E. Eisenberg, formerly known as Ralph Woodward, sued the Archdiocese of Boston and Cardinal Bernard Law in 2002 for negligence and infliction of emotional distress, alleging that at a young and vulnerable point in his life he was molested by the Rev. Richard Buntel.

Eisenberg claimed in his lawsuit that in or around 1982 or 1983, when he was about 21 years old, he was “homeless and living in abandoned cars in a local junk yard” in Ayer, Mass., at least in part as a result of the death of his mother and a traumatic childhood at the hands of his “violent, alcoholic father.”

Eisenberg went to St. Catherine’s Parish in Westford, Mass., where he asked for help. The Rev. Daniel Cronin, who was the senior priest, hired Eisenberg to paint the church in exchange for room and board. Eisenberg was given a cot in the boiler room.

On Cronin’s days off, Buntel, also a priest at St. Catherine’s, would take Eisenberg out for lunch and drinks. Back at the rectory, Cronin allegedly continued to offer Eisenberg “numerous drinks.”

After that, Buntel — who was later forced to resign as a priest — “would bring out a box of pornographic material, sit beside the plaintiff” — Eisenberg — “on a couch, pull out pornographic pictures and magazines and insist the plaintiff look at the pornographic materials,” the suit alleged. “Father Buntel would then sexually molest the plaintiff.”

Eisenberg claimed that the incidents made him suicidal. The suit, filed by the law firm Greenburg Traurig, claimed that Eisenberg “felt that he needed to stay in the good graces of Father Buntel,” since he relied upon him for food and shelter, and feared if he offended the priest his “only means of survival would be ripped away from him.”

Concerns about Buntel’s inappropriate behavior with alcohol and young men had been voiced as early as 1983, according to documents provided on the Web site BishopAccountability.org. A fellow priest, the Rev. John D’Arcy, wrote to the Archdiocese in 1983 (LINK) that “I think that these allegations are true.”

Thanks, Bernie. Nice work. And to think you were running for Pope, back in the day.  Read more 

Ho, hum, the hits keep coming.  Read more 

AP:

[Ex-Mayor of Waterbury] Philip Giordano entered pleas to four counts of first-degree sexual assault and four counts of conspiracy to commit sexual assault, charges based on allegations that he paid a crack-addicted prostitute to bring her 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old niece to him for oral sex.

And, my goodness, the stenographers at AP somehow manage to get through the entire article without mentioning Giordano’s party affiliation:  Read more 

A reading from the book of Haggard, chapter 2, verse 1…

CBS:

Victims’ advocates who dogged the Roman Catholic Church over sex abuse by its clergy have now turned their attention to Southern Baptists.

The group is accusing America’s largest Protestant denomination of also failing to root out molesters.

The Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests — or SNAP — has started a campaign to call attention to alleged sex abuse committed by Southern Baptist ministers and concealed by churches.

Examples?  Read more 

Yes, Denny the Hutt is still in action, and apparently believes he’s a draw for Republican candidates. No doubt he is.

[Hastert] recently endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, signaling that he may play a public role in the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign, at least in helping court Chicago-area donors.

This activity comes after a brief hibernation. After news of ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s [R-Neverland] inappropriate contact [“Don’t forget to measure for me”] with House pages [and waiters? Busboys?] emerged last fall, Hastert canceled dozens of fundraising events for Republican candidates as he dealt with a public-relations uproar [Very nice touch. No ethical, moral, or legal issues at all!] over how his office handled the page scandal. (The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct later concluded that Hastert’s top staff showed an “inexplicable lack of interest in the e-mails” from Foley to pages.)

“Inexplicable,” eh?  Read more 

[C&L readers, welcome! The United Arab Emirates post you expected is here.]

AP:

LARRY MARGASAK
The House on Friday overhauled the board supervising its teenage pages, responding to a scandal that left youngsters vulnerable to a lawmaker’s sexual come-ons and helped Democrats win control of Congress.

The vote was 416-0 to equalize the political membership of the House Page Board, whose Republican chairman never told two board colleagues that he believed — for a year — that Rep. Mark Foley was a “ticking time bomb.”

Actually, the key point—which Larry Margasak, winger tool, omits—is that, although not all Republicans were informed, no Democrats at all were informed. Zero, zip, nada, none.

So, when you hear the word Bipartisan, think about this:  Read more 

It was really wrong of me to ask whether all the megachurch “pastors” gay, or only some of them. Christianists, can you ever forgive me? Because some of the megachuch pastors are child abusers, too (via memeorandum):

Pastor Paul Williams, who directs prayer programs and special projects at the Bellevue Baptist Church outside of Memphis, has been forced to take a leave while a church committee investigates charges that Williams sexually molested a family member 17 years ago. Williams has been at Bellevue for 34 years, reports Agape Press, a news service run by the American Family Association.

All these incidents are probably consequences of a reading from Haggard 1:1 from the pulpits. But sex scandals have a long and glorious history in the evangelical movement; some of the consequences charisma are all too earthly. But surely there are deeper factors at work?  Read more 

Does anyone else think this stinks? From ABC’s KGO affilliate in, erm, San Francisco:

[Democratic] Representative Howard Berman: “The most important contribution this report makes, and it does it well, is to tell the story of what happened.”

And then Berman refused to take any questions.

The committee wrote it “…was disturbed by the conduct of some of those who dealt with allegations of Foley’s behavior.

But not disturbed enough to actually do anything.

Those who knew of the emails included Speaker Dennis Hastert and several members of his staff, and one in particular the Speaker’s Counsel Ted Van Der Meid, showed what the report calls an inexplicable lack of interest in the emails. And yet the report concludes “…does not mean that every error in judgment or failure to exercise greater over sign or diligence establishes a violation.”

You know, I can think of some explanations. Like, for example, other pedophiles more discreet than Foley. Who cares what party they’re from, or who they are?

What does a sexual harassment litigator think?  Read more 

Of course, that’s true about Republicans in general, on any subject whatever, including Iraq, but in this case we’re talking about the Ethics committee report on Republican Foley’s pedophilia:

Foley panel: GOP didn’t protect pages
The panel said it discovered a pattern of conduct among many “to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences” of Foley’s conduct.

Foley, R-Fla., hurriedly resigned his seat Sept. 29 after the existence of sexually explicit computer messages sent to teenage pages came to light.

And, you know, I’m starting to get tired of this word “Bipartisan” already:  Read more 

OC Weekly:

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office claims that sex-crime prosecutions are a top priority. So why is one accused serial child molester still free and awaiting trial after nearly four years? One answer might be connections. Jeffrey Ray Nielsen is not merely a former intern in the DA’s office. He’s a prominent Republican activist in a county controlled by the Republican Party, a man with close ties to the former and current heads of that party; Huntington Beach Congressman Dana Rohrabacher; and Michael Schroeder, adviser to the county’s top law enforcement officials, DA Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Mike Carona. Nielsen preached the Bible, and berated liberals and homosexuals alike.

Naturally.  Read more 

This post is starting to sound a lot more like truth. All you need to know from ABC today:

The Republican source said Trandahl planned to name Ted Van Der Meid, the speaker’s counsel and floor manager, as the person who was briefed on a regular basis about any issue that arose in the page program, including a “problem group of members and staff who spent too much time socializing with pages outside of official duties.” One of whom was Mark Foley.

More than one. More than two. Inclusive of staffers.  Read more 

How could I have missed this research?

You learn something new every day, don’t you?  Read more 

Just a little reminder for all you kids playing at home: be sure to make Mike one of your daily stops. He’s got a version of the now Infamous List up, you remember, the one some gay activists have been sending to all kinds of fundie and winger groups, reminding them how many of the heroes in the hallowed halls are faggots? You may also want to read more about The Purge, and perhaps mock pajamalist sissy boy Corn for protecting his boyfriends about to be outed. Boo Hoo, we wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, would we David? I mean, we just can’t be sure, so let’s keep it all quiet.

For the children, I’m sure.

Well, I guess it happens to everyone. Corrente now brings you pr0n.
The money quote:

 Read more 

As we’ve been saying. Now the Dems are saying it, in a close race in Ohio. New York Times:

[Mary Jo] Kilroy is using the Foley scandal to try to systematically undercut Ms. [Deborah] Pryce [R-Friend (Beard?) of Mark] with a big component of the Republican base here, Christian conservatives, when Republicans already worried that those voters would stay home on Election Day. “Deborah Pryce’s friend Mark Foley is caught using his position to take advantage of 16-year-old pages,” an announcer says in advertisements the Kilroy campaign has placed on Christian radio stations.

Is it working?  Read more 

And it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of pedophile-enabling authoritarian death cultists. WaPo:

Weeks before the Nov. 7 elections, the Mark Foley scandal and its aftermath have already had a visible effect on Republican prospects: Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), the two men leading the GOP efforts to keep power in the House, have both been largely sidelined from the public campaign.

Both leaders, however, have drastically curtailed their appearances this month after coming under fire for what critics have called an inadequate response to early warnings about Foley’s behavior with House pages.

In the past week alone, Republicans have canceled nearly a dozen campaign events with Hastert and Reynolds. Rep. Don Sherwood (Pa.) — who is one of the GOP’s most endangered incumbents after revelations that his former mistress had sued him in Maryland, alleging assault — told both men not to come to his district, forgoing crucial campaign dollars to minimize additional negative press. In addition, at least seven House GOP candidates have donated to charity nearly $20,000 in contributions that they had received from Foley before the scandal broke.

No wonder Bush is so cranky. He’s having to work harder than usual, to pick up the slack.

Perhaps there is a God, after all.  Read more 

WaPo:

In a statement today, Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, said he passed on the youth’s complaint to Foley’s office and the clerk of the House after the page, whom he had sponsored, contacted his office in 2000 or 2001.

Asked today about Kolbe’s statement, Hastert said, “All I know is that Congressman Kolbe at that time was on the page board. But he was on the page board. That was … his job to do that, that confrontation. I don’t know anything more about it. If it was something that was of a nature that should have been reported or brought forward, then he should have done that.”

Honestly. Can’t the Republicans ever take responsbility for anything?  Read more 

Or perhaps they should try to keep the, you know, pedophiles out of the party. A lot of teens think creepy old men hitting on them over the IM system while standing up and singing with the Faithful on Sundays is, well, hypocritical. Music to my ears:

Despite their packed megachurches, their political clout and their increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.

At an unusual series of leadership meetings in 44 cities this fall, more than 6,000 pastors are hearing dire forecasts from some of the biggest names in the conservative evangelical movement.

Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults. That would be a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation.  Read more 

High on the long list of “people I can’t figure out why they’d be Republicans anyway” (which includes of course women, patriots, Christians, Jews, lovers of the Constitution, patriots, supporters of the military, carbon-based life forms, etc.) gay folks have to be near the very top. How self-hating do you have to be?

Pretty goddam self-hating indeed, and not too bright besides according to this LA Times piece. And I left Whiny-Ass-Titty-Babies off the list above, which turns out to be an oversight:

In recent days, gay political staffers and activists have expressed anger with Foley.

“Thanks a lot, Mark,” said Catania, the District of Columbia councilman. “You weren’t any help to us when you were in the closet, and you’ve really hurt us now.  Read more 

C-Span Just announced that Freeh is going to head up an investigation. Probably more details after Denny’s speech in a few minutes.

Say it with me, kids: “Foley is a gay pedophile.

There’s been a lot of chatter since this whole mess broke out about how important it is for people not to smear gays with the pedophilia brush. Normally, I’d be the first in that line. Being gay has nothing to do with pedophilia, gays are no more likely to be pedophiles than straight folks, pedophila, like rape, is about power and not sex, etc. All good liberals know the difference and how to make that argument.

But that’s not the point.  Read more 

The incredibly lucid Avedon puts it this way:

The real issues in this case involve both harassment and the refusal of the Republican leadership to deal with it, but also the fact that Foley got a law passed making his online activities illegal. Understand this: If Foley had sex with a 17-year-old in Washington, DC, that wasn’t breaking a law, because the age of consent in DC is 16. However, the federal law Foley created made it illegal to have sexual online contact with anyone under 18, and that’s the principle criminal issue.

Breaking a Federal law that you yourself wrote—Is that carrying self-hatred to new, unheard of heights, or what?  Read more 

AP:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s political support showed signs of cracking on Wednesday as Republicans fled an election-year scandal spawned by steamy computer messages from former Rep. Mark Foley to teenage male pages.

And, for some reason, Republicans don’t want to be in the same photograph with Hastert anymore:

Republican Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky, in a tougher-than-expected re-election race, abruptly canceled an invitation for Hastert to join him at a fundraiser next week.

And here’s a lovely, lovely vote of confidence from Lewis:  Read more