Now we see why they want to control YOUR behavior

Here's a nice little peek inside the Republican mind: They can't control their dark sides, so they assume no one else can either, and they embrace this critical father/dire consequences model of religion without which they would do all kinds of unspeakable things, most of them sexual.

Most of us go about our lives knowing what to do and what to avoid. We may look at the hot young high-schooler, but that's all we do. We realize that the co-worker who's coming on to us means risking everything we have at home, so we put on the brakes. There's a scene in the movie Closer in which Natalie Portman says something along the lines of "There's always a moment where you make a choice."

This is not to say that it's only Republicans who are incapable or unwilling to make that choice; political history is littered with Democrats who who have taken the wrong fork in the road as well. But it seems to be only Republicans who want to punish YOU because THEY can't control themselves. THEY hate their homosexual leanings, so they want to force other gays back into the closet. THEY feel badly about their abortions, so they want to deny YOU that choice. THEY can't enjoy sex so they don't want you to either. If the Foley scandal teaches us anything, it should teach us to be alert when Republicans speak on moral, especially sexual issues -- because they are revealing a great deal about themselves.

Illinois Republican Congressman Ray LaHood understands this, and so rather than trying to get Congressmen to keep their hands -- or their keyboards -- off the pages, he's recommending that the page program be eliminated:

LaHood said the scandal involving former Congressman Mark Foley sending sexually explicit emails to Pages, proves it's not a good idea to bring young teenagers to Washington D.C.

He said this has happened to Pages before because the program is flawed.

He wants it eliminated now, and then re-evaluate whether the program should ever return.

"We need to look at the idea of bringing 15- and 16-year-old children to Washington D.C., exposing them to adults who they look up to and admire and these people turn out to be flawed people with flawed personalities," said LaHood.

We're all flawed people with flawed personalities. I'm too quick to have my feelings hurt. If someone's having a bad day, I wonder what I did to cause it. I talk too much. But I don't send erotic text messages to teenagers. I don't lust after teenagers, and if I did, I'd know that this is not acceptable. Those are some of the things that make me a flawed person. A man in a position of power who continually preys on teenagers is not a "flawed personality", he is a sex predator. And this Republican Congressman is telling us that the answer isn't for Congressmen to behave themselves, it's to remove the temptation.

Unbelievable. What's more unbelievable is that there are still people who believe that Republicans are the party of "values."