After having salacious messages to teenage boys exposed by ABC News last week, disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley disappeared, later turning up at a mental-health facility claiming that he suffers from alcoholism. When that apparently didn't turn down the heat, his lawyer dragged out another pop-culture form of victimhood in a supposedly "blockbuster" press conference:

Former Rep. Mark Foley's attorney said Tuesday that his client was molested between the ages 13 and 15 by a clergyman.

Foley had represented the West Palm Beach district for 12 years and was seeking re-election until his sudden resignation last week after the disclosure of lurid online communications with teenage congressional pages.

"This is part of his recovery," Roth said, declining to identify the clergyman or the church.

Ah, yes. Alcoholism has become rather passe' these days, what with Bob Ney ostentantiously checking himself into a treatment center after his guilty verdict for corruption. He needed another weepie-show affliction, and so Foley had his attorney float the molestation defense today. And note that it wasn't just molestation, but molestation by clergy. Very trendy indeed.

Maybe it's even true, but who cares? He's fifty-four years old! If he had problems, it was incumbent on him to address them some other way than by engaging in cybersex masturbation sessions between votes in the House. The entire exercise insults the intelligence, especially the part where Foley's attorney assures people that Foley isn't using these revelations as excuses. Of course he's using them as excuses -- otherwise, why make the announcements at all? To keep his fan club informed of his state of mind?

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» Bill's Bites -- 2006.10.03 from Old War Dogs
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Tracked on October 3, 2006 7:17 PM

» Bluff from The Florida Masochist
If Foley wants to truly 'recover', name the priest. For if the man is alive, other boys are out there at the risk of being molested. If the priest is dead, the truth is told. To do otherwise, Foley will not have completed his recovery. [Read More]

Tracked on October 3, 2006 7:47 PM

» If Foley were convicted of [insert sex charge here] and Bush pardoned him … from Sister Toldjah
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Tracked on October 3, 2006 8:19 PM

» (Video) Foley Lawyer Says Former Congressman Molested by Priest as a Teen from Webloggin
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Tracked on October 3, 2006 9:35 PM

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Tracked on October 3, 2006 11:26 PM

» The Moral Aspects of Foley’s Failings from Gay Patriot
Given how great a job Bruce has been doing in his posts on the Foley kerfuffle, I had thought I would leave this story to him. Yet, when I heard today that the ex-Congressman had entered “rehab for alcohol abuse and mental illness,” I alm... [Read More]

Tracked on October 4, 2006 11:03 PM