First off, let me start by saying Mark Foley and the Republican-led Congress is getting everything it deserves. It is clear that Republicans have know about the inappropriate behavior that was being conducted by Foley for quite some time and yet did not do anything about it.

For this, everyone in Congress who knew of this behavior should resign. I don’t care if it is Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert or his aide. Every congress member who knew about this should resign.

It is disgusting to learn that some congress members are more interested in getting re-elected than to care about the wellbeing of minors who are trying to follow their dreams by working in government.

There is however, an interesting discussion that took place the day after Foley’s lawyer said he was gay. The conversation is about gay Republicans in government. There is even rumored to be a list that may come out about who is a gay Republican. This is also ridiculous.

I don’t care that Foley was gay and neither should anyone else. Him being a homosexual has no barring on his case. To me and to a lot of other people, the fact that he is gay is irrelevant.

Would it really have made a difference if Foley was straight and was harassing female pages the way he was harassing male pages. Both male and female pages are underage, both are supposed to be in positions tof protection by congressional members and both are told to not communicate with congressional members by instant message or by e-mail. To me, the fact that Foley was harassing a male page as opposed to a female page is irrelevant.

The only difference that I can see is the religious right would not be as upset as it seems to be. Perhaps it would still be disgusted, but it would definitely not be as angry. I can guarantee that the religious right will not vote for a candidate if they think he or she is gay.

But this discussion also brings up an interesting question, one that I have thought about for a while. Why do homosexuals affiliate themselves with the new Republican Party?

When I say new Republican Party, I mean this new form of Republicans that have been in control for almost the last seven years.

Conservatives are not conservatives anymore, at least in the sense that I learned throughout high school and now college. Conservatives are for careful government spending. Well, as is now seen with President George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress, government spending is anything but conservative.

Conservatives are for less government. Well, as is now seen with Bush and his Republican-led Congress, the government is intrusive as ever. Monitoring cell phone calls, trying to rid the world of heaves corpus, trying to tell people who they and cannot marry and trying to get rid of a woman’s right to choose. It does not sound conservative to me.

In fact, it is important to find out that Barry Goldwater, who was of the architects of the true Republican Party was pro-choice, and believed in gays should be allowed in the military.

So, why do some homosexuals supports the Republican Party?

Well there is a group of Republicans called the Log Cabin Republicans. This group works for gay rights.

According to the Log Cabin Republican website, they are loyal Republicans who believe in low taxes, limited government, a strong defense, free markets, personal responsibility and individual liberty.

But the website does admit that the Log Cabin Republicans are at a crossroads right now. The organization has opposed conservative movements throughout congress, including the Anti-Family Constitutional Amendment, which would have denied gay marriage, but it would also put in jeopardy civil unions and domestic partnerships. However, the Amendment was defeated.

I do believe that as the religious right gains more power in politics, people such as members of Log Cabin Republicans will either have to vote for a Democrat or create a third party. It is clear that as long as the religious right is as big of an influence as it is in the Republican party, gay rights and others will not be as important to them.