Once More, With Foley

Kerry Howley | October 20, 2006

Father Anthony Mercieca, now kicking back on an island off the Italian coast, admits to sharing sauna time with a future Representative from the great state of Florida. And as Jacob Sullum explained a week back, no confession is complete without a nod to bottled courage:

Asked if their relationship was sexual, the priest replied: "It wasn't."

But he confessed that, at the time, in 1967, "I had a nervous breakdown and was taking some pills and alcohol, and maybe I did something that he didn't like."

Booze, pills, and a breakdown: Mercieca is clearly better at this game than Foley. Over at Slate, Will Saletan has an extensive bottle-blamer roundup.

Comments

|10.20.06 @ 1:35PM|#

comments rarely even register here, but maybe this one gets thru.

Go to any AA meeting and you will hear all sorts of disreputable behavior that occured while folks were drinking.

When they discuss their post-AA sober life, not so much self-degradation is taking place.

Yes, alchohol does lead to bad behavior. Yes, for many, sobriety is a complete cure.

|10.20.06 @ 1:52PM|#

So the sex scandal continues to show no evidence of any sex having taken place?

|10.20.06 @ 2:04PM|#

It seems that some nudity may have taken place.
And at one time there may have been a sauna.
And talk of gladiator movies.

|10.20.06 @ 2:08PM|#

This week's South Park did a nice job skewering the "Mel Gibson Defense."

Gene Berkman|10.20.06 @ 4:44PM|#

"So the sex scandal continues to show no evidence of any sex having taken place?" (Gaijin)

Yes, the Priest denied having sex, but he has admitted "fondling" and "touching" the 12 year old Mark Foley. Was it sex? it is a definitional matter, depending on where and how he touched Foley.

If only penetration is considered sex, then Bill Clinton & others are off the hook for oral sex, and Priests get a pass on touching. But I think everyone who reads this has limits on where they let other people touch them.

|10.21.06 @ 3:44PM|#

In the latest twist in this soap opera, the Archdiocese of Miami has apologized to Foley. Which now makes this officially a Catholic Church scandal instead of a Republican scandal.

I was hoping for divided government, but I suspect that the Democrats are going to cough it up at the last minute, much like the Mets.

|10.21.06 @ 7:23PM|#

"So the sex scandal continues to show no evidence of any sex having taken place?"

Well, except for the fondling. And the references in the IMs to the special time Foley and the 16 year old lad shared in San Francisco.

Perhaps the old chickenhawk was referring to riding the street cars, but somehow I doubt it.