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.