The FRC's approach to the Foley scandal - deflection by misdirection - is the default religious right approach to the Foley scandal, and over at DefCon, DefCon Clarke has an amusing roundup of the various deflection strategies different groups are testing out, and the scattershot nature suggests a loosely coordinated approach : throw all sorts of crud at the wall to see what will stick.

The approaches Clarke notes :

Blame the Homosexuals!

Blame the Left!

Blame Tolerance and Diversity!

Blame the Internet!

Blame….Planned Parenthood?

So far, we have yet to see a blame Evolution ( though CBS has recently provided a forum for someone who blames Evolution for the recent tragic murder of five female Amish high school students. See Dispatches From The Culture Wars for an efficient fact-based takedown of that claim. ).

But amidst that chorus of blame there's little acceptance of any sort of responsibility, and that's striking - the religious right's predominant pattern of denial, in shirking criticism of GOP House leaders who apparently long chose to ignore ex-Congressman Mark Foley's predilection for young male pages, simply reinforces an underlying pathology that Richard Viguerie, one of the few notable voices on the religious right to directly call out the role of GOP corruption in "pagegate", diagnoses in a sweeping condemnation :

"This isn't an isolated situation," said Viguerie, in a press release. "It is only the most recent example of Republican House leaders doing whatever it takes to hold onto power. If it means spending billions of taxpayers' dollars on questionable projects, they'll do it. If it means covering up the most despicable actions of a colleague, they'll do it."

Now, Viguerie did not directly say this - but, the implication, that the GOP leadership will do anything to hold onto power, carries an implicit charge : The GOP leadership has fallen into the dreaded swamp of moral relativism