They must think they can get away with anything. What other explanation could there be for Rep. Mark Foley of pedophilia scandal? When I first heard the story, I was jaded - so what, another Congressional sex scandal. Then ABC published the contents of an online conversation between Foley and a 16-year-old page on abcnews.com, and they're as sick as you can imagine. At least five other Republicans knew and did nothing: A page told Rep. Rodney Alexander that Foley's e-mails "freaked him out" and were "sick" 10 or 11 months ago, and former pages said they were warned of Foley as far back as 2001. Foley chaired the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children during the period when other House leaders knew about his page problem. One can imagine him taking a very personal interest in evidence presented to the caucus.

Just when you thought it couldn't shock you anymore, America's Republican government has reached a new level of sleaze. Expect the Republican spin machine to go into overdrive. Rush Limbaugh will ream Foley out for 10 seconds, then claim Democrats are "trying to make this political." Although White House press secretary Tony Snow said Foley's exchanges were "simply naughty e-mails," they're beyond sick for a 51-year-old congressman. Then again, would you expect higher standards from people who've tried to normalize torture?

Foley might go to prison for long time, but what about the House leadership? After Alexander was alerted to Foley's predations, his first response was not to go to the police, but to the body responsible for Republican campaign strategy. Then Rep. Tom Reynolds told House Speaker Dennis Hastert, though when the scandal broke, Hastert denied he'd heard anything. Reynolds essentially said, "I'm not taking the fall for you, buddy," and told the press Hastert did know. House Majority Leader John Boehner admitted he mentioned it to Hastert, but when questioned earlier by Roll Call, he frantically denied he told anyone.

Once the House leaders stopped contradicting themselves and emerged from the lawyer huddle, what was their story? According to Rep. John Smirkus, who conveniently forgot to mention Foley's issues to the Democrat on the page board, they simply asked Foley what he was up to and he was "not honest." Since when do you ask someone "Are you a sexual predator?" and expect a forthright answer? It's hard to call something this inept a cover-up, but Reynolds's chief of staff really did try to cut a deal with ABC News not to publish the text of the online chats.

Now they'll protest "media bias" and claim that "Democrats are just as bad as us" - surely something to be proud of - but let's look at the scorecard. Foley is a pervert, and Smirkus, Boehner, Hastert, Reynolds and Alexander knew and didn't act against him. Hastert is under investigation, Duke Cunningham is in jail, Bob Ney is going to jail, Tom Delay may go to jail, Bill Frist is under investigation for insider trading, Conrad Burns traded votes for Jack Abramoff's money, Scooter Libby helped expose a CIA agent, Bob Corker is under investigation for shady land deals, George Allen may have stuffed a deer's head in a black couple's mailbox in college - and don't even mention Ohio. Meanwhile, all the Democrats have is Bob Menendez, William Jefferson, and Andrew Mollohan. If this were the third quarter in a football game, we'd be going home by now.

The bottom line is that Republicans wanted to hold onto power so badly that they kept a predator in charge of protecting children from sexual crimes even after they had reason to believe he was soliciting underage boys. It's just par for the course for a government that treats the public's right to know as a nuisance to its power. If this had occurred in Bush's inner circle, you can bet it would still be classified as a matter of national security and anyone who knew would be vacationing at Guantanamo Bay. There is simply no boundary the Republicans will not cross to retain power.

Foley's enablers need to step down, and a full, nonpartisan investigation must be carried out. What's likelier, though, is a lot of "we cannot comment on an ongoing legal investigation" right through the elections. They may sacrifice Hastert to try to save the rest, but the real question doesn't concern Foley or his enablers. Are we so apathetic, cynical and corrupt ourselves that we can't be motivated to boot a party whose corruption has exceeded our wildest fears? This election is a test of our moral fiber, and I hope and pray that we'll pass, for the sake of our honor, our future and our underage family members.

Mitchell is an LSA senior and a member of the Daily's editorial board. He can be reached at tojami@umich.edu.