Recent GOP scandals have left many liberals dancing on the grave of the GOP. But while the scandals seem to be coming fast and furious, it's fair to say the dancing is premature.
The old maxin "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" has never been proven truer than in the realm of American politics, especially in the most recent era. The power that our leaders are too freely given becomes a corrupting influence once they obtain it, and the chips seem to fall on the left and the right alike. It seems to be a tendency of the minority party to spend a lot of time focusing on the errors of the party in power, in part based on the theory that it will somehow help them gain a majority. It was true of many Republicans during the Clinton administration, and it's equally true now.
The truth is, while we may want to gloat, the actions of members of a political party do not reflect on the party itself unless those actions are guided specifically by the party's internal policies. While the GOP might, in theory, be able to "exile" Foley and others, such an exile would not only be without precedent in American politics, it also might stand on shaky legal ground. In the history of our country, the dominant two parties have enjoyed a virtual monopoly by being pretty much all inclusive, and exiling less than tasteful elements of the party might potentially jeopardize that status.
I'm sure that, for many Republican leaders, much more is at stake. The age of the subject of Foley's affections, for instance, is close enough to adulthood to make more than a few less than inclined to see him as a "child". And, while the homosexual rights groups make up a small minority of voters, when you have a country with such a small divide between competing ideologies, it's likely to be considered unwise to alienate even that small constituency.
The Republicans will, of course, survive this current wave of scandal. And the questions being asked in today's press will one day be remembered only in the databases of certain trivia games.