It had all the earmarks of a classic Democratic Party plan to depress Republican turnout.  Take a barely disguised homosexual Republican Congressman, add salacious electronic messages that included masturbation, sex and other lurid flourishes, push the story to their eager and willing accomplices in the media right before an election, and as quick as you can say LBJ an instant scandal is created.

The only problem, it seems, is that in today's world of media, with data available to the whole world that was heretofore available only to a select few, the plan didn't work out quite the way they had expected.  Enterprising bloggers have done the elemental detective work and discovered that the entire incident is nearly exactly the opposite of what was first reported.

Rather than a case of a pedophile Congressman stalking young men in the corridors of power, it instead turns out to be a case of a closeted homosexual nurturing a relationship with a young man, and making sexual advances once he became an adult.  A relationship by the way that the young man, if he felt threatened or chose not to continue, could have ended at any time. 

An older homosexual man seeking a relationship with a young man? Who would have thought such a thing would ever happen?

Rather than the Pedophile Politician script we were first being fed, we now know that the real story is far less than we have been lead to believe.

As it turns out, although the young man in question was indeed a Page, was indeed befriended by Congressman Foley and did have sexual discussions with him. But it seems everything was perfectly legal, if nevertheless repellant to many, including a good chunk of the GOP base whose turnout is vital in the forthcoming election.  As a signatory of a Bill outlawing Internet sex between adults and minors, Foley was perfectly aware of the legal boundaries and seems to have taken great care to not cross that fine line until the young man became a legal adult.

While angry values voters fulminate over Hastert's failure to do something before the IMs came to light, all I can remember is the Democrats' mantra. 

That the troglodyte Republicans were obsessed by sex between consenting adults. 

That homosexuals in close working relationships with young people, especially young men, is a good and healthy thing.

That some forms of sex, aren't sex. 

That what two consenting adults do or say behind closed doors is their business. 

That intercepting and reading electronic communications between anyone in the US, especially those between two citizens, is never to be tolerated.

And most of all, never be judgmental.

So in the end, what do we end up with?

A pedophile that wasn't.

A child that was actually an adult.

The disclosure of personal electronic communications of a highly personal nature between two consenting adults revealed.

A sex scandal between a couple who never had sex.

That Democrat Congressmen can have sex with 17 year olds and get re—elected, but Republicans that talk about sex are forced to resign.

ABC news is made to look like a fool, hyping a story beyond the facts at hand.

Along with the infamous Texas Air National Guard documents of 2004, this latest attempt by the Democrats is not going according to plan, and I suspect it will have the same result at the Polls in November. Almost four weeks are left to digest  the affair. Much remains to be discovered, but one thing is clear.

It is, without a doubt, the worst October Surprise, EVER.