There’s a scandal going on about the fact that a Republican Congressman, Mark Foley, is a pervert preying on the young pages working at the House, and that the GOP leadership covered this up. Josh Marshall highlights a small but fundamental part of the story:

Rep. Alexander (R-LA), the first member of Congress to be alerted to the problem, says he contacted the NRCC. That’s the House Republicans’ election committee, a political organization entirely separate from the House bureaucracy and the Congress. (The head of the NRCC this cycle is Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY).) That is, to put it mildly, not in the disciplinary and administrative chain of command of the House of Representatives. Considering that the issue involved a minor, it seems highly inappropriate to discuss the matter with anyone not charged with policing the House. More to the point, however, you tell the head of the NRCC because you see the matter as a political problem.

So when you’ve uncovered a pervert in your midst, job one for the GOP is managing the political fallout, not stopping the pervert (in fact it appears, given how long this went on once it became known, that stopping him was way down the list of priorities).