The Brotherhood of the Disappearing Pants: A Field Guide to Conservative Sex Scandals

In the months prior to the 2006 midterm elections, a series of scandals rocked the Republican Party, which helped set the stage for the vigorous undressing that the GOP ultimately received at the hands of Nancy Pelosi and company.

Along with the President’s own feckless foreign policy, this guilt-by-association helped turn a tsunami tide of public sentiment against the administration and its party.

The party was undoubtedly hurt most (at least as far as scandals are concerned) by Congressman Mark Foley’s tireless efforts both to establish a national child predator database and to keep his own name off of it.

Foley managed to drown an already foundering party — proving for the umpteenth time that when it comes to politics, there’s nothing that the public remembers and reacts to quite like a lurid sex scandal. But while Foley’s prominence thrust the story into the media spotlight, his is just the tip of a very large, very phallic iceberg. Indeed, there’s far more to the conservative creep-fest than the high-profile Foley scandal, Clarence Thomas’s Dadaistic come-ons, and Bill O’Reilly’s many chickpea-related indiscretions.

It’s enough, at least, to fill a book.

Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer are the authors of Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly (Nation Books, 2006) and Fair and Balanced, My Ass! An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News (Nation Books, 2007). They are also co-founders of sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com.

Amann served for many years as publisher of the Wisconsin-based alternative monthly magazine The Scene, where he also contributed film reviews, humor columns, and one much-discussed interview with composer Philip Glass. As lead writer for sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com, his work is regularly featured on major blogs.

Tom Breuer is an experienced writer, editor, and humorist. In his ten years with the Wisconsin-based alternative monthly magazine The Scene, he served as associate editor, editor, and lead writer. He currently works as an author, freelance writer, and editor in Neenah, Wisconsin.