No Fault Defense

I wonder when those bad behaving politicians and celebrities will stop using the "Not My Fault" defense for their bad behavior. You know what I mean. It's been around for a long time, but it may be wearing thin now that U.S. Congressman, Mark Foley, was caught flirting with attempting to have sex with teenage male pages (kids interning in Congress as go-fers).
Foley, who resigned after being caught, immediately disappeared from public view and had a staff member put out the all too frequent "I have entered a substance abuse clinic to get well" press release. Sigh...We are supposed to believe that makes it right. Foley says that the 100 or more confiscated IM and E mail messages of love to teenage boys were all sent "under the influence of alcohol", not while Mark was himself.
This is supposed to excuse his actions, and we are supposed to believe that while in Congress and voting on legislative matters he never suffered from that same substance abuse problem. Hmmmmm Mark Foley said, "I only drink when I send E mails and IM love messages to boys". Foley wants us to let him "get well", agree that it wasn't Mark Foley but the alcohol that did it and to forget bringing criminal penalties or sanctions of any kind against him.
To make sure the "Not My Fault" defense works, Mark Foley added that when he was teen he was molested by a priest......We are supposed to blame that priest for Foley's current predatory behavior toward boys. Now there are two things that caused mark to behave badly. The substance abuse and being molested as a boy. Ergo, Foley wants us to absolve him of any blame. But wait! Foley has taken the "Not MY Fault" defense even further. A third defense is his announcement that he is gay. In the U.S. it is politically incorrect to say that a gay man would molest a boy. Mark Foley knows it, so in announcing he was gay he has a third line in the sand of his "Not My Fault" defense. How many other politicians and celebrities have successfully used the blame defense to be exonerated or to receive lighter punishment? I will not attempt to make a list because we all know of many of those cases.
But the bigger question is, "Why do they all seem to get away with that phony defense"? It's because people simply accept it. When the media frenzy about the incidents starts they become surreal and we lose perspective of the crimes committed. So the drama of the story overtakes the deed itself. Celebrities and politicians know this and manipulate the media and the public to focus on the sideshow rather than the main event (the misdeed).
Maybe the Mark Foley "Not My Fault" act will be the one that is so appalling it will awaken us to just how we have been manipulated through all the other Not My Fault claims those reprobates yell when they are nabbed being naughty. Well, all I can add is that if you don't believe me....it's not my fault.