The election is over, so bring on last season's political liabilities! Remember Mark Foley? He was the Republican Congressman from Florida who liked steamroom, and also young male congressional pages. Some, uh, inappropriate instant messenger exchanges with one of those young men came to light, and then the Republicans lost the 2006 mid-term elections. Foley said he was an alcoholic who'd been turned gay by a molesting priest as a child, resigned, and checked into rehab, never to be heard from again, until after the 2008 elections were safely over. Now he's opening up to the Associated Press, because he needs to tell his side of the story. His side of the story is sad and creepy.

And while he concedes his behavior was "extraordinarily stupid," he remains somewhat unwilling to accept full public scorn. These were 17-year-olds, just months from being men, he insists. "There was never anywhere in those conversations where someone said, 'Stop,' or 'I'm not enjoying this,' or 'This is inappropriate' ... but again, I'm the adult here, I'm the congressman," Foley said. "The fact is I allowed it to happen. That's where my responsibility lies."

Oh man, Mark. Can you sound a little bit more in denial of your hypocrisy, maybe?

"The work I was doing was involving young children ... You know, you hear the term 'pedophile.' That is prepubescent," Foley said, noting a "huge difference" from lurid chats with teens on the brink of adulthood.

Yes it's actually a sad story about a sad man. Less sad, of course, is the story of John Edwards, the smooth-talkin' populist whose political career imploded when it was revealed he carried on an extra-marital affair with a crazy woman and probably fathered her child. He addressed some students at Indiana University on the subject of poverty, and talked a bit about the election, and didn't talk at all about Rielle Hunter and his lovechild. He'd like to be remembered as an anti-poverty crusader, and not as a slick narcissistic asshole. Sorry, John.