I’m skeptical this reader is all that representative. Still, I hear similar rumblings:

Jonah, I’m a conservative evangelical from Kansas (the base). I also happen to know a lot of gay guys. They are much more casual talking about sex around each other than guys are with girls. Those that have had multiple partners are likely to have had a great many partners. That is to say they have a more randy sexual ethic than the straight guys I know. If Foley had hit on teenage girls I would have been more disappointed not less. The thought is he’s gay what do you expect? I don’t think this will discourage the base. Foley did a bad thing. Not illegal as far as I’ve heard; the age of consent in DC is 16. Then he did the honorable thing and resigned. That should be the end of the story. On what principle should Hastert step down? That he was a party leader who received a report of unethical behavior of a colleague and did not call for a full investigation? If this is the standard who then could serve? And what do the words “full investigation” mean? The 24-7 attack from the press has energized me. After Arlen Specter remaining head of judiciary, the Harriet Meyers nomination, the spending orgy, the embryonic stem cell research sell out, and the immigration waffle (not to mention our failure to pursue the offensive in Iraq and thus give the upper hand to the jihadists) I am sick of my party and had every intent of sitting out this election. Now the Democrats mean-spiritedness, has revived in me an understanding of what is at stake. I will now hold my nose and vote in the mid-terms.

Update: And the Washington Post spots the exact opposite trend.