Ever since the New York Times hid its columnists away behind the TimesSelect wall, they are no longer really part of the national conversation. However, David Brooks had a column Thursday that Mark Finkelstein excerpted over at Newsbusters that prompted an interesting response in Friday's letters section.

First, Brooks column:

This is a tale of two predators. The first is a congressman who befriended teenage pages. He sent them cajoling instant messages asking them to describe their sexual habits, so he could get his jollies.

The second is a secretary, who invited a 13-year-old girl from her neighborhood into her car and kissed her. Then she invited the girl up to her apartment, gave her some vodka, took off her underwear and gave her a satin teddy to wear.

Then she had sex with the girl, which was interrupted when the girl’s mother called. Then she made the girl masturbate in front of her and taught her some new techniques.

The first predator, of course, is Mark Foley, the Florida congressman. The second predator is a character in Eve Ensler’s play, “The Vagina Monologues.” [Ensler has since changed the girl’s age to 16 — the age of Foley’s pages.]

This prompted the following response by Diane L. Young of Rochester, Mich.:

To the Editor:

Re “A Tear in Our Fabric” (column, Oct. 5):

When David Brooks contrasts people’s reactions to the Foley case and the play “The Vagina Monologues,” in which an older woman helps a teenage girl have a sexual awakening, he misses a key point, and that is power.

Mark Foley, a congressman, had a certain amount of power, and many of the pages were responding to that power. Most were afraid to offend him or to break off communication because Mr. Foley might become an important ally in a future career.

In my mind, this is more a story of abuse of power and covering up that abuse of power by the Republican Party.

Diane L. Young
Rochester, Mich., Oct. 5, 2006

So, rape nowadays is just helping a child to "have a sexual awakening?" And Democrats are tarring Republicans with failing to protect children?

Ms. Young needs to worry about the log in her own eye before she attempts to take the speck out of the GOP's.