Finally, somebody picks up on this. ABC:

[This] should be the key bit of learning from this entire tawdry affair. The principals involved — Foley and Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the speaker of the House — offer some key lessons about abuse of power and the unwillingness of leaders to deal with that abuse.

Interestingly, the author, Bob Rosner, puts the story in the context of workplace harassment:

The type of neglect that Hastert showed is all too common in today’s workplace. According to my e-mail, it appears to be more the rule than the exception. And every year there are thousands of lawsuits that center around bullying, unethical behavior and harassment at work that is not addressed by management.

The “wink, wink, nod, nod” approach that too many companies use to address abuse at work is one of the most corrosive elements in business today. And there are many reasons why it is dangerous. Of course, by the time these cases reach a courtroom, there is almost always a huge price tag attached. It’s a cost that can be minimized when these problems are tackled early.

But an even bigger negative is the tendency for cruelty to drive out the most precious resource in business — great workers.

We can think of the Republican party apparatus as a gigantic filter that selects for abusers, and those willing to be abused. Eh?

The id is political, and we can see now why the Republicans are so desperate to hang onto power: Power allows the kind of abuse they get off on to continue.