From DailyKOS:

The Mighty Wurlitzer is a bit off kilter, with seemingly dozens of excuses making the rounds for why the Republican leadership would allow a sexual predator to continue preying on teenagers despite knowledge of the danger.

But my favorite is this one:

Tony Perkins of Dobson's Family Research Counsel was on CNN earlier and I think we are hearing the contours of the Christian Right's argument. They are going with Newt Gingrich's formulation: Poor Denny was afraid of being called a gay basher so he didn't say anything.

This from the party that has made gay-bashing a key and recurring component of its reelection strategy. As Digby notes:

Since when has the GOP been afraid to be called homophobic or gay bashers? They positively revel in it. In fact, just a couple of months ago 202 Republican House members voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. (It failed to get the required 2/3rds for passage.) Somehow, I don't think the Republicans are quaking in their boots at being called anti-gay.
And if they were so afraid of being called anti-gay that they allowed a 52 year old congressman to stalk 16 year old boys on the internet, then they are much too timorous to be running the government. These guys are charged with making laws and running wars, for gawd's sake.

This line of defense is cute and quite ballsy, no doubt, but they'd be better served simply throwing Dennis Hastert overboard. But cross your fingers that they're too stubborn to pull that off.