Man - I never thought I’d ever cite an article from the Wash. Times:
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The facts of the disgrace of Mark Foley, who was a Republican member of the House from a Florida district until he resigned last week, constitute a disgrace for every Republican member of Congress. Red flags emerged in late 2005, perhaps even earlier, in suggestive and wholly inappropriate e-mail messages to underage congressional pages. His aberrant, predatory – and possibly criminal – behavior was an open secret among the pages who were his prey. The evidence was strong enough long enough ago that the speaker should have relieved Mr. Foley of his committee responsibilities contingent on a full investigation to learn what had taken place, whether any laws had been violated and what action, up to and including prosecution, were warranted by the facts. This never happened. Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, the Republican chairman of the House Page Board, said he learned about the Foley e-mail messages “in late 2005.” Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the leader of the Republican majority, said he was informed of the e-mail messages earlier this year. On Friday, Mr. Hastert dissembled, to put it charitably, before conceding that he, too, learned about the e-mail messages sometime earlier this year. Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hastert insisted that he learned of the most flagrant instant-message exchange from 2003 only last Friday, when it was reported by ABC News. This is irrelevant. The original e-mail messages were warning enough that a predator – and, incredibly, the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children – could be prowling the halls of Congress. The matter wasn’t pursued aggressively. It was barely pursued at all. Moreover, all available evidence suggests that the Republican leadership did not share anything related to this matter with any Democrat. Now the scandal must unfold on the front pages of the newspapers and on the television screens, as transcripts of lewd messages emerge and doubts are rightly raised about the forthrightness of the Republican stewards of the 109th Congress. Some Democrats are attempting to make this “a Republican scandal,” and they shouldn’t; Democrats have contributed more than their share of characters in the tawdry history of congressional sexual scandals. Sexual predators come in all shapes, sizes and partisan hues, in institutions within and without government. When predators are found they must be dealt with, forcefully and swiftly. This time the offender is a Republican, and Republicans can’t simply “get ahead” of the scandal by competing to make the most noise in calls for a full investigation. The time for that is long past. House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week’s revelations – or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance. A special, one-day congressional session should elect a successor. We nominate Rep. Henry Hyde, also of Illinois, the chairman of the House International Relations Committee whose approaching retirement ensures that he has no dog in this fight. He has a long and principled career, and is respected on both sides of the aisle. Mr. Hyde would preside over the remaining three months of the 109th Congress in a manner best suited for a full and exhaustive investigation until a new speaker for the 110th Congress is elected in January, who can assume responsibility for the investigation.
I’d say the Republican’s arse is cooked now. Even Joe Scarborugh predict’s the Democrat’s will take over the House. I pray that this happens.
As often as Rush Limbaugh gets it right, he is breathtakingly wrong on the House page scandal.
Of course, Limbaugh doesn’t defend Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who resigned last week for being, shall we say, overly friendly with minor male pages. But Limbaugh’s part in turning it into another partisan war reveals what’s wrong with too many Republicans today. Limbaugh focuses on how the Foley story became so big, blaming Democrats for planting and hyping the story for their own advantage in the mid-term elections.
No dittos on this one, Rush.
Most people don’t give a #### about how the story got out. Correctly, they’re outraged that here’s another attack on children, providing yet more evidence of how our culture has become soft on improper, even destructive, behavior.
But for Rush, it appears to be just one more case of defending the castle against another onslaught from the left. In this, he’s not doing Republicans and conservatives any favors. It just gives gleeful Democrats an example of Republican “hypocrisy.” Of how Republicans keep talking about America losing its moral compass, while they’ve lost it themselves.
Democrats are making gains with it, because it is becoming increasingly true. Otherwise it wouldn’t have taken Republicans so long to admit that they messed up by not smelling the scumbag in their midst. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and some other Republican leaders want us to think that they never whiffed the scent of Foley that filled the House. If so, Hastert and the rest might have been the only insiders who didn’t.
Foley was a “leading” advocate of legislation to protect children from sexual predators, yet not a single Republican leader was aware that pages for years openly regarded him someone to steer clear of? Hastert, etc. must have been too occupied with other important issues (not many of which seemed to have been solved) to notice the stench.
Here we’ve got Hastert, telling a fawning Limbaugh on his Tuesday show that “…we’re in the same situation with parents all over America in trying to make sure our kids are safe, and we want to work to make sure all this text messages messaging stuff and computer stuff is safe, too.”
Right. Except that the analogy fails in an important respect: The Internet predators who parents are trying to keep from their kids aren’t their own family members. If one sibling is abusing another, it’s up to the parents to find out and to do something about it. Foley was no stranger, but a known risk, within the GOP family.
Rush, of course, is furious that someone leaked the Foley story for political reasons; apparently the leaker had been shopping it around the media for months, if not years. And, of course, Democratic hands aren’t clean when it comes to lechery. Of course, there’s a double standard as applied by the media when it comes to focusing on Republicans sins while downplaying Democratic sins. Of course, if Democrats were in the same spot, there’d be none of their leaders rushing to resign or take blame either.
But this is a crisis of Republican leadership, essentially of its own making. For all the Republican and conservative lecturing about the failure of a national moral compass, Hastert et al have demonstrated that principle trails well behind party advantage and pragmatism when it comes to protecting children.
Limbaugh ought to be using his formidable power to restore the party to those principles.
No need to elaborate but this issue isn’t about Barney Frank or Mel Reynolds, it’s about Foley. You right-wingers love to change the subject don’t you.
And don’t go bringing up Reynolds, because your Republican buddies pardon just as many crooks as the Democrats do.
I posted an editorial from an far right-wing news media calling for the Speaker’s resignation. I love you right-wingers who were adamant about Clinton resigning but somehow Hastert shouldn’t. No double standard there.
No, definitely look at Barney Frank, look at Reynolds, look at all of them. Any case like this deserves an investigation, doesn’t matter who. Just be certain that the result won’t be that the homophobic gay-bashing right is exposed for what is - intolerant bigots - and for what it isn’t - a community with a moral center. So bring it on, midget!
No, definitely look at Barney Frank, look at Reynolds, look at all of them. Any case like this deserves an investigation, doesn’t matter who. Just be certain that the result won’t be that the homophobic gay-bashing right is exposed for what is - intolerant bigots - and for what it isn’t - a community with a moral center. So bring it on, midget!
"Just be certain that the result won’t be that the homophobic gay-bashing right is exposed for what is - intolerant bigots - and for what it isn’t - a community with a moral center. So bring it on, midget! "
I’m confused, are you saying I should “tolerate” this behavior by Foley because he is a homosexual? Am I intolerant because I condemn both Reynolds and Foleys Behavior?
Like I said Midget, don’t go there. Republicans have pardoned just as many crooks as Clinton or any other Democrat has. Bush pardoned a bunch of guys who were trying to subvert our system of government & that’s dispictable IMO.
And we don’t know the entire issue with Reynold’s pardon, so stop plucking that out as evidence of something. The fact is that Jesse Jackson asked Clinton to give Reynolds a break & Clinton did. That’s what a pardon is all about.
