Posted on 10/02/2006 10:02:43 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert faced intensifying questions on Monday about why Republicans had not reacted more assertively to Representative Mark Foleys messages to a teenage page, as members of his party, fearing a political debacle, demanded a strong response.
Straining to hold the party together five weeks from Election Day amid unfolding revelations about the case, Mr. Hastert and his leadership team held a conference call with House Republicans on Monday night and heard blunt advice and criticism from participants who pressed for further action to reassure voters.
This is a political problem, and we need to step up and do something dramatic, Representative Ray LaHood of Illinois said afterward, adding that he had proposed abolishing the Congressional page program.
Mr. Foley, 52, who resigned Friday after being confronted with sexually explicit instant messages he had sent to pages, released a statement saying he had entered a rehabilitation clinic for treatment of alcoholism and related behavioral problems.
At a news conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., late Monday, Mr. Foleys lawyer, David Roth, said that Mr. Foley had sent the inappropriate e-mail messages while under the influence of alcohol and that he had kept his drinking problem secret.
A former aide and other associates said in interviews that they did not believe Mr. Foley had a drinking problem.
ABC News, which first reported the sexually explicit messages on Friday, said Monday that additional messages suggested that Mr. Foley had met in person with a teenage page outside Capitol Hill and had sought a relationship.
I miss you lots since San Diego, Mr. Foley wrote, using his screen name, Maf54, according to a transcript obtained and released by ABC.
Ya I cant wait til dc, the page replied.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Anybody stupid enough to care about this is already voting democrap.
The NYT bathhouse boys think they can talk us into voting for their commie-vampire legislators?
They can go to hell.
"Pressure Grows for G.O.P. Over Foley Scandal"
Pressure to do WHAT? The "man" resigned! What the hell more do they want?
It is not the emails, it is the IM's they just learned about according to our news tonight. Hastert just learned about them last Friday and why he asked the AG to look into everything.
They want all Republicans to kill themselves.
He should run as a Dem. in Mass. There he'd be a hero facing the homophobe Christian Right.
If the GOP is smart, they'll find a way to make this point.
"If the GOP is smart, they'll find a way to make this point."
Lets not hold our collective breathe on that one.
Exactly. You could catch one of them sodomizing 10 boys in the halls of Congress, and they would be back to work the next day.
Darn the media, they're making it appear as if the instant messages are the same as the email. Can't trust the media to give you the unvarnished truth, if it were not for foxnews and the internet, we'd never know there was an email that was reported by the parents, and instant messages which was first heard of when abc reported it. I noticed the dems on fox today trying to make it appear as if they were all one and the same.
Since the IMs was sexual in nature, I'd have to assume that the email forwarded to the fbi was the one where Foley asked the kid to send a picture. That particular email was the one reported to certain members of the house, however, the parents did not want to pursue the matter, they just wanted to have Foley quit emailing their kid.
That's just about eactly what happened in the cae of Gary Studds DEMOCRAT, caught sodomizing a page in the congressional restrooms.
That's just about eactly what happened in the cae of Gary Studds DEMOCRAT, caught sodomizing a page in the congressional restrooms.
The Democrats spurned the Republican's concern about such goings on as an invasion of Studd's and the 17 year old page's privacy.
Dumping the page system was first proposed after Democrat Gary Studds was caught sodomizing a page in one of the Capitor men's rooms.
Holy crap! Why aren't some Republican politicians talking about this?
But he did know about the emails and that Foley was being overly friendly with the Pages. He instructed Shimkus to talk to him about it. He should have investigated further. He should have known that predators cant lay off. I'm beginning to think Hastert really screwed the Republican chances for this fall. Congressman Shimkus from IL who heads the page program has a district right across the river from St. Louis and he got pilloried on the local news tonight and he gave no response.
That was my takeaway too. Take away the teens before I sin.
It works for the Kennedys so he thought he would give it a shot (no pun intended).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.