Posted on 10/03/2006 4:09:22 AM PDT by Taggart_D
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....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Super bump!
Why should Hastert assume there's more to the story when the FBI doesn't?
Smoke and mirrors from Foley.......
There is no evidence of it.
He is just a typical gay with issues.........
He has no more a drinking problem then the pill popping Kennedy or cigar aficionado Clinton.
He was hitting on young men wherever he could find them, and unfortunately was fishing in the company pond.
And can anyone tell me if there is any proof at all that Hastert knew of this earlier on than last week? Is there anything that says he covered up?
Or is it Guilty because you're a proven Republican?
Congressfist Barney Franks should lead the investigation using the back door approach while being very careful should he bend over and drop his car keys while walking down Polk Street in San Francisco after arranging a complete masculine makeover for Speaker to be Nancy Pelosi at the local Earl Schieb.
>>When it comes to Foley...so what.
He was a fool to resign.
He hasn't done anything that isn't encouraged in the common culture.
Pubbies are wimps. Why back down?<<
You could be the James Carville of the Republican Party.
But we don't want or need a James Carville.
"And don't pretend to tell me what Hastert knew or didn't know. Either he knew about this early on (I believe he did), & did nothing to protect the children, OR he didn't know about it when everybody else knew, making him incompetent to be a leader, ie., clueless."
The info on the leader of the pack Bossey who wants him out and was fired from the House of Reps:
If what Bossie had in mind was the Webster Hubbell tapes that he and Burton were preparing for release, then these have turned out to be a disaster for Burton and Bossie. Just when Newt Gingrich was trying to increase the scandal pressure on Clinton, Burton and Bossie embarrassed themselves and the GOP by making public selective portions of the Hubbell tapes. Remarks that indicated Hillary Clinton did no wrong were left out of the initial release. In several instances the transcripts did not match the actual recordings, and these errors seemed almost willful, as if they were intended to unfairly implicate Hubbell and the Clintons. Rather than confirming Clinton wrongdoing, they confirmed long-standing Democratic charges that the Burton investigation was hopelessly biased -- and it was Bossie himself who had insisted on their release, over the objections of more prudent committee staffers. After several days of firestorm, Bossie was removed -- reportedly because Republican House leaders (some of whom already questioned Burton's ability to handle the Democrats on his committee) forced Burton to bounce him.
LOL.......Children......???????
Sounds like you watch too much O'reilly! This is not a molestation story.
It's a gay sex story about young sexually active men, and not children. The children nonsense is just that. Shaundra Levi was not a child either. Nor was Monica.
This protect the children angle is nothing but activist background noise and not relevant.
because Hastert is the leader of the party for one and is supposed to protect it.
Of course not. The Speaker of the House should be booted on any whiff of accusation. Don't you know we are Republicans and we eat our own? /sarcasm
Calling for resignations at this stage is WAY premature. Republicans should acknowledge the problem as a problem, but not play into the Democrat's strategy of trying deflect attention away from their poor record on issues of national importance by feigning indignation about the Foley matter. Keep hammerin' them!
"To now look back with 20-20 hindsight and say he should have done more is ridiculous.'
Agreed. Dialing back the 20-20 scope a little further, we see that, had social conservatives not been in such a snit over the private life of Newt Gingrich, Newt would still have been in Congress and been the type of Speaker that could have handled this situation in a way the complainers want.
Oh, so the speaker has extra-terrestrial ESP powers and can find evidence even the FBI can't find?
Get real.
If he's telling the truth about not having the sexually explicit IM's, then there's absolutely no reason for him to resign. He was blind sided.
You mean he should resign the same as the Democratic Majority leader did when Ted Kennedy abandoned Mary Jo?
Oh, that's right it never happened.
Well he probably won't be following in Tip O'Neill's footsteps and resigning like Tip did when Gary Studds HAD SEX with an underage page?
Oh, that never happened either did it?
And Studds was only censured and Kennedy did nothing.
And it was Republicans who talked Nixon into resigning. And it was Democrats that had a "Pep Rally" at the White House for Clinton.
"They are a morally bankrupt party declining in power, ideas and vision."
Let's hope this coming election will seal it. Many are saying Hillary will win if she chooses to run for president. I don't believe this at all. What could be worse is that she and her husband promotes a candidate and she's the holder of the strings.
Hastert went as far as he could with what he had. No law was violated by the E-mails. They could not do much more, because it would be viewed as gay bashing within the party.
Not until those IM's came out, was anything over the top.
They sat on this information for three years while Foley was allowed to chase minors.
If you want to chase the "enablers" out of the House I suggest you focus on Nancy Pelosi and her crowd.
BTW, I totally agree......:-)
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