Posted on 10/03/2006 1:28:59 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, has resigned abruptly from the House on the revelation by ABC News of “sexual” instant messages to underage male pages. The Democrats in Congress and in the media are trying to hang this albatross around the necks of Republican leaders, and Republicans generally.
There is incompetent reporting, either accidental or deliberate, on this story. Foley sent e-mails to some pages that were not overtly sexual. Almost the entire press has failed to report the differences between e-mails and instant messages. Since most reporters use both methods of communications or can easily get information about them, there’s no excuse for this fault.
E-mails are automatically recorded in the process of being sent. They do NOT go directly from the sender to the receiver. They are saved on servers on computers other than those of the sender and receiver. A competent computer guru can find, recover, and report on contents of e-mails.
Instant messages (IM’s) are quite different. They can only be sent when the sender and recipient are on-line simultaneously. They go directly from sender to receiver. They are NOT recorded anywhere, unless either the sender and/or receiver sets up his “cache,” or temporary local memory, to do that.
The nasty IM’s that have come to light now, and sealed Foley’s fate, were sent more than year ago. Someone, most likely the pages who received them, must have recorded these, and through the blogosphere, made them available to the press. There is no factual support for the insinuation that Speaker Dennis Hastert, or anyone else in Congress except Foley, knew anything about these IM’s before ABC broke this story.
I stop at this point to make clear my opinion of all adults – male or female – who pray on children – male or female. Such alleged “grownups” are monsters who do not belong in Congress, do not belong in public, and do belong in the seventh circle of Hell. That said, the rest of this is about the consequences of the Foley resignation.
Democrats are attempting to portray this as a “moral failure” of the Republican Party and therefore a reason for all voters to vote for them. The Democrat who was running against Foley and is now running against state Rep. Joe Negron (the new Republican nominee), is already running TV ads on that. Let’s examine the record to see whether that claim has any legitimacy.
Gerry Studds (remember him? he was in all the papers) was a Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts. He was not accused of inappropriate communications. He was found to have had sexual relations with a page. By an overwhelming vote, he was censured by the House in 1983. After that, he was reelected repeatedly, with the full support of the Democrat Party.
Barney Frank (he was in all the papers) was a Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts. In 1989 he was found to have kept a male prostitute in his Capitol Hill apartment and to have done legislative favors for him. Frank was strongly censured by the House. He has been repeatedly reelected and is still in the House, with the full support of the Democrat Party.
Wait a minute, you say, Frank had nothing to do with underage boys. Well, in my years in District Court in Baltimore City, I saw more than a few prostitutes and pimps. Since their activities are already illegal, they don’t seek proof of the age of the prostitutes. They provide what the customer wants, male or female, of whatever age.
Then there’s Ted Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts. Admittedly, his known sexual peccadillo was with an adult female. In 1969 he left Mary Jo Kopechne alive in his sunken car. She drowned while he left the scene to set up his alibi. Kennedy has been repeatedly reelected with the full support of the Democrat Party.
Last but not least, there is William Jefferson Clinton. Surely you’ve heard of him? He had sex in his office with a female subordinate. The manager of your local McDonalds would be fired on the spot if he had sex with a female fry cook at work. Clinton still enjoys the full support of the Democrat Party.
I repeat, I make no brief for Rep. Foley’s conduct. I am delighted that he is out of Congress immediately. However, the Democrat response is not to dump the Member. Instead, it is to wait while the Member hunkers down, and then to support him for reelection. Democrats do worse than what Foley did. They do not resign, nor does their Party ask them to resign.
For the Democrats to seek to make Foley a partisan issue in the 2006 election is the height of hypocrisy. Men who cannot control their own zippers are unfit to be in leadership positions in the federal government. All of them. Republican, Democrat, or independent. No exceptions.
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About the Author: John Armor is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, who may again be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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There's been a request for an FBI investigation...and with the IMs here could certainly be felonies involved. That's whay I said it was my opinion that before it was over these things could happen. They certainly haven't happened yet, and there's lot of what ifs in between then and now.
As a parent, I can tell you that if some middle aged man sent those emails to my son, I wouldn't consider them ambiguous for a moment.
Yes, and one of the kid's parents did send an ambiguous email to authorities, because of legitimate concern. There is a big difference, however, between what might cause concern for parents, and what might trigger a law enforcement investigation.
Strawman.
I've never called for a law enforcement investigaton. I've said there should have been an internal investigation of some type from within the House of Representatives.
Here's a question I haven't seen asked. Just why is there a page program, anyway?
Obviously, whatever work they do can't be all that important, or they wouldn't have teenagers doing it. OK, they get a chance to learn about Congress, but they could learn just as well, a few years later, when they might be much less vulnerable.
There must be some reason that a number of Congressmen really want to have a bunch of enthusiastic teenagers running around. I'm sure that a fair percentage of the kids must be attractive.
Many Congressmen choose to live alone in DC, hundreds or thousands of miles away from family, for months at a time. What kind of person would want to do that?
Does anyone think that this problem might be much more widespread than just one Congressman?
Congress has limited resources for conducting this kind of investigation. As we've seen, this week, they tend to refer things to the FBI.
I think that the dems do not belive that there is enough time for this to backfire before the election. I for once agree with them.The Repupublicans need to speak up and stop their hand wringing.
Gerry Studds (remember him? he was in all the papers) was a Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts. He was not accused of inappropriate communications. He was found to have had sexual relations with a page. By an overwhelming vote, he was censured by the House in 1983. After that, he was reelected repeatedly, with the full support of the Democrat Party.Barney Frank (he was in all the papers) was a Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts. In 1989 he was found to have kept a male prostitute in his Capitol Hill apartment and to have done legislative favors for him. Frank was strongly censured by the House. He has been repeatedly reelected and is still in the House, with the full support of the Democrat Party.
Wait a minute, you say, Frank had nothing to do with underage boys. Well, in my years in District Court in Baltimore City, I saw more than a few prostitutes and pimps. Since their activities are already illegal, they don’t seek proof of the age of the prostitutes. They provide what the customer wants, male or female, of whatever age.
Then there’s Ted Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts. Admittedly, his known sexual peccadillo was with an adult female. In 1969 he left Mary Jo Kopechne alive in his sunken car. She drowned while he left the scene to set up his alibi. Kennedy has been repeatedly reelected with the full support of the Democrat Party.
Last but not least, there is William Jefferson Clinton. Surely you’ve heard of him? He had sex in his office with a female subordinate. The manager of your local McDonalds would be fired on the spot if he had sex with a female fry cook at work. Clinton still enjoys the full support of the Democrat Party.
Absolutely. I'll bump that one, Victoria.
THERE IS MORE TO IT THAN THIS, FOLKS.
Yes....the sencer or receiver must set up a cache. BUT THEY ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN RECORD THE IM.
Whoever has the tech repsonsibility for the server can go into the process as well.
IT IS HIGHLY POSSIBLE THAT A THIRD PARTY PULLED THE MESSAGES DOWN.
ALSO, Keep in mind, there has been NO actual confirmation that teens received the messages that have been shown in the press.
When the FBI is allowed to view the documents, ONLY THEN will we find out what democrat knew what when.
You forgot your whiny violin and concluded wrongly. Hastert did what he was supposed to do: Hastert was told, they contacted the parents, the parents said don't pursue it, just stop it and the Republican leadership asked Foley to stop and he did. They thought the issue was resolved. Hastert failed at nothing.
Any internal investigation of "that type" would involve law enforcement, would it not?
I can't stand the hypocrisy.
If Bill Clinton had been a virgin, he would still have been the most immoral president in this country's history.
In exchange for illegal campaign contributions from the government of China, he allowed the Chinese to buy American technology, which now makes them capable of hitting American cities with nuclear missiles.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell121602.asp
• In 1983, then-Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts was caught in a similar situation. In his case, Studds had sex with a male teenage page -- something Foley hasn't been charged with.
Did Studds express contrition? Resign? Quite the contrary. He rejected Congress' censure of him and continued to represent his district until his retirement in 1996.
• In 1989, Rep. Barney Frank, also of Massachusetts, admitted he'd lived with Steve Gobie, a male prostitute who ran a gay sex-for-hire ring out of Frank's apartment. Frank, it was later discovered, used his position to fix 33 parking tickets for Gobie.
What happened to Frank? The House voted 408-18 to reprimand him -- a slap on the wrist. Today he's an honored Democratic member of Congress, much in demand as a speaker and "conscience of the party."
• In 2001, President Clinton, who had his own intern problem, commuted the prison sentence of Illinois Rep. Mel Reynolds, who had sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer and pressured her to lie about it. (Reynolds also was convicted of campaign spending violations.)
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=244680809798238
This was actually played a little early for an October surprise. September 29th Friday was when the story broke, I think. It was also a Friday night dump type of story (usually swept under the rug). What this may demonstrate is that the Dims are in panic mode. They were assured of gaining control of congress. Many have staked out positions assuming they would control congress. Then the bad news rolls in. No major Hurricanes. Gas prices start falling. Clinton tries to censure ABC then ABC runs the path to 911 with its own executives upset. No amnesty for illegals. Stock market starts rallying. Clinton then melts down during a fox interview. Clearly the situation early last week spelled doom for the dimwits. They were forced to stop the momentum that had built toward the Republicans. My guess is this story was their October surprise that was actually set to break 1 to 2 weeks prior to election day. That would be maximum effect for the initial bad news. The momentum change to the Republicans forced the story to be put in play early. They will now try to draw the story out as long as possible with 'new' revelations. Obviously they are trying to dampen conservative Republican turnout. This is similar to the story they broke during the last 2 weeks quite a few years ago here in California. That was when Boxer was running against Bruce Herchinson (sp). Apparently Bruce and his wife had visited a few 'nude' bars in the past. Boxer won because of that story. They demoralized the conservative base. It may not backfire by election day, but it will fade and not have a maximum value by then. At any rate, stopping the momentum that the Republicans had was the main purpose IMHO.
Parents do not have a say in whether or not a case is pursued when it is suspected that their children are victims of abuse.
Good piece. While Foley is really creepy he is less creepy than Studds.
I wonder why it is that Studds was never prosecuted for raping that 17 year old boy in 1983?
Thanks for reminding us that the whole Congress is suspect. Today Foley has his lawyer reveal the shocking detail: Foley was molested when young! What a pathetic culture we live in when victimology supercedes justice. No, he won't get away with this because he's a Republican, still it represents a serious moral decay in this society that anyone would think that being a victim would appeal to the populace. I think all of our Congressmen and women should have to go through an FBI background check prior to taking office.
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