The Foley Investigation(Michael Barone)

U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT ^ | October 06, 2006 | Michael Barone

[kellynla]

I've been traveling sans laptop but have finally gotten a chance to set down some of my thoughts on the Foley scandal.

The first thing to say is that there is no evidence that Speaker Dennis Hastert or anyone else in the Republican leadership knew anything about the sexually explicit instant messages until they were posted on abcnews.com on September 29. Within hours, Mark Foley resigned from the House of Representatives. Thus there was no coverup of the IMs. And there certainly have been no admissions, as Democrat Patty Wetterling running in the Sixth District of Minnesota charged in an ad, that the Republican leaders have admitted covering up improper sexually explicit behavior.

That said, there remain questions about whether Republican leaders responded properly to the charges made earlier that Foley had been sending "overly friendly" but not sexually explicit E-mails to former pages. None of the IMs that we know of were sent to current pages, for whom Congress has custodial responsibility, and some of them apparently were sent to former pages when they were 18 or older. Hastert has said that John Shimkus, the lead member of the bipartisan page board, talked to Foley and told him to stop all questionable contact with the pages. So far, so good. But there is the question of whether the leaders or other members had other knowledge of possibly improper conduct by Foley and what, if anything, they did about it.

My own opinion, previously expressed in this blog and on Fox News, is that Shimkus should have brought in the Democrat on the page board, Dale Kildee, and I think that he should have brought in the third member, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, as well. I doubt they would have recommended doing anything different from what Shimkus did.

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

Of course the left has vilified the Boy Scouts for trying to prevent pubophilia* by not registering gay leaders.

go figure...


* grown homosexual men who prey on young men ages 13-18; term discussed at length during Catholic priest sex scandals

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What about the tantalizing question of how the IMs came to be made public? Apparently, a George Soros-funded, Democratic-staffed group called CREW had them earlier this year.

CREW members say they turned copies over to the FBI in July. But they didn't turn them over to responsible authorities in the House (the page board, for example, or any one member of it), as they could have. From what I have read, Foley IMs, or at least the ones we have seen, probably wouldn't justify a prosecution under federal criminal law; that requires some act rather than just words.

But the House holds its members to higher standards than the criminal law. Democrats or their sympathizers can withhold information politically damaging to Republicans until a time when disclosure seems likely to do the most damage. It's an adversary system. But is it ethical to withhold information when its earlier disclosure might serve to protect young people from harassment? I should think not. That may not be a question for the ethics committee, if the withholders were not House members or staffers, but it should be a question for the press.

****************************************************************

This represents the next step of the investigation in my opinion....It could get very interesting.....

[popdonnelly]

This is Plamegate all over again. Big media rant about nothing. The perpetrator has resigned. The rest is a witch hunt.

[LADY J]

"So far, so good. But there is the question of whether the leaders or other members had other knowledge of possibly improper conduct by Foley and what, if anything, they did about it."

Since nobody saw anything improper IN the emails - just the fact that they were sent - what does 'other knowledge of improper conduct' mean?

This implies that NO improper conduct is going on with any lawmakers in D.C. or there would be ongoing investigations as we speak.

[TruthConquers]

That may not be a question for the ethics committee, if the withholders were not House members or staffers, but it should be a question for the press.

I should think that it IS a question of who on the Demonrat side knew and withheld this information. There has been some suggestions that Pelosi knew. The House Ethics Committee could sure go after that!! If they have the spines for it, that is.

[savedbygrace]

Here's the Dim logic:

Someone has made a serious charge against a Republican.

Therefore, that Republican should resign immediately.

There it is, the sum total of the Dims' thinking on any matter. Excpet for this addendum: And every Republican who might have known about the first Republican should resign, too.

[savedbygrace]

BTW, thank you for adding the parenthetical in the title to let us know this was a Michael Barone piece. I might not have read it otherwise.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

FOLEY EMAILS WERE ALTERED?

and from post #279

There are three revisions of the Foley IMs authored by Jennifer J. Fitzgerald.

[CyberAnt]

I still say this is going to end up splattering all over the dems face4s far more than it will depress repub voting. I'm just one person, but I'm madder than I was before over this alleged "PRANK" by Page members.

And .. the stories of a book deal is plenty of motivation for these young people to try to get the "goods" on Foley. Evidently, the Pages all knew about him and used that knowledge to mock and make fun of him. I'm not sure Foley deserved that treatment as much as he deserved to have been asked to resign much earlier in his career.

But .. bashing the GOP for not getting rid of Foley (when the GOP didn't know of the IMs) - look what the dems did with their info - they HELD THE SALACIOUS MATERIAL. They had more of a responsibility to bring it to the attention of the GOP - in order to protect the young people. BUT THE DEMS DIDN'T DO THAT - instead of protecting the young people, they held on to it to use to DEPRESS GOP VOTING.

So .. the truth about the dems has become crystal clear .. THEY ARE "NOT" FOR THE CHILDREN - AND THEY ARE EQUATING GAYS WITH BEING PEDOFILES. How about a backlash from the Gay community against the dems ..?? Funny .. nobody's talking about that.

I SURE HOPE WE ARE NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO FALL FOR THIS ATTEMPT TO SUPPRESS OUR VOTE - I know it now working for me.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See post #9 and the link ....and there are connections to Pelosi....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This is Plamegate all over again.

Some of the same people are involved in both...the CREW managers ...

[sageb1]

"Of course the left has vilified the Boy Scouts for trying to prevent pubophilia* by not registering gay leaders."

Selective outrage at its finest.

[sachem longrifle]

I heard of that Patty wetterling ad. I thought that was suspicious. But if anyone says anything to her, you will get from the left,"how can you atack her. Her son was kidnapped by a predator like Foley." typical

[carola]

When the IM's were made public this was the big question that cried out for an answer: How did those IM's go from the privacy of someone's computer to ABC news? The DBM and the Democrats have managed, though, to ignore that question and turn the whole thing into 'who knew what, when'. This keeps the scandal focused completely on the Republican leadership in the House.

It will be well after the election before the facts are known. In the meantime, on the talk shows they are still saying that these IM's involved underage pages when in fact the very IM's that ABC published on their website involved Foley and a former page who was 18 years old. They can keep bringing out former pages who may or may not be telling the truth and who may or may not have been 18 when Foley contacted them. The details don't matter now, just the next headline on the hourly news.

I think the Republican party should come out with some ads explaining some of this and comparing the way Republicans handle their offenders (Foley) and the way Democrats have handled theirs (Studds, Frank).

[mwl1]

Bill Kristol's article today in the Weekly Standard is excellent and reassuring that the RATS are playing with political fire on this.

[BurtSB]

If you really want to strike back at the left wing media and the dems support Joe Negron with cash or volunteer.

Contact Joe Negron office in Stuart FL

Manager - Sherry 772-349-7878
Martin Co Repub party office - 772-286-0615

Negron website will be up by monday !

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Folks this is just a part of the Lefties planned operation...here we have:

CREW DEMANDS DOJ I.G. INVESTIGATE FBI COVER-UP ON INACTION ON FOLEY EMAILS SENT BY CREW

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From their Website:

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News Releases CREW DEMANDS DOJ I.G. INVESTIGATE FBI COVER-UP ON INACTION ON FOLEY EMAILS SENT BY CREW October 5, 2006 | Washington, DC – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s office today to ask for an investigation into why the Federal Bureau of Investigation has fabricated and disseminated a cover-up story as to why it never investigated the Foley emails sent to it by CREW. // read more CREW SENDS FOIA TO SECRET SERVICE ON WHITE HOUSE VISITS OF CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN LEADERS October 4, 2006 | CREW sent out a FOIA request today to the Secret Service, asking for records of all visits that nine listed individuals made to the White House and the Vice President’s residence from January 1, 2001, to the present. The nine individuals are all prominent conservative Christian leaders and include: James Dobson, Gary Bauer, Wendy Wright, Louis Sheldon, Andrea Lafferty, Paul Weyrich, Tony Perkins, Donald Wildmon and Jerry Falwell. // read more CREW URGES DOJ I.G. TO PROBE WHY FBI FAILED TO INVESTIGATE FOLEY EMAILS SENT BY CREW THIS SUMMER October 2, 2006 | Washington, DC – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s office today to ask for an investigation into why the Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to begin investigating Rep. Mark Foley’s emails to a former House page as soon as the Bureau learned about the emails in July 2006. // read more

[mwl1]

now or not? in your last sentence. I hope not!

[CharlesWayneCT]

It's scary how much I find my thoughts exactly matching Barone's, and not just on this issue.