Posted on 10/02/2006 9:58:19 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
GOP unworthy of governing
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This column is going to make me very unpopular with Republicans.
I don't care. It must be said.
Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government.
I sincerely regret this is the case.
I would much prefer that there were a real viable alternative to the Democrats, who are not only unworthy, but also unacceptable.
But wishful thinking is not going to protect our country. Wishful thinking is not going to expand freedom, promote justice and restore morality to America.
It's time to recognize the two-party system is just flat broken.
The Foley case is a great illustration.
It's not just what one unfit congressman did. It is how his colleagues, mindful only of defending their own positions of power, reacted.
Over the weekend we learned that Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, went to House Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate, sexually suggestive messages to the teenage boy.
Hastert's office said aides referred the matter to the proper authorities last fall but they were only told the messages were "over-friendly." In other words, they did no investigating because they didn't want to know the truth. An election was coming, and Republicans were hoping to hold their slim majority in a tough contest this year.
Reynolds, R-N.Y., is now defending himself from Democratic accusations that he did too little. He ought to be defending himself against Republican accusations. Republican incumbents and challengers are the ones who will be hurt by this devastating blow.
Reynolds never bothered to ask to see the messages. Hastert never bothered to ask for them. They turned a blind eye to the news.
Think about this. In 2005, there was still time for the Republicans to clean their own dirty laundry and find a suitable replacement for an unsuitable incumbent. They did not.
Let me also remind you that it is the sworn duty of the House to clean its own house. It should not have been a matter of simply turning over information to the "proper authorities." The Congress of the United States is the proper authority to determine whether any member is unfit to hold office.
Hastert's aides referred the matter to the clerk of the House, and "mindful of the sensitivity of the parent's wishes to protect their child's privacy and believing that they had promptly reported what they knew to the proper authorities," they did not discuss it with others in Hastert's office – including, apparently, their boss.
That's a disgrace. Hastert is a disgrace for setting this kind of tone in his own office. There was obviously a circle-the-wagons mentality at work there.
Get this! After the issue was referred to the clerk, it was passed along to the congressman who oversees the page program, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. Shimkus has said he learned about the e-mail exchange in late 2005 and took immediate action to investigate.
He said Foley told him it was an innocent exchange.Shamus said he warned Foley not to have any more contact with the teenager and to respect other pages.
That was it? That was the result of his investigation? Did he ask to see the e-mail messages? Why did he accept Foley's explanation at face value? Again, the answer is clear. No Republican wanted to jeopardize Foley's seat – which is exactly what they did by not kicking him out of the House in 2005.
Democrats, of course, are so disingenuous in their righteous indignation about Foley. When they were in charge, they allowed Rep. Barney Frank to run a homosexual call-boy ring out of his Capitol office. And they allowed Rep. Gerry Studds to get away with an actual affair with an underage male congressional page. Like Frank, the unrepentant Studds was re-elected by his perverse constituents until he retired in 1996.
But attempting to seduce male pages doesn't go over as big with Florida constituents as it does with those in Massachusetts.
Republicans will pay a price for this error. And they should.
Farah has been unpopular long before this article
After the elections, Hastert and Reynolds should also step down. Of course, the Democrats want to make this an election issue. Farah is right, the current leadership in the GOP is worthless. Frist is leaving, thankfully, but there needs to be a new GOP House leader as well as a new GOP Chairman.
Exactly how are we going to defend ourselves from the agenda of the looney-left Democrats when the Republican party refuses to clean up its own act?
LOL, poor Joe, rational people will not fall for this line of BS.
This statement is about two years too late..
Politicians, like diapers, should be changed often.
And for the same reason.
The ONE E-MAIL they had was just "off-putting", not indicative of the real problem. But yet they acted on it, researched it, took corrective action to the best of their ability given the fact that the e-mail had NOTHING in it that was illegal, immoral, or offensive.
Multiple news outlets had the SAME e-mail, and every one did a little research and decided there was no "there" there to report on.
Within TWO HOURS of the revelation of a truly damning (but not necessarily criminal) e-mail, Foley was GONE GONE GONE, and the republicans were opening up investigations.
If the republicans had taken action last year based on the one e-mail, and it turned out that was all their was, they would have been castigated for being homophobic and insensitive.
I read stories this weekend that almost every page talked to said they liked Foley, and that he was a good, stand-up guy. The IMs in question were from 2003, there's no evidence that Foley sent a SINGLE E-mail that was offensive SINCE he was "counselled".
The democrats are making a deal about some supposed "warning" given to pages about Foley. But the ONE CASE where a page's name was given, that page says there was NO WARNING. And it sounds more like a "watch out, Foley's gay" message, not a "watch out, he wants to sleep with you" message.
I have to think every page is warned about Ted and Mark Kennedy -- to not do so would be criminal.
You should read the article before condemning him. The repub leadership DID condone it through INACTION and your agreement with them make you every bit as bad as the schmucks that defended Clinton through scandal after scandal.
(insert date)
LOL!
Farah is what Democrats would call "a useful idiot."
How is he useful?
He provides a supposedly conservative voice who is abandoning the Republican Party who encourages other conservatives to do the same.
Rational Republicans were already well aware of Farah's tendency toward lunacy, but there's a huge segment of Republicans who are nowhere nearly as sophisticated or informed as the average Freeper.
Some of those may buy into what Farah is saying, so he's useful to the Democrats.
So the proper reaction would be to kick out all Republicans and put Dems in....who would like to legalize the things Foley is accused of. I get it now.
In "Farahlogic" it makes sense to be your own worst enemy because that's the only one you can defeat.
The problem with Farah as I see it is this -- HE IS ADVOCATING THROWING THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER.
Instead of simply advocating the defeat/resignation of Foley, he wants us to now kick the GOP out from Congress !!
In other words he wants us to IGNORE the work of many (in fact, most ) good, hard working, conservative GOP congressmen simply because of one BAD EGG !!
Of course he never asks the question -- WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE FOR THIS COUNTRY WHEN THIS HAPPENS ??
Here are some I can think of ( all because he dislikes Foley ) :
1) Gay Marrriage on the agenda.
2) Abadoning Iraq
3) Wasting the next 2 years finding ways to impeach Bush.
4) Raising Taxes ( including the re-instatement of the death tax ).
5) At best, Filibustering Bush's nominees to the courts, and at worst, forcing Bush to nominate someone "acceptable" ( AKA someone like David Souter ) to the Supreme Courts.
JUST TO NAME A FEW....
Apparently, when he says the GOP is unworthy of governing, his unstated assumption is that we should allow an even less worthy party to govern.
What kind of illogic is this ?
Politics isn't about choosing the perfect candidate, it is often about choosing the lesser of two evils. Now Farah seems to be advocating the choosing of the greater evil !
I hope no conservative takes him seriously.
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