Could you describe the ruckus, sir?
Do pages answer to anyone in particular, or do they just work in Congress/the Senate in general? Because I feel pretty bad for these guys if they’d been hoping to put the job on their resumes. “2005-6: Page for Mark Foley.” :dubious: I once knew a guy who had left college for a year to work on the Gary Hart campaign. I wonder if he was ever able to list that.
The page in question worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, (R)Louisiana, so probably not much for him to worry about.
No fair! There’s just no way you’re going to Hell, you!
According to the WaPo story, five GOP Congressmen (not counting Foley himself) knew about Foley for some time, and four of them were in the leadership or in positions of responsibility to varying degrees: Hastert (House Speaker), Boehner (Majority Leader), Rep. John Shimkus (chair of the Page Board), Rep. Tom Reynolds (chair of the NRCC), and Rep. Rodney Alexander, who sponsored the page from his district.
I’m curious as to what their vulnerability to civil suits by parents might look like. But beyond that, this ain’t gonna go over well with the Family Values crowd. They may be OK on torture, but they don’t like men preying on bboys.
More evidence, if any were needed, that the most likely people to be doing something are the ones preaching most loudly against it.
Or, if you prefer, that the phrase “Republican hypocrisy” has become redundant.
How to explain, how to explain…Oh! Of course!
“Won’t somebody please think of the children!”
They’re minors, right? Kids, who, in all that harsh media glare, could be scarred for life. Handling this discretely protects their privacy, and spares their tender formative years additional perturbation. Of course, there are certain risks associated with keeping a pederast in a position where he has ready access to boys, but we’re taking care of it.
Can’t make shit like this up.
Statement from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children:
They all but say, “Great guy, shame he got caught.”
Nice coverup you’ve got there, GOP.
So… Loopydude you’re saying … before going into politics, Dennis Hastert worked as an Archbishop? 
And hell, yeah, chairman of the committee that oversees child predation… :rolleyes: Perfect
Y’know what? I bet someone will come forward to claim it was the exposure to the “filth” that twisted his mind…
Honestly, and I feel pretty silly now, when I started this thread, I wasn’t thinking major scandal, busted high-level coverup, egregious dereliction of duty for partisan gain, any of that.
Mark Foley is planning on turning over a new leaf, just as soon as he gets to the bottom of the page.
Good one! That actually physically hurt!
If the Democrats had any brains, they ought to go into attack mode about this. Use “conservative” Democrats if necessary, and try to take the folks who are in leadership duties who sat on this, out of power.
Frankly, I’m surprised that the headlines about this are not screaming about the allegation that Dennis Hastert was alerted to this bad behavior nearly a year ago, and promised to deal with it.
Oops. It appears that Hastert didn’t know until this past spring. It was Rep. John Shimkus who oversees the congressional pages as head of the Page Board who first heard about it last November. http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/09/why_did_foley_k.html
White House responds to Foley scandal:
“No one could have anticipated that a Republican Congressman would sexually exploit minors.”
Got a cite for that, ETF? Not that I doubt they’d say something that stupid, I just want to see it for myself.
Isn’t it funny how a senator’s memories get fuzzy when he starts to consider the implications of what he’s saying?
You never know with these things. To perhaps misuse the Catholic analogy, do you ever look back and wonder why such a shockingly large number of clerics knew about it, but until the stories hit the press, nobody really did anything about it? Yeah, it’s politics and money, but maybe it’s also personal. Maybe you’re friends with the abuser. Maybe you don’t know this abuser over here, but perhaps you’ve noticed your dear friend Father so-and-so over there has sometimes gotten a little too friendly with the altar boys on occasion. Perhaps you abhor what’s going on, but you open a can of worms, and who knows who the next fellow in the dock might be.
Could the Dems really have been completely in the dark about this up to now? If so, then not much about what I said above is relevant. If not, however, that would have been a mighty fine cudgel to just leave sitting there unused.