I just don’t understand this. The fact that he resigned his seat doesn’t make him an ineligible candidate. How can the state count votes for one eligible candidate toward the total of another?
For example, Democrat Paul Sarbanes is retiring from his Senate seat in Maryland. Democrat Benjamin Cardin came out ahead of other candidates to win the primary election. Yet if I were to write in Paul Sarbanes as my choice for Senator, my vote wouldn’t be counted for Cardin. How can Florida simply change a voter’s choice that way?
Ironically, he himself passed legislation that would make his prosecution more likely.
I think things look especially bad for the credibility of John Boehner. He’s gone from “I told Hastert and he assured me that it was being taken care of” to “I don’t remember if I told Hastert’s staff” to “I definately did not tell Hastert.” I’m not sure how he’s going to explain that one, unless there is some very serious confusion over different but similar events.
Well, in Florida, they have this crazy proceedure by which they pass these things called “laws” which allow them to define what happens in these sorts of circumstances.
Hasert may have problems even with the backpeddling. Pages were warned (by whom?) about Foley, other pages had similar emails sent. It appears to have been - at least among the page staff - and open secret. I believe the leadership is responsible for the pages. So they were either blindly unaware of illegal activity happening around underage pages that (I believe) they were responsible for (even though the pages themselves seemed to know), or they were aware and didn’t do anything about it. Not sure I like what either statement means.
And a quite interesting tidbit. When Alexander learned of the chats, he contacted the RNC’s political congresisonal campaign wing. As Josh Marshall points out, this behavior is especially odd given that the offense involved a minor. An internet predator is caught, and you tell the POLITICAL wing all about it and the kid in question, violating his privacy by doing it outside of the ethics/law enforcement channel? It also means that the NRCC definately knew about this and was hoping to keep it under wraps under after the election.
You have to remember that among Republicans, most especially Republican voters, bigotry against gays is rife. Legally, the age thing might matter, but politically it’s a moot point. As has been pointed out, Foley has been found with a live boy, which means Foley is dead meat, which is why he resigned. And the fact that Hastert and his buddies hushed it up means they may get the taint, too, though we have yet to see how that’ll work out.
Interesting: the concerned women of America have been afer Foley for quite some time it seems:
I love the reference to the “nonhomosexual press.” I think that’s my new favorite name for the media. Except, of course, for the homosexual part of it.
I don’t think so, but I could totally be wrong on that. AFAIK, cyber-sex, even with a minor, is more or less legal. You’re in trouble when you try to arrange a real-life meeting, or possibly if they can prove you intended a real-life meeting.
As I see it so far, our good and honorable congressman said “I’d like to take your clothes off.” He didn’t say “come over to my house at 123 Anywhere St. this Friday at 6 PM and when you get here I am going to take your clothes off.” Even then, I’m not sure any charges would stick.
It looks like a circular firing sqaud has started to form among the House leadership.
Rep. Tom Reynolds, head or the NRCC, is now saying that he told Denny Hastert about Foley-the-Page-Predator months ago. This after Boenher said the same thing and then denied it.
Democrats are going after Reynolds, so Reynolds is throwing Hastert under the bus.
The only kid I found any information about lives in Louisiana. I could make quite a good argument that the crime took place in Louisiana, and in Louisiana the age of consent is 17. “Computer aided solicitation of a minor” in Lousiana carries a fine of up to $10K and a hard labor prison term of 2 to 10.
But what was the crime? Solicitation? Solicitation of what? Did he actually ask for sex, or just talk dirty? The only thing I can think of is requesting a photo. But what sort of photo did he request? The teenager in his underwear? Naked? Or just a school yearbook-type photo? Or even just a candid, but fully clothed photo?
If he used the internet to request a semi-nude “erotic” photo from a minor, he’s probably in trouble. Most of what I’ve heard is people getting busted for sending nude photos of minors though. I think it’s tougher to convict someone for receiving photos, unless maybe you’re requesting specific, yucky things.
I’m wondering about the jurisdictional issues. You’ve got a congressman who probably maintains dual residencies (D.C. and Florida), a number of pages from god knows how many different states, who the C-man knows from work in D.C. but who may be living in either D.C., Virginia or Maryland during their internships; plus likely differences in criminal statutes between the federal ones applying to D.C. and the various states’ codes.
How do you determine what state (or D.C.) has jurisdiction WRT a dirty email or phone call under such circumstances?