Saturday, September 30, 2006

Republican Leaders Give Tacit OK to Congressman's Sordid Activity

September 29, 2006

Well, which is worse?

1) Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley's sordid, sleazy emails and instant messages, for which he was forced to quit, or

2) The fact that the Republican leadership, including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, knew about Foley's activities and did nothing to stop him.

Foley, who served in the House leadership as a deputy whip, sent sexually explicit Internet messages to teenage pages. In one message Foley asked, “What ya wearing?” The teenager replied, “Tshirt and shorts,” to which Foley replied, “Love to slip them off of you.” Other messages to teenage boys were more sexually explicit.

Foley also sent emails, using his personal email account - not his Congressional, work account - to a 16 year old boy who had returned home to Louisiana after working as a page for another Congressman. Foley asked the boy to send him a picture.

Foley has refused to say if he is gay and that is his right, as is his sexual orientation. But it is an abuse of power of the worst sort to make unwanted advances toward young men working for the institution of which Foley was a member and a leader.

As for the rest of the Republican leadership, they just looked the other way. Mr. Foley reportedly sent the messages to the first page in August 2005. The boy's family contacted their congressman, Republican Rodney Alexander for whom the boy had worked. Alexander discussed the problem with Representative Thomas Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Reynolds said he told Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert about the scandal months ago. Hastert's office passed the issue along to the Clerk of the House who informed Republican Representative John Shimkus, chairman of the House Page Board. Shimkus said that he had known of the first e-mail messages in late 2005 - about one year ago, but he just accepted Foley's assurance that Foley was simply acting as a mentor. Shimkus told Foley to “be especially mindful of his conduct” with pages. Hastert says he doesn't even remember talking to Reynolds about the issue. Guess he couldn't have considered it too important.

So here you have all these Republican leaders ignoring this blatantly inappropriate activity by Foley, passing the buck, doing virtually nothing to stop him, and then making excuses when the whole thing blows up. There still has been no announcement about whether there will be an investigation or whether the Republican leadership will just continue to do nothing.

I guess I'd say Foley's activities were despicable and the Republican leadership's lack of action is appalling. You decide which is worse.

For more detail see http://www.transatlan.com/never/sept_30_2006.html

No comments: