House Republican Election Head: I Told Hastert About Foley E-Mails Months Ago
Foley: “We Track Library Books Better Than We Do Sexual Predators”
WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy….Reynolds, R-N.Y., was told about e-mails sent by Rep. Mark Foley and is now defending himself from Democratic accusations that he did too little. Foley, R-Fla., resigned Friday after ABC News questioned him about the e-mails to a former congressional page and about sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages.
It’s not beginning to appear as if House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert knew about Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually-charged email in IM exchanges with underage boys A FULL YEAR AGO…and yet did nothing, because….well, that’s what Republicans do. They hide the truth and paper over reality until it becomes a full-blown scandal, at which time they throw the member overboard and claim they had NO IDEA what this SICK and EVIL person was up to. Coming as it does just a month before the midterm election, this can NOT be good news for God’s Own Party. Now Hastert and the rest of the Republican leadership is going to have to explain why they allowed Foley to remain in office, when they knew that he was a child molester and a sexual predator just looking for a place to happen.
The irony that Foley was the co-chair of the House Missing & Exploited Children Caucus should be lost on no one. Here’s a politician who has gained a great deal of political capital by speaking out on the issue of child sexual abuse and exploitation when it turns out that he was using his position looking for the very thing he decried.
Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.
What’s even more pathetic is Hastert’s reaction (if his inaction can even be characterized as such) to the revelation of Foley’s transgressions. Rule #1: never give up a fellow Republican, because you never know when the house of cards will crumble.
Hastert’s office said aides referred the matter to the proper authorities last fall but they were only told the messages were “over-friendly.”
“Over-friendly”? As if that isn’t enough of a red flag in and of itself. Given the current climate in Washingon, and indeed the nation, when it comes to the issue of child sexual exploitation, didn’t ANYONE, Hastert in particular, bother to consider just what “over-friendly” might mean? Or did they figure that the less they knew the greater the plausible deniability would be. Ah, yes…the “ignorance is bliss” defense….
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.
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. Shimkus said he warned Foley not to have any more contact with the teenager and to respect other pages.
Democrats charged Reynolds did far too little and said more digging should be done.
“Congressman Reynolds’ inaction in the face of such a serious situation is very troubling, and raises important questions about whether there was an attempt to cover up criminal activity involving a minor to keep it from coming to light before Election Day,” said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney.
Wow…you don’t think Republicans would really do that…do you??
Whatever the truth of the matter is, it seems clear that someone dropped the ball, and that by ignoring the issue for a full year, Republicans are now having to deal with it with a mid-term election staring them in the face. During an election season which finds Republicans in full retreat/self-preservaton mode, the Foley scandal is certainly not going to increase their chances of retaining control of Congress.
I’m not about to claim that this sort of perversion is a Republican monopoly- mostly because someone else has already done it for me. I don’t even care if Foley is a deeply-closeted homosexual with a predilection for farm animals. What I DO care about is the hypocrsiy displayed by Foley and those who know of his inappropriate behavior A FULL YEAR AGO. Someone- and I’m thinking Dennis Hastert, John Shimkus, and Thomas Reynolds are at the top of the list- needs to be held accountable for covering up Foley’s untoward, wholly inappropriate, and quite possibly illegal behavior.
Mark Foley needs to be on Florida’s sex offender registry, and Haster, Shimkus, and Reynolds ought to be put behind bars for engaging in a cover-up. Failing that, how about y’all just vote Deomcratic in November. That miught put any of these criminals in jail, but it WOULD shake things up.
STILL GLAD YOU VOTED REPUBLICAN??
