Party Before Predators: Why Didn't GOP Leaders Stop Foley?

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Yeah -- the Jack Abramoff scandal was like a year ago!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Actually Infidel was suggesting the corollary--if you're gonna be hard on the Reps, then Dems should also clean house.

Why do we have to make this a partisan point scoring exercise - surely the point is that these revelations, regardless of the intent behind them should be dealt with on their own merits - not spun into some big game of "he said, she said".

As I said I don't know why its so hard to look objectively at politicians and ask the simple, but obvious questions - is this person adequately representing me? Are they doing good for me and my country?

If anyone deliberately concealed Foley's behaviour - they are dishonest and should be kicked to the curb. If anyone found out about it and held onto the story for "maximum damage", they too are dishonest and should also be kicked to the curb.

Edited October 4, 2006 by erekose

[GaryC 7]

Actually Infidel was suggesting the corollary--if you're gonna be hard on the Reps, then Dems should also clean house.

Why do we have to make this a partisan point scoring exercise - surely the point is that these revelations, regardless of the intent behind them should be dealt with on their own merits - not spun into some big game of "he said, she said".

As I said I don't know why its so hard to look objectively at politicians and ask the simple, but obvious questions - is this person adequately representing me? Are they doing good for me and my country?

If anyone deliberately concealed Foley's behaviour - they are dishonest and should be kicked to the curb. If anyone found out about it and held onto the story for "maximum damage", they too are dishonest and should also be kicked to the curb.

For once I agree with you fishdude.

I'm sorry guys, I am a bit on edge lately because of the screwing the CSC continues to give me. I will give it up for now. I just needed to blow off some frustration.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

No, she wasn't. She was born in 1973 and the affair started in 1995, making her 21-22 years old.

I haven't seen any evidence that the Democrats knew about this scandal but there IS evidence that the GOP leadership did. Of course nothing will actually happen to THEM; nothing ever does. I'm so sick of the Republicans I could puke.

Ok, your right on the birth date.

I haven't seen any evidence that the GOP leadership had anything but the most benign emails. The really serious ones were held back for the assualt by the Dems and the media. What is certain is that the Dems and media had the emails and IM's for a long time and held them up for their own reasons.

The American people are getting sick of the Dems and their tactics. The polls show that. Thats why the Dems are doing these dirty tricks now. They can't win with their ideas. Thats because they don't have any. The Republicans are going to hold onto the House and Senate. In two years another Republican will be in the white house. Wait and see.

I wonder why with an election literally just around the corner that people are even questioning that these sorts of revelations are not pre-meditated. Of course they are. On the one hand we've had the former president slammed for not "doing enough" to get Osama Bin Laden, and now this Rep guy has been revealed to be doing something extremely questionable and potentially criminal.

What does surprises me is that the term "moral relativism" has been bandied about on here quite recently in fact as a specific as a charge against non-religious "liberals". Yet when presented with clear evidence of a scandal with a clear public interest angle, that the only thing people can do is to claim that the other side have done the same or worse. I mean... how much more relativistic can you get?

Disregarding the obvious, that these revelations are part of a dirty political campaign - you can't deny that there is no public interest in the fact that an elected official has engaged in behaviour that the majority of people would find amounts not only to an abuse of his authority but borders on pedophilia - and that this has likely been covered up by others in his party, for purely political reasons as opposed to the public good.

It really is time that people stopped with this stupid to-ing and fro-ing of accusations and actually took a good hard look at their political representatives (from all sides of the fence) and seriously ask whether these people are really serving their constituents and doing good for the country, or merely helping themselves.

Amen

[ieldanth 0]

I only have a problem with painting an entire party for the actions of a few. The Abramoff scandal, for example, touched both sides of the aisle, not just Republicans, and did not touch all members, again just a few.

I vote for all parties btw, not just one, depending on which candidate best fits my own interests and ideals. I don't view government like some big sporting match of one team vs the other.

[I'm Gone 60]

I would be all for term limits. President has term limits and so should Congress. Way it is now unless they get nabbed for something like what has happened to Foley they pretty much have a job for life and it was never meant to be a job for life.

http://tinyurl.com/mmj6q

Aide Says He Reported Foley 3 Years Ago

By DEVLIN BARRETT and DAVID ESPO

Associated Press Writers

Republicans Struggle on How to Spin Foley Case

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert's political support showed signs of cracking on Wednesday as Republicans fled an election-year scandal spawned by steamy computer messages from former Rep. Mark Foley to teenage male pages.

At the same time, Foley's former chief of staff said in an Associated Press interview that he first warned Hastert's aides more than three years ago that Foley's behavior toward pages was troublesome. That was long before GOP leaders acknowledged learning of the problem.

Kirk Fordham, who was Foley's top aide until January 2004, said he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene" several years ago.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

In fairness, I just watched a video clip of Cliff Schecter, a Democratic strategist and Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist both spinning away. Mr. Schecter could have taken the high and stuck to presenting the facts that he knows but he went overboard, IMO by saying, "This party (Republican) is full of predators, pillagers and pre-9/11 failures..." Although he may be able to make a strong case for that argument, with this case, this could have been a Democrat as well. I understand he's using political strategy and hitting hard when the opponent is down, but I think the voters are sick of that kind of display.

I wish these news shows would be more selective about who they bring on for interviews. To bring on two political strategists to talk about this case reduces it down to partisan bickering. It's the, "We're better than you." And the media is pandering to it. Bad form.