The White House and GOP leaders are standing together in supporting embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert, under fire over the handling of the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley.
Several top Republican leaders, including President Bush, rushed to Hastert’s defense.
House Majority Leader John Boehner also said Hastert should keep his seat but acknowledged that the Foley matter was Hastert’s responsibility.
“My position is it’s in his corner, it’s his responsibility,” Boehner, R-Ohio, told WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. “The clerk of the House who runs the page program, the page board — all report to the speaker. And I believe it had been dealt with.”
A GOP aide said House Republican leaders held a conference call Monday night with about 100 members, answering questions and reassuring them that there was an investigation into the situation. There were no calls for Hastert to resign, the aide said.
With just five weeks before midterm elections, GOP leaders are trying to stem the fallout from the Foley matter. The scandal threatened to hurt the GOP, with control of the House up for grabs in November.
As usual, the “standards” of Congress defer to power. Who controls what is more important than ethical policies and practices.
Jim Gerlach, Pennsylvania Republican, also is giving $1,000 Foley’s political action committee gave to his campaign to the “Crime Victims Center of Chester County…”
Other Republican representatives who say they are planning to donate to charities or return contributions from Foley include Rep. Nancy Johnson of California, Rep. Clay Shaw of Florida, Rep. Geoffrey Davis of Kentucky, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Rep. Deborah Price of Ohio, Rep. Curtis Weldon of Pennsylvania and Sen. George Allen of Virginia.
Just the tip of the greenback iceberg. Every now and then a bit of slime oozes out into public view — how dollars are floated around Congress — money from sleazy sources is redistributed from one congresscreep to another.
Hey! I just found this! The ironing is delicious!
“Attorney David Roth, speaking on Foley’s behalf at a Florida news conference Tuesday, said Foley was molested between ages 13 and 15 by a clergyman. He declined to identify the clergyman or the church, but Foley is Roman Catholic.”
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061004/D8KHONF00.html
Barney Frank wasn’t married.
Oh yes, it’s the democrats and the media’s fault for not reporting on the fact the the GOP leadership knew about this for YEARS.
yeah, right.
It’s the Democrats fault that they didn’t break this story for three years? Maybe it is because Congressmen Shimkuss and Haskert didn’t tell any of them.
Since this happened after the page left Washington, the House Page Panel couldn’t do anything. The head of the Page Panel, Shimkuss didn’t let either the other Republican member or the Democratic member of the panel in on the incident. The Committee that should have heard and investigated the incident couldn’t meet because the Republicans wanted to change the rules and neuter the committee.
Congressman Reynolds was aware of the incident, but because Foley had given $100,000 to Reynolds campaign, he didn’t say anything.
Many in Congress knew that Foley was a closet gay. So what. Being gay and a pedophile are not synonymous. If Foley were a heterosexual and at 50+ chased 16 yr old girls, he would still be a pedophile. And I don’t gives a rat’s butt what the technical definition of pedophile is, I believe he is one.
I have to say, this Foley scandal has revealed a serious problem in conservative ethics. Not just Foley — who clearly is sicko — but conservatives in general.
Numerous times, I’ve heard conservatives accusing us liberals of having a double standard between Bill Clinton and Mark Foley.
HELL YES we have a double standard!
What’s wrong with conservatives that they can’t instantly distinguish between adultery (morally wrong) and pedophilia (highly criminal.)
The same goes when they confuse this whole issue pedophilia (horribly criminal) of with homosexuality (arguably wrong, at most).
Are conservative brains just wired differently than the rest of us, or what? Is their world really that black and white?
Hey, if the GOP knew for a fact that they had a member of Congress that had questionable ethics and they did nothing about it, then they DESERVE all the criticism and bad press that they’re getting – no one is defending the indefensible. This scandal is wholly self inflicted. And it’s being exploited for maximum political damage. I never implied that this was the Democrat’s or the media’s fault for not reporting the story earlier, it’s just dirty politics.
The pathetic thing is, you’d THINK maybe the Democrats would have a better political issue then tossing ABC News a story about a sleazy closet gay Republican just before the election? Ironically I think that a lot of Republicans are relieved that the news cycle is being dominated by this story. None of the major news outlets are really talking about hot button issues of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Homeland security, Jack Abramoff, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, The Patriot act, “War on Terror”, Bin Laden or even the North Korean nuclear issues. (Heck, The Democrats would have better luck hiring me as their political operative!) Oh well, with all politics being local, that means that most voters won’t associate the sleazy and lurid Foley stories with their own Congressional representatives back home – “it’s not my congressman who’s the problem, it’s that other guy.” Still, it’s a close election and if the Democrats can’t win over one or both houses with all the advantages they’ve had going into this election cycle, then they should be demanding Screamin’ Dean’s head on a pole. ;D
25 >>I can’t help but think that if Democrats or the media were really concerned with the ethics of Congressional Members this would have come out sometime in the last three years and not timed to coincide with the midterm elections.
If there were some shortage of scandals, maybe you’d have an arguable point.
Major Bush/GOP scandals have been breaking about every six weeks for the last three years.
The same with books critical of Bush and the GOP. Woodward’s book is just one more in a huge pile, documenting the corruption and incompetence of Bush and the GOP. Heck, Barnes and Noble could have a whole section on it.
I don’t see any great upsurge right now of scandals, books, indictments or arrests — it’s pretty much business-as-usual for this bunch.
You guys are forgetting that Democrats complained when Republicans demanded that Gerry Studds resign after he had an affair with an underage page. Then, people in the media accused them of being anti-gay and conducting a witchhunt. What are they supposed to do upon hearing about an e-mail asking a kid what he wants for his birthday. You guys would be complaining about the Republicans saw a gay guy and decided he was a pedophile.
39 >> If there were some shortage of scandals, maybe you’d have an arguable point.
Well you’d have a real arguable point if you were more specific. What is your definition of “scandal?” If you’re talking about criminal or moral violations then Abu Ghraib was a scandal. But as a scandal it was pretty much blamed on the US Army’s failure to outline what was acceptable and not acceptable in interrogating prisoners.
Gitmo might be a moral scandal, but the public views it more as a political question over Administration policy over detainees and whether they are deserving of protections under the Geneva Conventions. How we are prosecuting the war in Iraq is a question of Administration policy, it doesn’t appear to rise to the label of “scandal.” Same goes for the Iranian nuke crises, North Korean nuke crises and even the Patriot act and Homeland security are legitimate issues over policy. They are not scandals by definition. Hurricane Katrina would qualify as a scandal. But as a story of political incompetance that goes from the city of New Orleans to the State of Louisiana and eventually the Federal government, it has the unfortunate reality that two of those three levels were run by Democrats. So it’s best not to investigare too deeply since we may uncover too many instances of Democratic incompetance.
The only real “scandals” in the Bush administration have been, 1) the Valerie Plame affair which was the hottest story in the media and promised to be as infamous as Watergate or Iran Contra, but it imploded when it’s found out that Ambassador Joseph Wilson lied about his findings in Nigeria and that the Administration leaker had in fact leaked not out of malice but by accident. Even the question of whether a crime was committed because Plame was unofficially known as a CIA agent was in dispute. This so called “scandal” became a non-issue shortly after Armitage confessed his mistake. 2) Jack Abramoff – now that is potentially a real scandal given recent information on how many times he and the people in the White House have had personal and telephone contacts. But this story is moving too slow for the Democrats to exploit by the November 7th election.
Now take a look at this impressive list of scandals and convictions by the Clinton Whitehouse: http://prorev.com/legacy.htm
The Bush Administration has been remarkably free of scandal by comparison. And there’s only 2 years left to go in his Administration. Given the Clinton’s natural inclination for sleaze and corruption, this is one contest that Bush is going to lose.
#38, Hey, if the GOP knew for a fact that they had a member of Congress that had questionable ethics and they did nothing about it, then they DESERVE all the criticism and bad press that they’re getting – no one is defending the indefensible. …
BUSH, CHENEY, Delay, Cunningham, Ney, Abramoff, Conrad Burns, Brown,…
If anyone wants to go after Studd then go for it. I know Limbaugh and Hannity are having a field day with him. But I am not defending him or his actions. Since this scandal broke, I have not read anyone else defend him or his actions.
On the other hand, the Republicans have set themselves up as morally superior. They constantly campaigned on anti-gay stands. Repeatedly I have heard Republicans tell us how morally wrong homosexuality is. Then they have told us how bad it is and even impeached the most popular President in decades over a private matter between consenting ADULTS.
The Republican leaders in Congress were aware of what happened yet kept the lid on it simply because Foley was good at raising money. The Republicans are hypocrites.
And no matter how many times ZeOutOfHisMind says it, that won’t make his wishes come true. I know that is a Republican trick; repeat something enough times and eventually it becomes true.
>>> BUSH, CHENEY, Delay, Cunningham, Ney, Abramoff, Conrad Burns, Brown,…
Comment by Mr. Fusion
What is your point? I have’t seen any of those guys have defending Foley in the news.
>>> On the other hand, the Republicans have set themselves up as morally superior.
Get off your high horse Mr. ConFusion. I recall Howard Dean saying things like: “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re the good.”
Now if that isn’t political hackery and demagogy of the highest order, I don’t know what is. Democrats love to pretend they’re morally superior too.
>>> The Republican leaders in Congress were aware of what happened yet kept the lid on it simply because Foley was good at raising money. The Republicans are hypocrites.
I’m sure a lot of Democrats knew that too. It just wasn’t politically advantageous to let that cat ouf of the bag until now.
>>> And no matter how many times ZeOutOfHisMind says it, that won’t make his wishes come true.
Exactly what are you talking about? Are you calling me a liar? If so, what about?
And FYI: I’m not a Republican, I’m a Conservative.