Paging Mr. Foley Continued
After reading the exchange between Foley and Page...............click here FOR IM'S
Well, I think it's important for everyone to read, caution though - it's darn right disgusting knowing that this exchange is between an elected official and a 16 year old boy.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CORRUPT REPUBLICANS AND CORRUPT DEMOCRATS:
Now, in defense of Republicans - when Republicans have been caught with a hand in the cookie jar..........they step down.....
Democrats just keep serving.
posted by Michele @ 8:40 AM
14 Comments:
He only stepped down when he officially got caught. Thanks to Hastert, he continued to serve for almost a full year after he tried soaking his penis in that high school student. Who knows if Foley successfully scored with any other boys?
Yeah, no doubt. How long did Boy Ney hold on before finally folding it up? He didn't just step dowm immediately.
Nice try, Maddie.
Two decades ago, the page program was nearly discontinued after accusations of sexual misconduct and drug use. But a Congressional panel concluded: “We feel the pages received a bum rap from the highly publicized scandal.”
Representatives Daniel B. Crane, Republican of Illinois, and Gerry E. Studds, Democrat of Massachusetts, were formally censured by the House in the sex scandal. On July 20, 1983, the two were required to stand in the well of the House chamber and listen to the charges against them, which they did not dispute.
Mr. Crane, who lost his bid for re-election, was censured for having had sexual relations with a 17-year-old female House page. Mr. Studds, who went on to serve in the House until January 1997, was censured for having had sexual relations with a 17-year-old male page on a trip to Europe during a summer Congressional recess.
In the aftermath of the scandal, the minimum age for pages was raised to 16 from 14. Tighter supervision measures were put in place, including a dormitory just blocks from the Capitol, where pages are required to live and attend classes.
Lawmakers moved to create the Page Board, a bipartisan panel that oversees the program.
Representative John Shimkus, a Republican from Illinois who heads the five-.... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/washington/01pages.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
OBVIOUSLY THE MEN WE ELECT TO GO TO WASHINGTON SHOULD LOSE THE PRIVILEDGE OF HAVING PAGES.......LET THEM DELIEVER THEIR OWN PAPERS......HISTORY HAS SHOWN THEY CAN'T BE TRUSTED
Despite this, the immediate take by Democrats and much of the mainstream media was that this was a classic example of Republican hypocrisy -- talking "morals" and "values" while all the time shielding a child predator. But it was nothing of the kind.
If anything, the episode reveals the Democrats' hypocrisy about their own behavior. The fact that Foley resigned virtually within minutes of being told that ABC News had copies of his salacious e-mails and text messages indicates he at least felt shame for his actions. Can the same be said for Democrats?
Sadly, it doesn't seem so. How else can you explain the following?
In 1983, then-Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts was caught in a similar situation. In his case, Studds had sex with a male teenage page -- something Foley hasn't been charged with.
Did Studds express contrition? Resign? Quite the contrary. He rejected Congress' censure of him and continued to represent his district until his retirement in 1996.
In 1989, Rep. Barney Frank (news, bio, voting record), also of Massachusetts, admitted he'd lived with Steve Gobie, a male prostitute who ran a gay sex-for-hire ring out of Frank's apartment. Frank, it was later discovered, used his position to fix 33 parking tickets for Gobie.
What happened to Frank? The House voted 408-18 to reprimand him -- a slap on the wrist. Today he's an honored Democratic member of Congress, much in demand as a speaker and "conscience of the party."
In 2001, President Clinton, who had his own intern problem, commuted the prison sentence of Illinois Rep. Mel Reynolds, who had sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer and pressured her to lie about it. (Reynolds also was convicted of campaign spending violations.)
You get the idea. Democrats not only seem OK with the kind of behavior for which Foley is charged, but also they protect and excuse it. Only when it's a Republican do they proclaim themselves shocked -- shocked! -- when it comes to light.
We have a lot more questions about this whole affair. The timing of the revelations, as we noted, couldn't be more propitious for the Democrats. Turns out both the Democrats and several newspapers seem to have known about Foley's problem as far back as November, according to research by several enterprising blogs.
Why didn't they come forward then? Who dredged up these e-mails -- and why did they hold them until now? This reeks of political trickery.
We're glad Foley's gone. He betrayed Congress, his party and the trust of the 33 pages who serve in Congress, and their parents. He behaved immorally, and we won't be surprised at new revelations.
That said, if this scandal is the Democrats' answer to their problems at the polls, it's pretty pathetic. It shows a base contempt for the voters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20061002/bs_ibd_ibd/2006102issues01&printer=1;_ylt=AtkAMtxPPcF9VCo.1TJkkiygfbcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Thar is no excuse, I don't care what party one is with......
Once a child molestor always a child molestor.......
Off with his head!
The decision to get rid of the page program only hurts the pages. High school students should have this type of program to help them learn about our political system. We shouldn't get rid of it just because grown men can't seem to help themselves. Blaming the program is ridiculous.
Also, other anonymous guys, did you bother to read the links to the other GOP members who have salacious pasts in Maddie's other posts? Check them out before you start going down the road of blaming the Dems. Plus, Foley did not resign right away. He only stepped down once he was sure he was caught. Now the Washington Times editorial board is asking Hastert to step down for helping him conceal the attempted child seduction. What do you say about that?
I don't believe anyone is blaming Dems........
Let's blame the child molestors
I see liberals continue to play politics even with the child molesting issue.......
Kind of like blaming Bush for Muslim Extremism, blaming bush for Katrina, blaming, blaming, blaming...
LET'S WORK TOGETHER AND FIX, FIX, AND FIX
Well if we are going to continue with the Page program.......Let's make sure we elect people who can be trusted,
People that will not abuse or take advantage of an intern or page........
I was just appalled at the notion that a president of the United States could initiate an affair with an intern.
VERY BAD CHOICE
I don't disagree about Clinton's affair, but let's not compare apples and oranges. Clinton had an affair with a consenting adult; Foley tried to seduce a high school boy. They are both wrorng, but Foley's behavior is beyond the pale.
Plus, Foley was the co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus. Are you saying that there are no politics involved in this, or that it's the Dems fault for mentioning it? Why was the Democratic co-chair of the page program not informed of Foley's actions months ago when the Republican co-chair was told? Why did they not share that information with him? I'll tell you why: so they could hide the fact that it was happening. That is poitical on every level. Money has to be raised, voters have to be fooled. Don't lay that at the feet of the Dems, Maddie.
I need a vomit bag when I think of Foley and his antics......
Also when I think that others knew of this sort of problem and did nothing AT THE TIME!
So I think we are on the same PAGE.
Ya.....
But when one is a leader, that person must act responsibly.
The cigar incident was not something I would expect from our country's top leader.
Motion sickness bag please!
Ex-Aide To Foley Cites '03 Warnings
Former Staffer Says He Alerted Hastert's Office
By Jonathan Weisman and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 5, 2006; A01
A longtime chief of staff to disgraced former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) approached House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's office three years ago, repeatedly imploring senior Republicans to help stop Foley's advances toward teenage male pages, the staff member said yesterday.
The account by Kirk Fordham, who resigned yesterday from his job with another senior lawmaker, pushed back to 2003 or earlier the time when Hastert's staff reportedly became aware of Foley's questionable behavior concerning teenagers working on Capitol Hill.
It raised new questions about Hastert's assertions that senior GOP leaders were aware only of "over-friendly" e-mails from 2005 that they say did not raise alarm bells when they came to light this year.
"The fact is, even prior to the existence of the Foley e-mail exchanges, I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest levels of the House of Representatives, asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley's inappropriate behavior," said Fordham, who was Foley's chief of staff for 10 years.
He left that post in January 2004 to join the campaign staff of Republican Mel Martinez, now a senator from Florida, and later worked for Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), whose staff Fordham left yesterday. He would not name the Hastert aides he spoke with.
Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, said in a statement, "What Kirk Fordham said did not happen." The speaker's office also said that the entire matter has been referred to the House ethics committee, "and we fully expect that the bipartisan panel will do what it needs to do to investigate this matter and protect the integrity of the House."
Fordham is the fourth person to indicate that Hastert (Ill.) or his staff was warned about Foley's questionable behavior months or years before the six-term lawmaker abruptly resigned Friday, after ABC News published lewd instant messages that the lawmaker had sent to former pages.
Previously, several congressional offices and some media outlets had obtained copies of tamer 2005 e-mails in which Foley asked a former page from Louisiana for his photo and asked what he wanted for his birthday. Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) said his staff told Hastert's aides last fall about those e-mails, which had alarmed the teenager and his parents.
Two high-ranking House Republicans -- Majority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Reynolds, the House GOP campaign chairman -- said they spoke to Hastert about the Louisiana e-mails earlier this year. Hastert says he does not recall such conversations, and he says his staff never told him about the matters raised by Alexander's aides.
Meanwhile yesterday, U.S. prosecutors ordered the House to preserve all documents related to Foley's electronic communications with current or former pages.
As Hastert turned to close House allies and friendly conservative radio hosts to defend him, most GOP lawmakers were staying quiet about his political fate as they campaigned for their own reelections Nov. 7. But Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.), who faces a tight reelection race, yesterday rescinded an invitation to Hastert to join him at a fundraiser next week.
"I'm taking the speaker's words at face value," Lewis told the Associated Press. "But until this is cleared up, I want to know the facts. If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong, then I will be the first in line to condemn it."
Also yesterday, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said that if he had been told about Foley's exchanges with the Louisiana youth, he would have advised his congressional colleagues to ask more questions. Blunt was not told of the concerns raised by Alexander and his staff, nor were most House members, including two members of the board overseeing the page program.
Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio) -- chairman of the Republican Conference, the fourth-highest party leadership post -- yesterday asked House Clerk Karen L. Haas to investigate allegations raised in a GOP conference telephone call Tuesday night. In her letter, Pryce wrote, "A member stated that there are rumors that there was an incident within the past several years when then-Congressman Foley in an intoxicated state was stopped by the Capitol Police from entering the Page Residence Hall." Pryce wrote that another lawmaker said that at an unspecified time, "the Director of the Republican Pages brought specific concerns about . . . Foley's behavior to the attention of the then-Clerk of the House. While the details of these rumors are vague, they are very serious allegations."
Fordham has played a central role in the Foley affair. He became Reynolds's chief of staff about a year ago but maintained close friendships with Foley and his sister. On Friday, when ABC News reporter Brian Ross confronted Foley with evidence of lurid instant-message exchanges, Fordham intervened. He offered Ross an exclusive story on Foley's resignation if he agreed to withhold publication of the messages. Ross declined.
Fordham yesterday resigned from Reynolds's staff, saying he took action on Foley's behalf as a friend, not at the behest of Reynolds, who faces a tough reelection race of his own.
"I will not allow the Democrats to make me a political issue in my boss's race, and I will fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation," Fordham said.
But within hours, Fordham's anger was redirected from Democrats to Republicans. He grew incensed when leadership aides intimated that he had prevailed upon House leaders in 2005 to withhold the Foley matter from the board overseeing the page program and instead refer it only to the Page Board's chairman, Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.). Fordham said of the allegations: "This is categorically false."
"Rather than trying to shift the blame on me, those who are employed by these House leaders should acknowledge what they know about their action or inaction in response to the information they knew about Mr. Foley prior to 2005."
Meanwhile yesterday, key players tried to explain inconsistencies in their accounts of the Foley mater, with varying levels of success. House members agree that the two officials chosen to confront Foley in the fall of 2005 about the e-mails to the Louisiana youth were Shimkus and Jeff Trandahl, then clerk of the House and a member of the Page Board. But accounts differ on whether Alexander's staff showed the two men the contents of the e-mails.
A chronology issued Saturday by Hastert's office stated that Trandahl "asked to see the text of the e-mail." It continued: "Congressman Alexander's office declined, citing the fact that the family wished to maintain as much privacy as possible and simply wanted the contact to stop." The chronology says that Trandahl then "immediately" summoned Shimkus and that the two men sat down with Foley, who convinced them that his exchanges with the Louisiana boy were innocent. The account strongly implies that neither Shimkus nor Trandahl knew the exact language in the e-mails when the two men met with Foley.
But Shimkus has said that he and Trandahl were provided the text of the e-mails. Shimkus spokesman Steve Tomaszewski said in an interview yesterday that Trandahl provided the congressman with the language of the e-mails -- including Foley's request for the boy's photo -- on a standard-size sheet of paper. Trandahl, now director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, has not responded to repeated requests for interviews.
Also, Hastert has given conflicting accounts of whether he asked Foley to resign Friday. On Monday, he told reporters in the Capitol, "I think Foley resigned almost immediately upon the outbreak of this information, and so we really didn't have a chance to ask him to resign." On Tuesday, Hastert told radio host Rush Limbaugh, "We found out about it, asked him to resign."
Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said Hastert "misspoke" on the Limbaugh show because he thought someone in the House hierarchy had urged Foley to step down.
Foley, 52, appeared headed for a seventh House term until Friday, when ABC News aired the contents of instant-message exchanges in which Foley asked a former page about masturbation techniques, his sexual habits and the size of his genitals.
Fordham says his warnings to Hastert's office dealt with a different matter: reports of Foley's troubling interest in male pages working in the Capitol Hill complex. He says he implored the highest ranks of the GOP leadership to intervene to thwart behavior that he had been unable to stop after multiple confrontations with his boss. Sources close to the matter say a meeting took place between a senior Hastert aide and Foley before Fordham's January 2004 departure, probably in 2003, in a small conference room on the third floor of the Capitol.
But the matter appears to have been dropped.
"Now, in defense of Republicans - when Republicans have been caught with a hand in the cookie jar..........they step down.....
Democrats just keep serving."
Maddie, would you like to amend this statement now?
ya i forgot to say what they were serving up........
B.S.
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