family values

["Robert L Bass" <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Family Values?: Republican Leadership Protects a Sexual Predator

On Friday, Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress as a result of
sexually explicit messages he sent to underage House pages over the
internet. In a long series of Washington scandals, governmental
screw-ups, and outright tragedies that the Republican Congress has
overlooked, this is the most universally appalling. We can have
legitimate differences of opinion on the war in Iraq, whether the Duke
Cunningham, Tom DeLay, or Jack Abramoff scandals are anything new.
Though I'm not willing to cede any ground, there are quite a few
people who do argue that the torture of detainees is necessary. And
there was enough blame to go around on Hurricane Katrina that you
can't just pin it on one party. But this? Offends everyone. A
Congressman abused his authority and committed ultimate hypocrisy.
Worse, Republican leadership in the House knew about it for at least
one year, possibly longer.

    "In his letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, [House
Speaker Dennis] Hastert (R-Ill.) acknowledged that some of Foley's
most sexually explicit instant messages were sent to former House pages
in 2003. That was two years before lawmakers say they learned of a more
ambiguous 2005 e-mail that led only to a quiet warning to Foley to
leave pages alone.

    Foley, 52, abruptly resigned Friday, and Democrats have since been
hammering Hastert and other GOP leaders. They have accused Republicans
of covering up the matter and allowing Foley to remain as co-chair of
the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus instead of
launching an inquiry and possibly uncovering the raunchier
communications.

    As the scandal broke, Hastert contended he learned of concerns
about Foley only last week. But after Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.)
said Saturday that he had notified Hastert months ago of Foley's
e-mails to a 16-year-old boy, the speaker did not dispute his
colleague, and Hastert's office acknowledged that some aides knew
last year that Foley had been ordered to cease contact with the youth.

    Republican leaders continued to insist yesterday that it was
understandable that the "over-friendly" Internet e-mails they had
seen did not set off alarm bells. But one House GOP leadership aide,
speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job,
conceded that Republicans had erred in not notifying the three-member,
bipartisan panel that oversees the page system. Instead, they left it
to the panel chairman, Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.), to confront
Foley."

I will not reprint any of the IM messages that brought this whole thing
public. Those are readily available online if you really want to know
what, exactly, Foley said to these pages. There are far too many
disturbing facts surrounding this case. Pages were warned about Foley
as early as five years ago. Foley pushed legislation to enforce stiffer
penalties for exactly the type of behavior he was engaging in. He
served as co-chair on the Caucus for Missing and Exploited Children in
the House for a year after the House leadership learned of his e-mails
to a page. Foley proclaimed moral outrage at Bill Clinton's affair,
and now it comes to light that Foley has been a sexual predator for
years. But what disturbs me is the lack of concern by House leadership
over anything but the political fallout. When Rep. Rodney Alexander
learned of the contact between one of his pages and Foley, he did not
go immediately to the House leadership or the Page Board. He went to
Rep. Reynolds, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional
Committee. Majority leader John Boehner said he notified Hastert months
ago, and Hastert assured him that they were "taking care of it."
(Boehner later changed his story, claiming that he "could not
remember" whether or not he told Hastert). The Democrat on the Page
Board was not notified at any time.

Any investigation into the matter would have undoubtedly uncovered the
more explicit messages that surfaced this weekend. Instead, after a
page notified his sponsor of a "creepy" e-mail he received from
Foley, Foley got a silent reprimand. Based on the accounts from several
pages in the media over the weekend, it is apparent that there was
knowledge of Foley's behavior among the pages. The House Republican
leadership simply ignored the fact that a sexual predator was serving
in Congress, because it presented a political problem for them. Family
values, indeed.