Re: family values

["Petem" <petem001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bass why don't you post all this crap to Comp.Home.Automation too?

I am sure its only a slight mistake,don't worry I will forward it for you


"Robert L Bass" <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de
news: 1161010478.797812.222180@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 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.
>