FBI To Investigate Foley
If Foley thought that he had hit rock bottom, that things could not possibly get worse, well… I guess he has to change his belief system: The FBI has announced that it will examine Foley’s notorious e-mails.
The FBI announced last night that it is looking into whether former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) broke federal law by sending inappropriate e-mails and instant messages to teenage House pages.
[...]
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.Also yesterday, a former House page said that at a 2003 page reunion, he saw sexually suggestive e-mails Foley had sent to another former page. Patrick McDonald, 21, now a senior at Ohio State University, said he eventually learned of “three or four” pages from his 2001-2002 class who were sent such messages.
He said he remembered saying at the reunion, “If this gets out, it will destroy him.”
House officials have already removed Foley’s nameplate from his Cannon Office Building door and shut down his House Web site, while in Florida, GOP leaders prepared to meet at an Orlando airport hotel today to select a replacement candidate for the November election.
This will get extremely ugly both for Foley and for the Republican party as a whole. Strangely most people are not exactly fond of people like Foley nor of their apologizers.
Demanding political responsibility, though, is something quite different from a criminal justice approach to it all. I am not willing to hold him responsible in that respect: innocent until proven guilty. Not the other way around as seems to be the most popular approach these days.
Foley has resigned, other politicians who seem to have known about it, however, remain in power. Were I American, I would demand their resignation as well. Again, this is not the same as saying that someone is guilty under the law: it is a question of political responsibility.
10 Responses to “FBI To Investigate Foley”
Well, the Republicans took the high road (a route they seem increasingly unfamiliar with) with Trent Lott when he made his controversial statements about Strom Thurmond. In that case, even though many Republicans thought it was much ado about nothing, there was support for Lott’s stepping down as Speaker. I would support that in this case too; I don’t think, based on what we know right now, that there’s a strong case for Hastert’s resignation, but stepping down as Speaker is a separate issue and it’s a move that I’d support in order to see some accountability.
Oops, that should of course have been a reference to Lott stepping down as Senate majority leader, not Speaker.
The ‘overly-friendly’ email Republican’s are talking up is a perfect example of what child psychologists call ‘Grooming’. The abuser first befriends the young person, then gains his/her trust, and then initiates them (as per the later messaging).
The tone of that initial email was all wrong and at the very least should have prompted those who had access to it to seek professional advice.
Instead they went the cover up route, and its going to kill them in November
Truflo,
I agree that some of the Congressmen who were closer to the issue are more culpable and should resign (Shimkus, for example, if what I’ve read today is true). I’m just saying that so far I don’t see evidence of Hastert deliberately covering up; in his case it appears that he just wasn’t paying enough attention. If that is the extent of it, then he should step down as Speaker but I don’t feel that it warrants his resignation. If it turns out that there’s evidence that Hastert did know more and covered up, then he should go too.
C Stanley,
Point taken, and no one should want or encourage a witch hunt. My point is simply that unless the republican leadership changes its tune fast and starts acting responsibly, they are finished this November. Snow’s description of the emails as ‘naughty’ will haunt him for a long time and is indicative of just how out of touch the republican party is on this one, particularly in the present political climate.
Anyone got a fork?
state of denial ..to be continued
My take on this whole situation- is that no one did anything until they absolutely had to. Foley resigned because he knew ABC was publishing the sexually explicit e-mails -as Joe reported in another post, he tried to make a deal with them to keep it quiet. The R’s on the Page Board never notified the sole Dem on the board—he had to find out what had happened along with everyone else. Foley had a history of inappropriate relationships with pages going back to 2001, so put in that context, the e-mails from 2005 should have raised red flags with the board and the leadership.
Once Foley was forced to resign, Snow did his spin for the Republicans and Foley already has been replaced. Hastert did announce that he is requesting an investigation by the Feds, but only after it seemed inevitable anyway. Meanwhile the talking heads on Faux are bringing up every tawdry incident a Dem has been associated with in the last 30 years, and trying to make the R’s look ethical by comparison. What a crock!
The problem here isn’t whether people think Foley needs help and punishment(he does) Thats already been stipulated
.
The problem is taking one mans problems, serious problems and not bothering to wait for the official investigation to be complete before throwing around accusations at the whole republican party.
But of course, how can the left wingers wait for the FBI to conclude the investigation, that might not give them the political buzz before election time.
So by all means lets paint all republicans with the same brush by simple virtue of being on the other side of the aisle.
THATS sickening.
sue,
I agree. What is sad is that instead of dealing with the real societal issues that lead to this kind of behavior, it’s all about playing political gotcha. Each side does it’s political spin: the Republicans trying to do damage control while the Dems trying to maximize the damage. Meanwhile the bigger issue of what really happened, and why, is never addressed. Republicans can ignore the underlying issue by reminding themselves that there have been other predatory sex scandals that involved Democrats, and Dems can laugh about how hypocritical the Republicans are because after all, the Dems never claimed to have these high moral values so therefore they don’t have to be as accountable when they behave immorally, right? See how when we focus on these partisan reactions, we miss the point about how society should deal with sexual predation? Meanwhile it is now evident that any parents who encourage their kids to become Congressional pages must be the same ones who sent the kids to spend the weekend with Michael in Neverland.
CS- Good points- I agree with you. The families who send 16 year olds to Washington shouldn’t have to worry that this could happen. The Page Board was supposed to deal with these issues, but only one member knew of Foley’s problem.
I can’t think of any way to fix it. It is natural that the Democrats would jump on it this close to the election, and just as natural that the Republicans just want the whole thing to disappear-that is just politics- a dirty business.