TMV NOTE: I used to work as a staff reporter for the San Diego Union, which later merged with the Tribune. Its editorial page is considered to be Republican. Today it ran a stinging editorial about the Foley scandal. Here’s the last part of it:
Now come even more disturbing revelations that it was common knowledge among the ranks of pages that Foley was someone to steer clear of, that the Florida congressman was known for making inappropriate advances toward the underaged, that this was known for more than a dozen years. A dozen years! And Hastert insists he only found out about the extent of the problem last week?
It’s horrid. You’ll recall these are the same House Republican leaders who, just a few months ago, were busy lecturing Americans about how they had such enormous respect for law and order that they would never go along with giving illegal immigration what they called amnesty.
And yet, here they were, offering a de-facto amnesty to one of their own, a sick individual with obvious pedophilic tendencies.
And their defense? They didn’t know – didn’t know there was more to this than “overly friendlyâ€? e-mails, didn’t know the conduct involved other youngsters, didn’t know Foley wasn’t being honest with them about the extent of his sickness, didn’t know, didn’t know…
The Justice Department is investigating this matter, as well it should. But House Republicans may not have the luxury of waiting for the result. They may have to take action to preserve their credibility and convince Americans they understand the gravity of this scandal. And if they don’t understand by now, they never will.
Read the whole thing.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.