It is time to say it because you can NOT be a moderate if you condone this: this crew has GOT to go:
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, appearing on CNN this morning, downplayed the Foley scandal. Soledad later noted that Snow “tried really hard to minimize the impact and any kind of political fallout.”
Soledad asks as “a parent” why any communication between a 16-year old page a Member of Congress doesn’t “raise red flags, major, massive red flags.” Snow responds, “[I]t’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.”
It’s hard to find parallel in American history to this administration. A White House spokesman is now calling inappropriate and graphic emails sent by a 50-ish Congressman sent to an underage teen page boy “simply naughty.”
Question: how can Republicans who believe in family values bring themselves to support the people who now run their party?
Question: if any 50ish reader of this blog sent similar emails to high school students and if parents and authorities found out would they be called “simply naughty” or would they be characterized in a far more harsh manner…and seek legal action?
Is there a parallel in American history of ANY administration that so quickly discards values that once defined its party?
If this is being dismissed as of little consequences, then just what does the Bush administration stand for in terms of families and protecting children?
Question: with a comment like this how can any Republican run a campaign ad claiming the GOP is the party that protects family values?
If Snow’s comment is allowed to stand it condones the content of these emails and makes a mockery of the family values that not just social conservatives but Republicans of all stripes have said they champion and defend.
Snow should clarify the comment, retract the comment or go back to Fox News.
MORE at Think Progress.
OTHER REACTION TO SNOW’S COMMENTS (due to the importance with which we view this issue we are NOT quoting from sites but just giving you links so you make sure you read each post in FULL):
—Middle Earth Journal
—Poliblog
—Daily Kos
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.