Sep 30 2006
A Separate Reality, Part 2:
There are two standards of behaviour: theirs and everyone elses:
1998: Republicans were aghast at Clinton’s behavior, with many saying it showed he had lied and abused his power. “It’s vile,” said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. “It’s more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction.”
2006, yesterday: According to Hastert, liberals want to take “the 130 most treacherous people, probably in the world…and release them out in the public eventually.”
This is cued back the fact that the complaints about Foley from the kid came in last year - and that various people in the leadership (including the Speaker, Majority Leader and the congressman in charge of pages) knew about it a year to six months ago - and they did nothing. Didn’t seriously look into it. Didn’t remove Foley as the chairman of a Committtee that was in oversight of legislation on children being sexually exploited by predators. Would have continued to do nothing until the whole thing blew up in the press. And never told the Democrats at all, including the Democratic congressman who was also involved in page oversight.
The Clerk of the House (also responsible for the pages) who did know about Foley resigned when the leadership decided not to follow up further on this last spring.
NYT, today: {Foley} spoke vehemently about the need to protect children from pedophiles. “We track library books better than we do sexual predators,” he said, arguing the need for the Children’s Safety Act, passed by the House in 2005.
ABC NEWS: (instant messages from Foley to the kid)
MaF54: What are ya wearing?
Teen: Tshirt and shorts
MaF54: Love to slip them off of ya.
