"Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Rep. Mark Foley and a former teenage page but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a congressional caucus on children's issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday." This is the opening paragraph of a New York Times article written by Carl Hulse and Raymond Hernandez, and points to a serious problem with the Republican party. They are preaching one set of values, and practicing another.
This is not a new phenomenon for the Republicans. For years, they have been professing their belief in "heartland values", while protecting their own who have failed to live up to those values. Just look at the Republican-controlled Ethics Committee. Their failure to act on the questionable activities of House members such as Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, and Tom DeLay, until forced to do so by the investigations of various law enforcement agencies, speaks volumes.
But the mess involving Republican Representative Mark Foley is the most egregious example of a Republican cover-up. Foley's actions don't just violate supposed Republican values. His actions violate the values of all decent people no matter what party or group they belong to. This is child molestation by a government official. Yet the Republicans covered it up rather than deal with it in an honest and open manner.
The Republicans first learned of this illegal activity last year, when a 16 year-old former page notified Rep. Rodney Alexander [Rep.-La.] of the e-mails he was receiving from Foley. The youngster described the e-mails as "sick" and said they "freaked me out". Rep. Alexander considered the matter serious enough to inform Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds [Re.-NY], chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Rep. Reynolds then passed the information on to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
At this point, the Republicans were faced with a choice. They could deal with the matter openly and honestly, and at the very least, remove Foley from his committee dealing with missing and exploited children, or they could cover it up. The Republican leadership chose to cover it up because the violator was a member of their own party. There's no doubt that had Foley been a Democrat, these same men would have dealt with the matter in a very different way.
There is a word for what the Republicans have done - HYPOCRISY! How much longer are Americans going to put up with this repugnant Republican behavior?
FYI - It turns out Foley's obsession with 16- and 17-year-old male pages has been known to Republicans on Capitol Hill for at least five years.
ReplyDeleteNothing shocking there. There have been "rumors" on the internets for YEARS about the Bush regime covering for/participating in a pedophilia ring that goes to the very highest bank accounts and the biggest seats of power.
ReplyDeleteWhaddaya know.
Good work, Jobs.
But if you're going to do the comment moderation, you don't need the "word verification" stuff. It's annoying as hell. And if you do the "no anonymous posters" thing, you don't have to do the moderation. Just sayin'.
Thanks for the info. I wish I could say it surprised me.
ReplyDeletestrayhornfan -
ReplyDeletemy comment above was meant for you. I just didn't get it in fast enough.
annti -
You're right. Those stupid wavy letters were starting to annoy me too. I just dumped them.