I’ve been struggling with the Mark Foley/House Republican leadership scandal as I have watched it unfold. In part, my reservations are reflected in the execrable Allahpundit’s tepid defense of Dennis Hastert. There are, indeed, two strands of evidence that are being conflated. There is no question that Hastert, Boehner, Reynolds, and others were aware of a creepy email exchange between Foley and an underage former page. There is no question that Hastert has been lying about his awareness of this email. It’s stunning that he did nothing. It’s stunning that he left Foley as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
But, there is no evidence, as of yet, that Hastert and others were aware of any sexually explicit exchanges. It appears that Foley was confronted and told to cut off all contact with the boy. It appears that, when confronted, Foley misrepresentated his intentions.
So, where does that leave us?
I think it leaves us with the need for a thorough investigation to discover exactly what the House leadership knew. If all they knew was that Foley had written a creepy email or two, then their actions appear to have been understandable. Their biggest shortcoming would be in taking Foley’s explanation at face value without launching an internal investigation. They should have taken extra precautions because of Foley’s position as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
However, even if this is the extent of their mistake, that is no excuse for Dennis Hastert to lie to the American people about what he knew. The Republicans would be wise to find a speaker that doesn’t lie about pederasty within his ranks.
And if an investigation shows that Republican leaders were aware of sexually explicit communications and did nothing? That’s a whole other ball of wax. In that case, we have a scandal of the highest magnitude.
There is nothing Republicans won’t do to retain power.
Well, boo, somebody knew somethin’:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2514259&page
pages were warned about Foley as far back as 2001.
Hastert wouldn’t have lied if all he knew about was the ‘merely creepy’ exchange of e-mail with the child from Rep. Alexander’s district, taking the risk of lying, and then pushing Rep. Boehner to retract his statement that he’d told Hastert tells me that they knew about the whole sick affair.
Quite possibly. I wouldn’t be overly surprised.
Add another chapter to the GOP book of doublespeak. The healthy forest initiative was designed to kill forests. Social Security reform is about destroying Social Security. And on and on. Now we have the Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children used to make children available for Republicans to exploit. Yet another triumph for the Bushits and their values voters.
Speaking as a survivor of clergy abuse and as someone who has become more involved in prevention issues as part of my healing over the last several years, there is no excuse for adults not fully investigating or exploring issues where an adult makes inappropriate comments and suggestions towards someone under 18.
Hastert’s a teacher and coach, that makes him a mandatory reporter. Were any social workers or psychologists consulted? Was Foley removed from his post as co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing & Exploited Children? No.
Anyone with experience or knowledge in these areas will tell you that predators seek out positions like these in order to gain access and cover. Warning bells were all over the place but the House Republican Leadership chose to ignore them.
There’s no excuse. All they needed to do was to poke a little further and it would have all come out. Talk to pages and send a couple of civil investigators down to Foley’s district to ask some questons around town. Interview all the pages that came into contact with Foley. Talk to the parents.
But they chose not to. How many kids did they put at risk by not taking these steps? How much time before people start coming forward with stories of inappropriate sexual contact or worse?
Sexual abuse will not end until enough adults are willing to confront the issue and force explorations, and if warranted, full-scale investigations, of reports of inappropriate sexual behaviors by authority figures.
</soapbox>
Totally agree, and do not see one single “undertandable thing” about their lack of immediate action to get to the bottom of this immediately.
You do not let this kind of this pass when it comes to adults and kids: you get ON it and find out if there is more to it.
If, that is, you’re not a charter member of the “good ol boys club” that has been ignoring,excusing and thus condoning abuse of women and kids for freakin EVER by whichever of their own chooses to inflict it!
No, booman, it is NOT understandable at all, not by anyone who has ever been afflicted or has had a loved one afflicted by the good ol boy minimizing and acceptance of abuse by those with the power to get by with it.
Exactly!
If similar personal e-mails had been sent to a teenaged female page, the girl would have known exactly what was going on. Ditto her parents.
A teenaged boy knows, too, what’s going on. He may deal with it by characterizing the e-mails as “creepy.” For adults, though, the sirens go off.
No such thing as “merely creepy” here.
about Foley for five years. Just like the catholic church coverup.
I’ll get you a megaphone or a mic.
Or a chair or some tea when you need a rest. :<)
This is a serious matter, and it should not be brushed away. As a high school teacher and wrestling coach, Hastert, of all people, should know better. He knew from giddy-up that the boundaries had been smashed, big time.
Thanks AP. Been standing on that soapbox all day today!
Just saw your comment.
I really think the reason they didn’t want to touch this is because 1) many people they know are involved in these rings, and 2) this is one of the darkest “secrets” of our times. Lives have been lost over this, and this is not something one can simply just start talking about. We have government by blackmail, and there are almost no people on earth who would risk not just their career, but possibly the lives of their loved ones to tell the sordid truth.
But if we could get an investigation in the House going – if the Dems retake the House, this would expose a dark, pervasive network leading everywhere, and especially into the depths of the CIA. If we could expose these kinds of networks, and put an end to them, we’d be changing more than simply the balance of power in the Congress. We’d be freeing many people from a life of mental and physical slavery.
Isn’t that worth some effort on our part?
Knowing that he had written a creepy email or two should have obligated them to do a thorough investigation to ensure that he wasn’t doing this (or worse) to others. Espeically in light of his chairing the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
If they only thought it was a creepy email or two, why did they hide it from the only Dem on the Page committee?
No free pass for any of these creeps.
I almost never post comments, per my lurky disposition, but wow, I could not disagree with you more.
Any teacher, coach, or clergyperson will tell you that any semblance — the slightest hint — of impropriety between a minor and a person in authority demands a real investigation, even if just to ensure that nothing truly criminal is going on, or that there are no additional potential victims. Come on, even the emails the House leadership actually were aware of were disturbing enough that they shouldn’t have given Foley the benefit of the doubt.
I really like your writing and this blog, but in this case, poorly done.
I agree that they should have reacted with exceptional caution and launched an investigation. This is especially true because of the sensitive position that Foley held.
When I say it might be ‘understandable’ I don’t mean that it is forgivable. I mean that they initial emails were creepy and inappropriate, but they weren’t anything more than that. They did confront the guy and tell him to not to have further contact with the pages. They obviously should have done more. But I can understand that they took the guy at his word.
Right now, the real scandal is Hastert’s reaction. An investigation might turn up a lot more, or nothing more. If nothing more, this is not going to be that big of a story. Except for Hastert. Hastert lied. And that is a big liability for him and the whole caucus.
If you look at this in terms of it’s potential political fallout only, yes, Hasert and the causus will pay and then it will be a big story.
It’s this part of what you say that confuses me, Boo.
“But I can understand that they took the guy at his word”
If you mean simply that you accept the fact they did take him at his word, period, that’s one thing.
If you mean that you understand because you can empathize with that decision to not look further into this, that’s another. Can you clarify this?
The real big story here is that we have elected leaders who have been caught abusing thier power and exploiting kids placed in thier charge, for their own sexual pleasure, period, and the fact other elected leaders did nothing but believe this sicko.
I guess I don’t want to think that you could even understand their position enough to empathize with it it any way at all, Boo.
as that Boo believed that they took him at his (Foley’s) word that nothing else was going on — understand as in “assume to be the case”, not understand as in “acceptable behavior”.
It was most likely a case of wishful thinking — okay, nothing to see here, move along people — but in this era, nothing can be taken for granted. A former neighbor of mine almost lost his job as a teacher because of sexual allegations made against him by a student; just because they were baseless (she was pissed because he caught her breaking a rule and she got punished) doesn’t mean they didn’t have to be investigated.
When it comes to cleaning up shit, sunlight can often be the best disinfectant…
as that Boo believed that they took him at his (Foley’s) word that nothing else was going on — understand as in “assume to be the case”, not understand as in “acceptable behavior”.
That’s how I read it too but I must say that I strongly disagree with Boo. 52 year old guys who sexually groom 16 year olds (as Foley was undoubtedly doing here)are going to deny and lie their asses off when caught. They always do. If Hastert’s inept attempt at making it go away was acceptable very few children or adolescents would be safe from adults who sexually abuse and exploit their preferred objects of desire.
If Hastert’s inept attempt at making it go away was acceptable very few children or adolescents would be safe from adults who sexually abuse and exploit their preferred objects of desire.
Damn right. Unfortunately, I know this from experience, as I may have shared that story before. You know that the person making the inappropriate comments (if indeed that’s all it was) will not be dealt with beyond the give-him-a-stern-talking-to–if you’re believed at all.
In my case, I felt I’d go from honor roll student to “fast ass girl” in 0-60 seconds. I didn’t want to embarrass my Mom and I didn’t want my Dad to go to prison. I hate to sound like a little girl, here, but my thoughts were My Daddy will believe me. My Daddy will kill him. And I won’t have my Daddy carted off to prison over that fat, nasty bastard. So I just kept it to myself. I don’t know if I ever even told any of my girlfriends about it at the time. I just shut the fuck up.
I also used to be a Hill rat so I’m personally sickened that Foley would act that way. Disgusting! They are generally a good bunch of kids–and even if a few could be smart asses a couple of times (as they tend to be from privilege), they’re still kids. I cannot imagine that type of behavior, I just can’t. I’m glad that the pages talked about him and tried to protect themselves.
I wish I had. I just rationalized that as long as he doesn’t touch me, that I’m never alone with him, it’ll be OK. The grown ass woman that I am now would confront and kick his ass, and fuck what the good church folk would think. The freaked out, but totally not stupid teenager I was just wanted it to stop, wanted nothing to do with him. And that’s fucked up to ask a teenager to handle.
I was lucky that he never touched me. And that he died 3 years later. But I will always wonder if there was more he tried to other people. Always.
Foley being talked about since 2001? They should have made that fucking Chester resign. Period.
I mean, I can understand how they would think they had solved the problem by warning him and that they were basically satisfied with his answer, although not so much as to allow him continued contacts with pages.
By understand, I mean that it was a mistake, but not one that isn’t made all the time. All that changes if they had good reason not to think Foley credible.
We’ll see what comes out of this. It could be an embarrassment, or it could be very, very serious.
and away from the news for a couple of days, and it looks like this Foley thing has really blown up in the Repubs’ faces (or perhaps another part of the anatomy would be more appropriate).
This could hurt them worse than Bush’s Iraq lies, the Katrina debacle, or even Abramoff — regardless how Mr. or Mrs. Average Voter feels about the war, or how remote Washington corruption seems to be, everyone is pretty much agreed that we should keep our kids out of harm’s way; the main disagreement is how. (I know the Right wants to put Internet filters on library computers and tell us what we can watch on our own TVs…I don’t know what the Left wants, and that may be part of the problem.)
If the Republican leadership knew more than they’re admitting, they’re no better than the Catholic bishops who knew about their own pedophile priests and did nothing but pass them between dioceses. Those bishops are paying the price with lawsuits filed against them — what price will the Republicans pay? Hopefully a big one at the ballot box next month…
This is really sick. Hastert knew and did nothing. I heard a quote by Newt Ginrich on the radio that coming down hard on Foley earlier would have been seen as “gay bashing”. How can you pretend not to grasp the point. If you don’t get it that sex with children is a crime then your part of the problem. If the Repuglicans rationalize this away there is nothing left. Our society has failed.
According to ABC, a GOP staffer warned the Republican-sponsored pages in the incoming class of 2001-2002 not to get too friendly with Foley. There are reports of Foley “interacting” with “members” of that class. (Telling various kids to measure it for him, and asking if they are hard yet, goes beyond friendly concern for their health and grades.) No Democratic pages from that class have come forth saying they were warned.
If the incoming class was warned, that means some Republican staff member must have had word of Foley’s predatory behavior from the year or years before. But this brings knowledge of his pederasty, and its cover-up, and the hypocrasy of his Committee position, back at least FIVE years.
By not informing the sole Democrat on their ethics committee and by referring the investigation to the RNCC, it is clear that the primary concern of the GOP leadership was the electoral war chest (Foley gives them lots of boola) and keeping things away from alarmable voters… not the safety of the youth in its care. Hastert needs to take blame on this.
If they had properly investigated in 2000 (or whenever they first learned of Foley’s problem), all those boys in later classes would have been free of this harassment.
It is also important for children to know that reporting may be embarassing, but that this sort of sickness never goes away by itself, it must be stopped so that others can be safe.
And a note about logging IM chats: I had to talk via IRC to colleagues and bosses in my last (virtual) company. Saving logs was automatic, so even the friendly chats got saved. It is quite possible that members of Congress have special chat protocols already set up. Information would be retrievable, but older computers have probably been replaced.
Florida is doing absolutely nothing to watch or safeguard Foley’s home office… his computer has undoubtedly taken a nose-dive into the ocean by now.
If the FBI had been informed last summer, and had wanted to investigate, surely a judge would have issued a warrant to check the computers for cyberstalking across state lines!
They can avert their eyes all they want, but the stink is going to rise in any case!
Carolly