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Locked on 10/03/2006 12:28:41 AM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
Triplicate: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=any;o=score;s=GOP%20Unworthy%20Of%20Governing%20 |
Posted on 10/02/2006 10:18:47 PM PDT by goldstategop
This column is going to make me very unpopular with Republicans.
I don't care. It must be said.
Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government.
I sincerely regret this is the case.
I would much prefer that there were a real viable alternative to the Democrats, who are not only unworthy, but also unacceptable.
But wishful thinking is not going to protect our country. Wishful thinking is not going to expand freedom, promote justice and restore morality to America.
It's time to recognize the two-party system is just flat broken.
The Foley case is a great illustration.
(Column continues below)
It's not just what one unfit congressman did. It is how his colleagues, mindful only of defending their own positions of power, reacted.
Over the weekend we learned that Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, went to House Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate, sexually suggestive messages to the teenage boy.
Hastert's office said aides referred the matter to the proper authorities last fall but they were only told the messages were "over-friendly." In other words, they did no investigating because they didn't want to know the truth. An election was coming, and Republicans were hoping to hold their slim majority in a tough contest this year.
Reynolds, R-N.Y., is now defending himself from Democratic accusations that he did too little. He ought to be defending himself against Republican accusations. Republican incumbents and challengers are the ones who will be hurt by this devastating blow.
Reynolds never bothered to ask to see the messages. Hastert never bothered to ask for them. They turned a blind eye to the news.
Think about this. In 2005, there was still time for the Republicans to clean their own dirty laundry and find a suitable replacement for an unsuitable incumbent. They did not.
Let me also remind you that it is the sworn duty of the House to clean its own house. It should not have been a matter of simply turning over information to the "proper authorities." The Congress of the United States is the proper authority to determine whether any member is unfit to hold office.
Hastert's aides referred the matter to the clerk of the House, and "mindful of the sensitivity of the parent's wishes to protect their child's privacy and believing that they had promptly reported what they knew to the proper authorities," they did not discuss it with others in Hastert's office – including, apparently, their boss.
That's a disgrace. Hastert is a disgrace for setting this kind of tone in his own office. There was obviously a circle-the-wagons mentality at work there.
Get this! After the issue was referred to the clerk, it was passed along to the congressman who oversees the page program, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. Shimkus has said he learned about the e-mail exchange in late 2005 and took immediate action to investigate.
He said Foley told him it was an innocent exchange.Shamus said he warned Foley not to have any more contact with the teenager and to respect other pages.
That was it? That was the result of his investigation? Did he ask to see the e-mail messages? Why did he accept Foley's explanation at face value? Again, the answer is clear. No Republican wanted to jeopardize Foley's seat – which is exactly what they did by not kicking him out of the House in 2005.
Democrats, of course, are so disingenuous in their righteous indignation about Foley. When they were in charge, they allowed Rep. Barney Frank to run a homosexual call-boy ring out of his Capitol office. And they allowed Rep. Gerry Studds to get away with an actual affair with an underage male congressional page. Like Frank, the unrepentant Studds was re-elected by his perverse constituents until he retired in 1996.
But attempting to seduce male pages doesn't go over as big with Florida constituents as it does with those in Massachusetts.
Republicans will pay a price for this error. And they should.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
It is already posted and you should have checked out the facts. Hastert didn't know about the IM's until last Friday.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Before throwing out the baby with bathwater, stop looking and listening to the lamestream media. Just wait and see what comes out as this developes.
obviously there are people out there buying into the confusion that the dems and the media are trying to create about the ims and the email being one and the same.
They also ignore the fact that the parents did not want to pursue the matter, without the parents cooperation, there wasn't much to go on, except for an email where Foley asked the kid to send him a picture.
These emails, which led to a warning to pages to keep a certain distance from Foley, were of a far different character than the explicit IM messages, which were only revealed to the House leadership after appearing in the press.
Once the House leadership was appraised of the incriminating messages, Foley was in effect cashiered out.
How do you act to remove someone when you don't have the info. When they got it, he was removed.
Punishing the GOP = killing even more babies, and inviting terrorist attacks.
Excuse me if I decline.
This is not a world where we can afford the kind of sanctimony we're seeing from Farah and the Washington Times.
Before throwing out the baby with bathwater, stop looking and listening to the lamestream media. Just wait and see what comes out as this developes.
"Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government."
Someone take away this morons' laptop.
I didn't have a chance to follow this from breaking. My sense is that Hastert thought it had been taken care of...perhaps he is not into gay gossip? But my question (and this may already have been answered) is why did the Dems who obviously were aware of this hold it until now? Greta Van Sustern asked a lawyer tonight if Republicans could be criminally negligent if they covered it up. What she neglected to ask is could Dems who covered it up in order to present it at a politically advantageous time could be criminally negligent. Gould someone here answer this for me?
"But the GOP leadership was absent over the sexual misconduct of a prominent member of the party."
Prominent? I never heard of the guy before this scandal.
Gould = could
I have concluded Joseph Farah is an asshole.
A homo sends a few IMs to a teenage boy. The Speaker never saw those IMs. The family didn't want the Republicans to see them. Foley was told to stop. He did.
Now the spineless cowards on "our side" want to hand the reigns of power over to those who would defund the war on terror and strengthen Al Queda's hand. When you knowingly aid and comfort the enemy it is called treason. Joseph Farah is a traitor.
I'll guarantee that this is something that some Dimocrat has known about in detail for some time and did nothing until the election neared because it really isn't about the horrible thing that Foley did, it is about "gotchaism".
I'm not ready to make that statement. What I will say is that Congress is broken. Maybe repealing the 17th amendment might fix it.
The trouble with Congress is that the two chambers were supposed to be a check and balance on each other. The House was to be responsive to the will of the people and be up for re-election every two years. The Senate was to be more isolated, representing the States, and allowing for deeper debate by having staggered six year terms.
What happened is that the House is unresponsive because of gerrymandering safe districts for most members, and the Senate is the battleground because of having to appeal to the people instead of state legislatures for re-election.
As a check and balance on each other, by making both chambers elected by the people, national parties became dominant due to the need for massive campaign financing. National bloc politics that spanned both chambers, became the game. House and Senate members merged into large, integrated party forces with the same common goal of retaining power, allowing for campaigning in one state in order to benefit a party member in another. None of this would have happened if the Senate were chosen by state legislatures and the House still chosen by their district populations.
I believe that this morphing of the Congress into an indistinguishable institution also contributes to the way that the Foley scandal is unfolding.
-PJ
Ted kennedy killed a girl and is still a senator. Is that the party you want in charge?
This latest relatively minor hiccup is just one more example of how Hastert and his boys have become the worst type of sterotypical Republicans, fat white rich and out to screw the little guy to favor their fat cat friends and retain their hold on power at any cost.
They totally squandered what Gingrich and Reagan fought so hard to achieve back in '94.
They refused to cut spending, abolish unecessary departments and control the growth of government.
For that they must be held accountable.
The worse thing that could happen is for the GOP to retain its majority and then reelect Hastert as Speaker.
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