[Taggart_D]

If he resigns, I'm not voting.

[knuthom]

Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hastert insisted that he learned of the most flagrant instant-message exchange from 2003 only last Friday, when it was reported by ABC News. This is irrelevant.

No, it is not irrelevant. There was a big difference between the emails and the IMs.

[MaestroLC]

Hastert should NOT resign. That is ridiculously irresponsible to even suggest it since all the facts are not in.

[madison10]

There's no reason for Mr. Hastert to resign OTHER THAN the fact that it will play into the Dems plans. Why, oh, why would we want to make them happy?

The idea is moronic.

[Earthdweller]

"The facts of the disgrace of Mark Foley, who was a Republican member of the House from a Florida district until he resigned last week, constitute a disgrace for every Republican member of Congress."

LOL...they are desperate aren't they.

[Mister Da]

After reading the first 40 or so posts, I am saddened to see many FReepers value partisanship over morality. Several have suggested that because the Rats wont clean their house (Stubbs, Frank, etc.), we conservatives (don't mistake me for a Pub) should just shut up and let the perverts & their enablers keep their positions of power. I'd say that makes them just as bad as the Rats they despise. I'm not impressed.

And don't pretend to tell me what Hastert knew or didn't know. Either he knew about this early on (I believe he did), & did nothing to protect the children, OR he didn't know about it when everybody else knew, making him incompetent to be a leader, ie., clueless.

News is like an iceberg. Only 10% is known, & the other 90% of this story has yet to come out. I suspect this other 90% is gonna create few heroes & many villains.

Those who are so quick to defend Hastert seem to forget how fast & often Washington politicians will lie, cheat, & steal to maintain their power & position. Isn't it strange that Hastert has called for a FBI investigation, given his resistance to one re. William Jefferson. Does he now support the searching of congressional offices & files - even his own - in pursuit of the truth? I doubt it.

Anyone & everyone of either party who knew of Mark Foley's predation on children prior to this becoming public should resign immediately.

[TAdams8591]

I'd love to see Hastert resign, but not because of this incident.

[dinoparty]

Calling for resignations at this stage is WAY premature. Republicans should acknowledge the problem as a problem, but not play into the Democrat's strategy of trying deflect attention away from their poor record on issues of national importance by feigning indignation about the Foley matter. Keep hammerin' them!

[Political Junkie Too]

Hastert has to now realize that the Democrats were planning this all of the time that he was defending William Jefferson over the FBI raid of his office.

This is the Republican fatal flaw. One can hope that this Democrat backstabbing of Hastert will finally open up a few eyes.

-PJ

[HawaiianGecko]

Personally I like reading Tony Blankley articles, but this one just doesn't make sense to me. There is a vigilante attitude running around over this and it will make the GOP look worse if they don't pull on their reigns.  Under no circumstances could Hastert disenfranchise an entire congressional district that elected their preferred representative six times based on what he knew.

What was he supposed to do?  Say, "I think Foley is a homosexual and we all know that homos are prone to hitting on underage kids."  I'm sure that would have gone over real well for about 50 news cycles.  "But we have emails that he asked this kid to dinner!"  For crying out loud I got engraved invitations to dinners from professors and never once thought they were hitting on me.

If the Boy Scouts can be excoriated for trying to keep homosexuals from leading children into the woods, how on Earth is Hastert suppose to can (no pun intended) a duly elected official?  Blankley says "House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once."  Who the heck says that's the 'only' right thing to do?  The right thing to do is find out who sat on these email and instant messages. They are the ones who put these kids in danger.

There's a groupthink happening that seems to say, "No one can blast Foley for his transgressions because he's a queer and doing so would be politically incorrect... so ... let's go after Denny Hastert and lynch him. We'll show the public who has the moral high ground."

If we want to demonstrate who has the moral high ground how about standing up for our most fundamental beliefs, like waiting for proof and a court to convict people.

This damn Nancy Grace attitude I see running through my party is pathetic. 

[bmwcyle]

Close your doors Washington Times. We already have the Washington Post.

[CWOJackson]

Hastert should resign...later and not for this "scandle". He should resign, later, because he's been about as incompetent a House Leader as we could possibly have.

[Antoninus]

What a stupid article.

The guy who needed to resign, did.

[PISANO]

Resign my a$$. I am sick of the reactionary DBM and their cohorts, whether it be the Democrats, Dictators like Chavez around the world or Al Qaeda.

The GOP, like the namby pamby Senators and Pentagon top brass and officials are all whimps and until we [GOP & Military Leaders] learn how to FIGHT to WIN this nation will be in constant peril from terrorists and the LEFT!!

[Anti-Bubba182]

Why didn't the asshole/s who wrote that sign it?

[NicknamedBob]

We've got Republicans resigning after simply being accused of a crime.

Now they want people just associated with them to resign, while Democrats blithely ignore final convictions and unquestioned guilt for far worse crimes such as murder.

Isn't that right, Senator Kennedy?

[Richard Axtell]

Just so much merde. Hastert has to stay, Pellocsi should resign, since she has been sitting on this information for months, and is using it for political effect, which is in effect "hiding" knowledge of a felony crime, if there is a felony crime to hide.

[dbqer4life]

I have close friends inside the Beltway and this Mark Foley's fetish is not a suprise to anyone who lives and works there. If you ask me, the page system is a bit weird anyway. In the halls of power and ego, adding teenage boys and girls to the mix is just asking for trouble. I won't be suprised if a few democrats are implicated. As a matter of fact, I expect it. Remember what they say... The surest way to end anyone's political career is to be found in bed with dead hooker or a living boy.