Hastert denies GOP saw Foley's "vile" messages (Conservatives calling for resignations.)

The Washington Times ^ | October 3, 2006 | Charles Hurt

[DManA]

I did not know that the majority leader was responible to monitor the morals of members. Is he responsible for the morals of democrats too?

[ssaftler]

PLEASE, SOMEONE FULLY INVESTIGATE AND CLEAR ALL THIS UP!

Why bother? According to the Lame-Stream Media, "Ferret Face" Pelosi and "Dingy Harry" Reid, it's all the fault of W, Hastert and Fox News.

/sarcasm

[longtermmemmory]

you are confusing emails with instant messages.

The emails are sanitary and non sexual

Only the instant messages are specificly sexual.


Your argument is a red herring.

The only emails revealed only asked for a standard photograph which would have been available from the page office. While the email is odd, it was not sexual.

Nobody wants to make an life destroying accusation based on an email which was not sexual.

Remember back in the 80's and 90's when accusations of sexual molestation were SOP in divorce proceedings? Lives were destroyed in the name of child custody.

NOW the IMs are a different issue, that goes to the police.

[Political Junkie Too]

From what I've seen, the MSM is also blurring the timeline. Even if Hastert saw the emails a year ago, the IM's would still have been two years old by then.

The MSM is trying to suggest that Hastert saw the emails, then warned Foley, then Foley still had IM contact with the pages, or that Hastert saw the emails and then willfully ignored the IM's, when the IM's came first and were suppressed.

-PJ

[longtermmemmory]

A 50 year old woman just asked me for my picture.

But DMV would not allow me to have a license without giving her my picture.

(for those in rio linda, she works for DMV)

It is normal for representatives to have the pictures of pages from the pages' office so you can see who is asking for references.

Context.

If you met a number of Congress members you would know that many of them barely have a double digit IQ.

[Howlin]

Hastert, is attacked even unfairly for failing to know hidden information, many conservatives are quick to turn on him and demand his head.

I am beginning to think that "conservatives" -- yes, even Freepers -- who make these claims never had any intention of voting GOP in the first place and actively look for some reason to justify their decision to the rest of us.

If they're not going to vote GOP, fine; I just wish they would shut up about it.

[ErieGeno]

The IMs - according to ABC - were sent to ABC by other former pages after the initial story was broadcast. If the recipients (the pages) chose to give the IM correspondance to ABC, there isn't an invasion of privacy.

It seems to me that these phantom former pages, who were 16/17 in 2003, should be named! They would be 19/20 now as they make accusations in late 2006 via ABC? Or could these IM's be ala nbc danrather???????

[longtermmemmory]

What gets me is the number of Freepers who are conveniently ignorant of the time lines and unwilling to point out the MSM intentional disinformation.

too many trolls around here.

[Rutles4Ever]

Nobody wants to make an life destroying accusation based on an email which was not sexual.

No one said anything about a public accusation. A private investigation could have taken place to mitigate the enormous risk that Foley posed -- ESPECIALLY given his committee role! That was Hastert's ball and he didn't even pick it up off the turf. That's why he should resign.

My argument is not a red herring. If an Al Qaeda operative slips over the border and detonates a bomb in some city, who should take the heat? The border patrol? Or the President that did nothing to mitigate the risk by sealing the borders? You and I both know that it would go straight to the Oval Office. Hastert's leadership in the House of Representatives is not just some chump position. He's third-in-line to the Presidency. He's the guardian of the majority, and he didn't do any guarding when it mattered.

So tell me again why he should keep his job?

[Rutles4Ever]

So, they ask for pictures and keep score on which of the other pages are "in great shape"?

Who do you think you're crappin'? The context of the e-mail was Hot Teenage Pages, not "gee I need your picture for the Congressional page yearbook."

[Rutles4Ever]

I did not know that the majority leader was responible to monitor the morals of members.

Hm. Is he responsible maybe for keeping the majority? And might that entail defusing potential ticking time bombs like Rep. Foley? Which, by the way, was apparently not a shock to most?

[Eva]

Frankly, I think that it is time for Ken Mehlman to take charge of this situation. I think that he should make a statement that since the Republicans can never handle this type of situation to satisfy the Democrats, so the Republican Party will use the Democrat model as a precident. We will censure and move on, that is unless the Democrat Party wants to revisit the Barney Frank scandal and ask him to resign.

[DManA]

May be a good time to expose ALL the ticking time bombs.

[longtermmemmory]

Leaders pay for the misdeeds of subordinates.

If her subordinates in her party had possession then she must pay the price.

If she tries the pointing to howard dean who points to begala who points to ragin cajun who points to reid who points to harman who points to pelosi THEN all of them should be fired.

ALL of these politicians knew of the activities of C.R.E.W. ALL these politicians were complicit in eliminating delay.

To say the democrat leadership was unaware of the C.R.E.W. activities is beyond credulity.

[onyx]

BUMP that!

[FourtySeven]

Wow, this is really turning into a tangled mess isn't it?

I wonder though, should the speaker of the House be responsible for screening everyone's e-mail? Perhaps they (the e-mails) were only given a cursory examination, and not "read between the lines". But really, for what reason would e-mails between a congressman and a page be read by anyone else, under normal circumstances?

At any rate, assuming they were examined at the time, it's entirely possible that at the time, the e-mails seemed perfectly innocuous. What do they say? Where are they available to read? I realize we have the IM text to read, but I'm talking about the e-mails in question. Have they been posted anywhere?

My personal prediction, I don't see this going very far, it's just a good thing that this didn't break the last week in October. That is, of course, if we don't have conservatives attacking each other for the next month. I'm surprised it's coming to this.

Does anyone honestly believe that the representatives we've been supporting so fervently the last few years are so morally bankrupt, that they formed this massive conspiracy to hide the predatory predilections of one of their own? If that's the case, I'd ask anyone believing this the same question I ask 9/11 conspiracy nuts: If the government is so corrupted, so absolutely without hope, what's the point of trying to change it at this point? Indeed, why even live in this country, if you think this is actually true?

[Rutles4Ever]

I agree. And I'm sure most of it would lead to the Democrats. We can't be afraid to root out the infection because of the upcoming election. We just can't. In the end, we stand for higher ideals. We need to act like it.

[Suzy Quzy]

BUCK UP!!! Hastert has NO reason to step down....geesh.

[no dems]

OSTRICH ALERT! OSTRICH ALERT!

[no dems]

overly freindly e-mails...

Why does everyone keep calling them "overly friendly e-mails? In this day and age of internet pedophiles and predators, if you had a 16 year old son, and a 52 year old man sent him an e-mail asking for his picture and what he wanted for his birthday, would you think it just an overly friendly e-mail? Truthful answer please.

I'm no big fan of Bay Buchanan but I agree with her; this had "sexual predator" written all over it.