Posted on 10/04/2006 4:57:03 AM PDT by Perdogg
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a political conspiracy unravel as fast as this one that involves former representative Mark Foley.
Let’s recap.
1. On September 29th Foley is approached by ABC NEWS about salitious Instant Messages with a former page and abruptly resigns. Four days later he turns himself into rehab.
2. Through investigation by several bloggers, including yours truly, it is discovered that during the last few years, liberal watchdog group CREW may have had specific knowlede of the IM’s existance, and of Foley’s activities, and might have possibly been in possession corospondence between Rep. Foley and former page(s). Additionally a known “Republican Gay Outer”, Mike Rogers of Blog Active was found to have materially participated in the IM messaging of Foley and admitted to have been on a “campaign” to out Foley since at least as far back as March 2005, and specifically attempted to threaten Foley in January 2006, thus may be guilty of using threat or intimidation to influence a US Congressman’s vote on US legislation.
Yesterday Gateway Pundit uncovered that Mike Rogers had an a “partner” (although not known to be an accomplice at this point) in John Aravios of America’s Blog in a campaign against Foley as well. Gateway Pundit notes that there is no evidence that Aravios actually had specific evidence, but then holding evidence, and having knowledge of someone holding it are still crimes.
World Net Daily picked up on the story here, and puts together nicely what appears at this point to have been an orchestrated effort on the part of several leftwing activists to “pull the trigger” on this story just prior to midterm elections.
Additionally, while Mr. Foley appears by his resigning to have admitted to participating in IMing and emailing former pages, it’s not clear if all the recorded IM’s are authentic. The FBI, which is looking into the matter, as I mentioned here, will use specific forensic analysist to determine if in fact the corospondence discovered so far is in fact valid. Already it has been discovered that several IM’s may have in fact been tampered with.
At this point it’s not know the full involvement of those - or of others yet to be discovered - is. However, I do know that the specific focus of the FBI at this point is to determine who knew about Foley’s activities, when they knew it and specifically who withheld evidence in what may be a Federal Crime. Yet like in many investigations, there is sometimes the uncovering of other crimes that takes place. It should be said at this point that the attempt to attempt to extort or influence, or threaten a US congressman, in order to infuence legislation, or an election is a Federal Crime, and if in fact principals were involved in such an orchestrated plan it will be discovered.
Again, I must point out that even as a constituant of former respresentitive Foley, I detest his actions, and do not condone and accept them in anyway. In fact I support his prosecution if applicable laws have been broken. But again, those who particpated before the fact in the “outing” of Foley, seem to have had at this point specific knowledge of his activities and if proven at the least are guilty of conspriracy to withhold evidence, and obstruction of justice.
We shall see as the day(s) progress.
> Somewhere in the wings there is a Bill Burkett wannabe with ties to the Dem party. <
In other words, the IM's actually came from Lucy Ramirez?
I've always wondered about the guys that Dateline busts. I really wish they would do a follow up to show us where they are now. If they were convicted, etc.
But Perverted Justice claims its efforts have led to arrests and convictions and in those cases there was no contact between the predator and a minor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverted-Justice.com
Well, I think instead I'll just withdraw my attention, or try to anyway, until after election day. It's pointless. Hastert doesn't have to resign. He's said he's not going to. What else is there to talk about? The perv is gone. Next question.
" It's now about an attempt to force Hastert to step down and use this for political gain."
Wasn,t it the Washington Times that started that ball rolling? What's up with that?
I think we were talking about IMs. Someone was saying maybe the IMs were bogus. I'm saying Foley doesn't seem to think so, based on his actions. See how simple that is?
Except that every extra day spent talking about it, whether your defending yourself or not, is a day the DEMs have won. I don't know. The GOP is definitely panicky right now. That's plain to see. And it seems to go to the roots.
Really, what was Hastert supposed to do? He is not Foley's boss. He couldn't expel Foley by fiat and it would have been called a Homophobic Witch Hunt. Remeber at the time that Hastert was made aware of the e-mails they were rumors. Try expelling a congressman based on rumors. Maybe the Big Tent wasn't such a good idea after all.
The day after the WT published it's editorial saying Hastert should step down the Times Director of Human Resources was arrested for soliciting sex with a 13 year old girl on the internet. The timing makes you go Hmmmm.
There have been times where I've been persuaded to see an issue or story in a new light. Maybe a perspective or a detail I was lacking. So it's always worth testing out my own pov by posting it here. Usually if I'm missing something important, it'll be brought to my attention pretty quickly here. Of course, that hasn't happened in this instance. I think the GOP top to bottom is just completely falling into this one.
From what I've read thus far, what is starting to come to light is this: militant homosexual activists have been targeting Republicans with suspected or known homosexual tendencies for several years, basically blackmailing them, in an attempt at swaying the vote on, for one, the marriage amendment. I'm pretty certain that that Tyson Vivyan guy, a former Congressional page, who appeared on O'Reilly to discuss his charge that Foley IMed him back in 97, is gay; transcripts from his appearance reveal a rather stilted and peculiar recollection, designed to do as much damage as possible. There are posts from that Rogers guy that imply he has posed as a page during an IM session with Foley, and who knows who else. If there actually are others who are compromised on this or other potential legislation, I for one think this is a major problem, and want to get to the truth of the matter. They've been issuing threats about outing a Republican Senator (like we don't already know who THAT might be), so it's far from over.
Correct me if I'm wrong (it's very hard to get at the real story through all the spin and deliberate obfuscation), but some sources have said Foley waited until the kids were no longer pages and had gone home before he started the e-mails and IMs.
As I said, it's hard to know. Other sources are either hinting or assuming that he actually had sex with some of them, though AFAIK there is no indication of that ever happening.
I agree with the sentiment, but the GOP seems to be playing this pretty straight.
I haven't heard Rush on this subject, but Hannity is definitely questioning the timing of the release as are most of the posters on this thread. Hannity can do what he wants. But I'm basically with you on this. Politics ain't beanbags. Foley's actions since the first story broke are as close to an admission as you get these days.
My concern is that this kind of stuff goes on the internet every day, and now that Foley has lowered the bar (so to speak) the next Pol nailed for this will barely raise an eyebrow. And so it goes.
Yesterday Rush's second monologue was all about the evil DEMs and the timing of this. It just was the weakest thing I'd ever heard. Give it up. Just say "Foley was a perv, he's gone." And move on to another topic.
Not if every statement is prefaced by, "Foley is a dirtbag and his behavior will not be tolerated on either side fo the aisle".
I tend to prefer rifles to shotguns, though I can use a shotty if I have to. This is a matter which I think calls for scalpels rather than broadaxes. Your mileage may vary.
If someone else has Foley's username and password, and it can be proven that someone was online while Foley was not, then the whole cache of 'evidence' is rightfully questionable.
Foley was hitting on 16 year old young men. The males I've known, including me, were NOT sexual children at 16. I've read one of the teens met Foley in a gay bar. 16 year old males don't go to a gay bar because of their selction of imported beers.
Two males hitting on each other is disgusting - but this is NOT pedophilia! This is homosexuality.
If Foley had hit on me when I was that age, I'd have told him to get his creepy @$$ away from me before I broke every bone in his body. I didn't need Congress to pass a law to protect me from old men.
Damn, but we have a lot of wussies running around...
Sure. The Dems are calling for Hastert's head over this and yelling it from the rooftops, but just move on along people. THAT is what most of us are addressing.
This is not about defending Foley, it's about defending the GOP leadership from baseless claims to force them out.
If we took your advice and did nothing, that would be akin to telling someone who was getting his head bashed in with a hammer to ignore it and not fight back.
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