Posted on 10/04/2006 7:11:56 PM PDT by SolidSupplySide
North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry called on Democratic leaders yesterday to testify under oath about when they knew of former Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) Internet communications with a House page.
Writing to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), McHenry questioned whether Democrats had a role in publicizing the e-mails, which broke in the middle of the fall election season creating a furor rarely seen in congressional politics.
“Is the American public to believe that neither of you nor your staffs nor anyone associated with your staffs had prior knowledge or involvement with the release of Foley’s e-mails and/or explicit instant messages? Is the American public to believe that ABC News stumbled haphazardly on this story without Democratic assistance?” wrote McHenry, a freshman Republican who has emerged as an attack dog for the GOP.
He asked that Pelosi and Emanuel offer a “yes or no” answer as to whether they would go under oath “to assure the American people that neither you nor your staffs had prior knowledge or involvement — at the strategic or tactical levels — with the release of Foley’s e-mails and/or instant messages.”
Spokespeople for Pelosi and the DCCC dismissed McHenry’s demand as political posturing.
“Republicans just don’t get it; every mother in America is asking how Republican’s could choose partisan politics over protecting kids, and the Republicans are asking who could have blown their cover-up,” said Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. “If we had seen Mark Foley’s horrific e-mails or instant messages, we would have immediately acted to protect these kids.”
DCCC spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg said, “Of course we did not have the e-mails or instant messages. Give me a break. If you recall, they also blamed us for indicting [former Majority Leader Tom DeLay [R-Texas]. Speaker Hastert and his staff have known about Foley’s inappropriate behavior for years and their attempt to deflect their responsibility is absurd.”
A handful of House Republicans have admitted that they knew about the original Foley e-mails in late 2005. In those e-mails, Foley asked a male House page for a picture of himself but was not overtly sexual. No member of Congress or congressional staff member has admitted to knowing about the more explicit series of instant messages that surfaced Friday and led to Foley’s resignation.
Pelosi dismissed speculation that Democratic leadership knew about the e-mails prior to Thursday, when ABC News broke the story in the media.
“It’s absolutely not true,” she said. The e-mails appeared on a blog, stopsexpredators.blogspot.com, earlier in September.
Democrats have called for a full investigation of “when the Republican leadership was notified” of the e-mails and what action they took, suggesting Republican leaders had covered up the e-mails to avoid political repercussions in a tough election cycle.
As the scandal ballooned this week, several House Republicans sought to gain control of the media frenzy by questioning whether Democrats themselves knew about the emails and had sought to use them to political advantage by waiting until just before the elections to give them to the news media.
Although political observers agree that the timing of the story could not have been better, ABC News reporter Brian Ross told The New York Times on Tuesday that his source was a Republican.
“I hate to give up sources, but to the extent that I know the political parties of any of the people who helped us, it would be the same party,” Ross said.
ABC News investigative producer Maddy Sauer worked on the story with Ross.
“They were passed to a colleague of mine from a source, not someone from a Democratic campaign, a source on the Hill,” Sauer told Democracy Now Tuesday.
At least two other news organizations, The Miami Herald and The St. Petersburg Times, knew of the email exchange but opted not to publish it.
Still, Republican operatives point out that an ethics watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) had a copy of the emails as early as July 21 and passed them on to the FBI. They note that several of CREW’s staff members previously worked on Capitol Hill for Democrats.
But a spokeswoman for CREW, Naomi Seligman Steiner, told The Hill Tuesday that the group did not pass the emails to any other entity and was not the source of the ABC News story.
Is that your standard? Criminality? I'm a moral values type Republican. I have higher standards. Foley didn't deserve to be in the House. Are you saying that since there may not be a crime, Foley should still be in the House??
The parents didn't want the story to be made public. The Republican leadership followed their request.
So what? The parents shouldn't be able to control this. Besides, I would have been happy if the leadership quietly showed Foley the door. They could have said any other punishment should be left to the authorities.
Hastert learned pf the salacious IMs only last week and Foley was immediately asked to resign.
Of course Hastert didn't even try to investigate the matter more deeply. We'll never know if the IMs would have been discovered earlier if Hastert had done the right thing. If Hastert tried and failed, I wouldn't be nearly so upset.
And just tonight, due to a computer glich, we have learned the name of the source of the IMs and that he was over 18 during the exchanges.
Splitting hairs. I didn't care that Monica Lewinsky was of age. Foley was doing these things to people over which he had some degree of authority. Personally, I think it was wrong regardless of the age of the kids/adults. (ABC reports the IMs were sent both before and after the 18th birthday.)
We had a bit of an excuse before the new media, but none now. I understand his outrage, just find it short sighted and sadly underestimating the other side's transparent attempts to influence an election by fraud of many kinds.
When it comes out that the IMs were with an adult, this is going to blow up in the Dim's faces, big time!
SSSomeone else will also be sadly disappointed...
It looks like the Dems not only knew about it, but that they knew of the attempts to intimidate the gay Republican legisltors. The Democrats made much hay over Republican ties to the lobbyist, Abramoff, the ties to this gay rights lobbyist who uses extortion and intimidation to influence votes is much worse.
Thank you. Once I took the time to check out his posts I came to the same conclusion.
LOL
Like I said - all that knew should be purged. This shouldn't be a partisan issue (but is since we are in a hightened party first political climate a month from elections). I don't think Foley is the only one either. I am sure plenty of congressman and congresswoman are breathing a sigh of relief that they won't be caught before election time - then who cares...
Funny thing is, he thinks he's fooling Freepers.
Very alliterative!
:-)
Actually, ABC has not reported that. An unnamed "network source" said that.
Get your facts straight.
I agree, I think Hastert should have cut Foleys gay nuts off after he found Foley asked a Kid for a Picture.
(Problem for Hastert, Foley denied he was Gay till now)
After all, we know gays have no morals. Just look at the Democrats, former Gov of New Jersey or Barney Frank.
Hastert should purge the gays from the house as Dems seem to be inisting. If any member rumored to be Gay, call the FBI. That is now the Democrats clarion call. Hastert should run with it.
I wish I lived in this guy's district. He must be the only politician in the country with courage.
"An unnamed "network source" said that."
Probably the same source that played "Attorney close to the case" a few months ago!
The IMs were before and after the person turned 18. But I stand corrected - that was an initial email exchange that was reported (the first report I saw said Instant Messaging, but says Foley used the email he got from the page).
I suspect, however, that there are more IMs to other pages.
Either way - the more we attack someone else the more this hurts and stays in the spotlight. Blame Foley for being a predator. And move on... No one else SHOULD be blamed, although plenty are to blame.
But you are right - there are conflicts as to whether the IMs uncovered in the press were to an underage page or not.
Still, it matters not. I think we should strongly condemn Foley and move on to more important issues than this. If the Democrats planned this as a political ploy, we are playing into their game by keeping it in the news.
Ugh. You seem dangerously close to arguing that if Foley were hitting on female pages, it would have been OK to investigate further. But since Foley was doing this to male pages, the House leadership needed to show restraint.
I don't like that kind of thinking at all.
My congressman, a freshman, but the safest Republican district in North Carolina. I met him at a community function a few weeks ago, he was swatting the local moonbats around.
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