[martinidon]

When a 52 yr old "gay" congressman is send overtly friendly e-mails to a child it should of raised red flags. This was not a case where you just tell a guy to stay away from the boys. The child's parents thought it was bad enough to complain and wanted it stopped. If Hasert was a real leader he would have forced Foley to retire.

When it comes to protecting children from pedophiles you don't get a second chance!

[Blogger]

Thank you for your commentary Bela.

[airborne]

This was not a case where you just tell a guy to stay away from the boys.

Legally, Hastert had little choice otherwise.

The child's parents thought it was bad enough to complain and wanted it stopped.

The same parents who insisted Hastert talk to Foley, but not allow it to become public.

[GOPyouth]

I think mabye that you're looking at this through hindsight glasses. You have to completely disregard any of the instant messages when saying this. Pages last night were saying that they have informal relationships with their congressmen.

A family made a complaint, and the leadership took action. They couldn't have booted him from congress b/c of emails that did nothing wrong.

[piasa]

The "child" is a man, old enough at the time to be fighting for you over in Iraq.

[JIM O]

He was 18

[Logical me]

If Hasert was a real leader he would have forced Foley to retire.

Hasert cannot force another congressman to retire or quit. Foley was a duly elected congressman by his district. Get up to speed. Hasert can only report what might be a violation to the authorities, which he did.

[cinives]

Sure - on the basis of emails asking how the kid survived the hurricane, Hastert is going to force Foley to resign ? Yeah, right, on what basis ? Additionally, the kid was 16 - the age of consent in Washington DC. Are you saying Hastert should have acted outside the law to force a resignation ?

Read the emails. Not the IMs - that's a different story - but the emails. They are all Hastert knew of at the time.