Nothing unless it is not working as it should or being monitored properly. These pages may be of legal age but congress should hold them accountable to the extent they are capable or vulnerable. Having said that, I am guessing the IM programs and e-mail system has to be explained better to both pages and House members. They need to know without any doubt they are being monitored and their messages saved (if that is now available with IM) in case there is a future problem. We also need consequences for any page that does not report improper behavior or who pulls an improper stunt themselves.
IF the pages were simply pulling a prank maybe they did not know the seriousness of their stunt. If they did this on purpose, they should pay a price. If they did not report bad behavior, they were wrong. If they did not report either improper IM messages or e-mail, they were wrong. I'm saying both policy and management has to be there. Pages, as well as House members, have to be constantly reminded they will be held accountable for their actions and are responsible for whatever they do or don't do.
It may be there or it may need changed. Policy and procedures have to be in place and enforced. Whatever is done when they are back home is their problem unless it comes to the attention of the leadership and reflects upon the US House.
Look, I'm not excusing any of these guys. I think the emphasis has to be on better management by the leadership, that's all. I believe Speaker Hastert's explanations and I do not think he did anything wrong other than having tougher standards in place. I'm also realistic enough to know this whole thing might have not been preventable if the people involved were intent on causing the problem and issue. But, if that's the case, I hope they are charged and jailed for their actions if it harmed the US House or its members.
Too long an answer but I'm not sure how to shorten it.
We are currently winning in Iraq right now. Problem is thanks to the Junk Media and the Treason of the Democrat Party Leadership most Americans have no clue how well the mission is actually going.
It is incredibly odd how Democrats, via their mouthpieces in the Junk Media, demand a level of perfection in Military operations that NO Journalist or Politician could ever live up to in their own professional spheres. Odd how Americans, who live with a very high level of incompetent in their government, their media, their day to day lives are so surprised and upset to discover war does work on a perfectly flawless time table. They seem to think war sould work like their two hour Hollywood action movies told them it did. 2 Hours, bad guys dead, sympathy frag of supporting actor, hero gets girl and lives happily ever after. These absurd expectations explain how it is Americans get "war weary" so very very rapidly. It is one of the biggest Achilles heels of US Foreign Policy. Our foes count on us getting bored with it all and just going home. I guess we could call it the America's Policy Attention Deficit Disorder.
Counter Terrorism (or Counter Insurgency) is as much about politics as it is about war. Conventional Military often find them incredibly frustrating because they are usually a case of 3 steps forward, 2 steps back, pause, repeat. Conventional Military people think in terms of go there, kill them, wreck their stuff, make them stop pissing us off. Counter Insurgency does not work that way. Counter Insurgency works by making the local political structure strong enough to contain or beak the Insurgency. THAT is a slow painful process.
It is made a lot hard in Iraq by the hyper negative Media coverage and excessive nonsense spewed out by Domestic Politicians using the war because they think it will help them politically. I suspect that if we win Nov 7th, the Iraq mission is won. By 2009 the Iraqis political structure will be strong enough to stand on its own with minimal US support. Probably Iraq security forces stiffened with US SOF support teams.