Posted on 09/30/2006 3:06:00 PM PDT by wjersey
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said he told Speaker Dennis Hastert after learning a fellow GOP lawmaker sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy.
Reynolds, R-N.Y., was told months ago about e-mails sent by Rep. Mark Foley and is now defending himself from Democratic accusations that he did too little. Foley, R-Fla., resigned Friday after ABC News questioned him about the e-mails to a former congressional page and about sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages. The boy who received the e-mails was 16 in summer 2005 when he worked in Congress as a page. After the boy returned to his Louisiana home, the congressman e-mailed him, and the teenager thought the messages were inappropriate, particularly one in which Foley asked the teen to send a picture of himself.
The teen's family contacted their congressman, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who then discussed it with Reynolds sometime this spring.
"Rodney Alexander brought to my attention the existence of e-mails between Mark Foley and a former page of Mr. Alexander's," Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a written statement Saturday.
"Despite the fact that I had not seen the e-mails in question, and Mr. Alexander told me that the parents didn't want the matter pursued, I told the speaker of the conversation Mr. Alexander had with me," Reynolds said.
Reynolds added that Alexander also discussed it with the clerk of the House, and the congressman who oversees the page program, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill.
Shimkus has said he learned about the e-mail exchange in late 2005 and took immediate action to investigate.
Shimkus said Foley told him it was an innocent exchange. Shimkus said he warned Foley not to have any more contact with the teenager and to respect other pages.
Democrats charged Reynolds did far too little and said more digging should be done.
"Congressman Reynolds' inaction in the face of such a serious situation is very troubling, and raises important questions about whether there was an attempt to cover up criminal activity involving a minor to keep it from coming to light before election day," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney.
New York Democrats hoping to unseat Reynolds blasted the congressman, saying they call into question the Republican's values.
"Mr. Reynolds knew about these allegedly inappropriate emails from a fellow congressman to a minor for months and didn't lift a finger," said Blake Zeff, a spokesman for the state Democrats.
The best thing that Foley can do for the party, his family, and those that he has destroyed; is go eat a shotgun. Sad but true.
Exactly! The IMs were in the hands of Soros funded CREW--which brought the ethics charges against DeLay and are representing Wilson/Plame. They are counting on you being stupid enough to confuse the innocuous emails with the lurid IMs which only they had AND SAT ON.
That was not the sum total of wrong done during that whole fiasco -- to say so makes the stupid argument that he was impeached for getting Billy Jeffs while on the public clock.
There is only a slight difference in these cases, one, yes dim-bulb Monica wasn't a high school kid. But it is still older men preying on youths -- the fact that Clinton preys on everything he sets his eyes on is not the point. He worked the same as any sexual predator, regardless of the age of their victims, he tossed bait and pounced when he landed. Same for Foley -- those emails are not sexually explicit, not graphic, no, but anyone can read them and see he was trolling. Some of the boys got landed -- and we're only at the beginning of finding out just who and how many.
"Maybe there's something you don't know about him too."
I doubt it.
Unfortunately, those "scumbags" as you call them who have an (R) after their name are the only thing preventing Islamofacists from invading America, and finishing what they have already started......the destruction of America. Demonrats don't know the meaning of self defense except to adopt that French method......raising your hands in total surrender to your enemies.
Please elaborate!
My good friend and fellow American Thinker contributor Clarice Feldman left a comment that deserves to be elevated for greater readability. It is, something of an eye popper:
Reportedly the St Pete Times had the same information in August 2005 and wrote nothing about it either, apparently because the emails do not constitute illegal conduct, they are just creepy, and the boy’s parents did not wish to pursue this.
The far more damaging IM messages were released by CREW , the same “public interest” group which is representing the Wilson/Plames in their laughable suit against Cheney, et al.
When did they get the IM’s? Why did they wait until now to release them? Is there any indication the Republicans who looked into THIS MATTER had any knowledge of their(the IM’s) existence.
Pardon an old lady’s suspicions. I’ve seen this dance too many times before.
I read this morning that a Monroe, LA newspaper also had the story and didn’t run with it because there appeared to be no impropriety.
And one more point that our dimwitted lefty friends can’t seem to wrap their miniscule brains around; the incident that was brought to the attention of the Page Board is unconnected to any of the raunchy, sick emails ABC news got from, as Clarice informs us, CREW.
Why the release of the emails and IM’s now is a question that answers itself 40 days before an election. And if it turns out that the GOP leadership is blameless in this – if Foley carried on his perversions in secret with only the terrified children knowing of his activities – then the question rightly arises why a Democrat connected organization allowed someone they knew as a pervert to continue to stalk children in the House of Representatives, failing to release the information until maximum political damage could be done to the opposition.
http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2006/09/30/foley-matter-proves-republicans-support-perverts/
"That was not the sum total of wrong done during that whole fiasco ..."
Um, yes it was.
I agree with you.
All Hastert has to do is stand up and state that he did not have the full story when he was first informed and, had he had the full story (the IMs etc.), he would have immediately advised Foley to resign or face the consequences.
End of story.
We do not have to join them in attacking our own House leader when he's done nothing wrong.
I don't see that it matters whether the boy was from a state where the legal age of consent is 16 or not. There's just something unsavory about a middle aged man coming on to a kid of 16. (Let's even forget about the homosexual angle. I'd say the same thing about a straight guy coming on to a 16 year old girl.)
What really shocks me here is that the Republican leadership knew of it for a long time & did NOTHING. In the Catholic church sex scandal people weren't so much indignant about the priests themselves, as about the conduct of the hierarchy in doing nothing about it, or, in many cases, actually covering it up. Look to the Dems to make hay of this. What could have been just one errant congressman will be used to slam the whole GOP leadership.
Frankly, Hastert has never impressed me very much; this is the last straw. Can't believe we didn't have anybody better to assume the speakership after Livingstone bit the dust over HIS sexual scandal.
Yup, 16 in DC, lots of other states, too.
"Age of consent, by state":
http://www.actwin.com/eatonohio/gay/consent.htm
It would depend on where Mark Foley was when he sent the IMs.
Nice, very nice, take, JLA. Of course Kenny "interacted" with these guys. Kenny knows full well what's going on. Probably got an earful afterhours at the gay bars on Dupont Circle.
Kenny, write your resignation letter, NOW.
Hadn't heard about this. I said earlier it wouldn't surprise me. Lo and behold, I'm not surprised.
Absolutely. And to make matters worse, it wasn't just one kid; it was more than one.
"And to make matters worse, it wasn't just one kid; it was more than one."
Who were the others?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.