Whatever the truth of the matter, the Republicans better take this very seriously. I would suggest setting up a war room.
Posted on 10/01/2006 12:51:29 AM PDT by beyond the sea
(snips) --
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Republican leaders mounted an effort to explain their own conduct after the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley and suggested there should be a criminal investigation of Foley's contacts with congressional pages.
A strongly worded statement assailing Foley from the chamber's top three Republicans came as they tried to answer key questions: What did they know and what did they do about it?
Calling the contacts "an obscene breach of trust," the congressmen said in their statement that "[Foley's] immediate resignation must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."
"The improper communications between Congressman Mark Foley and former House congressional pages is unacceptable and abhorrent," read the statement issued by Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri.
ABC News on Friday evening reported details of three exchanges of instant messages sent in 2003 between teenage male pages and someone using the screen name Maf54, which ABC identified as Foley. The congressman's initials are MAF, and he was born in 1954.
In one of those exchanges, Maf54 advises the teen to "strip down." In another, when the teen says he's wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Maf54 replies, "Love to slip them off of you." And in a third, Maf54 asks, "Do I make you a little horny?" (More details) Democrats suggest cover up
The scandal comes just weeks before the November 7 midterm elections, and Republicans were hurriedly trying to find someone to replace Foley. Foley, 53 and single, had been favored to win re-election in the Republican-leaning district running against Democrat Tim Mahoney.
Democrats sought to take advantage of the bad press.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Whatever the truth of the matter, the Republicans better take this very seriously. I would suggest setting up a war room.
Quite a few parallels in the power, corruption and hypocrisy departments, and none of them encouraging.
I am sure that you will be disappointed this November because the Republicans will keep the House and the Senate.
Answer: The evil Karl Rove programs the computers.
;-)
Go zot yourself.
What about Fred Richmond? He had sex with a boy and was re elected. He may have been forced out for something else later, but it shows the power of the Democrat base as regards the pecadilos of their leaders.
He's really the best. By the way...... where is Jayna Davis these days? Or..... where is the infamous Carol Howe (Elohim City/ATF) these days?
;-)
Your user name is that of Nathan Bedford Forrest a slave trader and later one of the early leaders of the Ku Klux Klan. You even has his picture posted proudly with your posts. Shame on you and go to some neo Nazi website to post this crap.
Programing note to NBC: need to run an episode of "To Catch a Predator" based in DC.
I have pondered a while now the best way to help you with your condition. It is indeed perplexing because the regular nostrums like Ritalin seem to be of no avail. I debated offering personal counseling and I considered that I could recommend some rehabilitation centers where they can, with modern drugs, ease you through withdrawal before you embark on a 12-step program. But these are usually quite expensive and, barring a successful intervention, the patient has a very poor prognosis because he is unwilling to accept the treatment.
All the modern authorities report that the majority of patients once released from rehab inevitably wander back to their keyboards and commit the sin of personal attacks within a matter of hours. Alas, the hard and bitter truth is that the AD HOMINEM DISTEMPER which afflicts you and so many others with access to the Internet, has no known cure, as a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine under this very title has concluded. The statistical relapse rate has been truly disheartening. That is, until now for I have by the grace of a benign Providence hit upon the solution to your compulsion which no doubt will be published in the next edition of the Journal under the working title, FReeper announces breakthrough to cure the Ad Hominem Distemper-an Analogue of Tourette's Syndrome. I will be pleased to send you a reprint upon request.
It all came to me as an epiphany when I contemplated your symptoms. The malady is easy to describe: The unfortunate patient, unable to deal with the substance of what he reads and bereft of factual answer for it, resorts to attacks against those whom he regards to be the author of his misery, much like the ancient Pharaohs who cut off the heads of messengers bearing bad news. Our modern Pharoah cannot, of course, physically decapitate anyone in ether-space so he becomes a mighty potentate astride his own keyboard and lashes out to assassinate the character of these cyber devils. After he has pushed the Reply button and sent his screed into cyberspace, he enjoys a rush of adrenaline and a psychotic high which, of course, is inevitably followed by a deeper low from which he cannot emerge until he finds another victim for his calumnies. The disease is progressive and up until now there has been no known cure. But I have found the certain cure and I am willing to give it away, free and without charge, out of Christian concern and solicitude for a fellow conservative. You may consider this to be charity but I am also motivated in the interests of science. Since my motives are altruistic you will observe below the absence of any claim of copyright for my breakthrough, I exact no excise for my good works. I do this not just to save you - but for all humanity, that is, to save all humanity from you.
My prescription, like all brilliant breakthroughs which are obvious only in hindsight for their simplicity and brevity, is analogous to the practice which has developed on the Rush Limbaugh radio program in which the caller, to express a whole series of complementary observations merely has to say: Dittos -and all is perfectly understood by everyone with no trouble or bother or any loss of time.
My antidote for your Ad Hominem Distemper is simplicity itself: Whenever you feel an attack coming on do not resist, for that only leads to the cold sweats, rather, you should embrace it because, after all, acceptance of the disease and your powerlessness over it are the first steps in your recovery. Do not try to avoid your keyboard but eagerly reach out for it. We know that you have nothing to say about the substance of the matter, we know that you've been confused by the reality with which you have been confronted, we know how feverish and insecure you feel as a result, we know how much you feel the need to blackguard someone. Nevertheless, go confidently to your keyboard without any anxiety that you will compulsively vituperate - as though you were some wretched victim of Tourette's syndrome - and take your keyboard stoutly in hand to gallantly type the following:
TOUCHÉ
(recent results of phase lll clinical trials have shown that the better course of therapy is to encourage the patient to write the word in italics and in bold letters because it seems to bolster self-esteem, a pathological deficiency common to all these unfortunates)
Now there, don’t you see how much easier and lighter you feel in your soul? Instead of betraying to the world the poverty of your intellectual estate, you have made a clean breast of your ignorance, which is different from rank stupidity, and it is anyway the first step in your recovery program. More, you will be awarded points because you show the world that you are a bigger man and by no means petty. The therapeutic effects of this balm cannot be overestimated. Phase llB and pivotal phase lll clinical trials have shown that, although my remedy may be sublime, it is not wholly perfect because it brings no cheap and easy rush, no high, but then no crash either, no withdrawal, no need for the next fix. Instead, you can have your life back.
Your friend,
Nathan
... Truthfully, this is the kind of story I don't take much interest in. The latest headline is that GOP leaders knew of Foley e-mail in '05. Some people I respect, like Captain Ed, have been harshly critical of Speaker Dennis Hastert for knowing of the Foley scandal and 1) not doing enough about it, and 2) allegedly lying about his knowledge of the Foley matter.
Well, maybe. But the starting point is to figure out what Foley did. As far as I can tell from the news stories I've read, there is no claim that Foley did anything with any House page. The claim is that he sent inappropriate emails to one or more pages. These emails were described to Hastert, apparently, as "over friendly," but he was also told that the family of the page in question "didn't want the matter pursued." I've never been Speaker of the House, but I can imagine that such a conversation would not be among the most significant Hastert has had in the last year, and would not necessarily make a deep impression. Foley was, I take it, generally assumed to be gay.
Our younger readers may not be aware that House pages have figured in several scandals over the years. Congressman Gerry Studds (D-MA) had an affair with a teenage male page that, I believe, included sex within the precincts of the Capitol Building. Studds refused to admit that he had done anything wrong, and turned his back on the House when it censured him for this misconduct in 1983. The voters in Studds's district didn't seem to mind; they continued to re-elect him until he retired in 1996. He is remembered mainly as a pioneering crusader for gay rights.
Then there is Barney Frank, who was reprimanded by the House for using his Congressional office to intervene on behalf of his boyfriend, a homosexual prostitute, to dispose of at least 33 parking tickets. The boyfriend also ran a prostitution ring out of Frank's house. Today, Frank is one of the most powerful members of the Democrats' House caucus.
So I'm not particularly surprised that Foley wrote some "over-friendly"--I'm sure I would find them creepy--emails to one or more underage pages. He has resigned, which is appropriate. Studds and Franks should have resigned, too. But, in view of the history of far more egregious cases in the House, the idea of pursuing the House leadership on a "when did they find out that Foley sent a creepy email" basis seems ludicrous, and is understandable only in the context of two facts: Foley is a Republican, and there is an election in five weeks.
It's curious that many around here are limited to thinking that the only reason you could have for opposing some Republican act is that you're a democrat, or a troll, or both.
It's like they're watching a football game, rooting for team GOP.
"What about Fred Richmond? He had sex with a boy and was re elected. He may have been forced out for something else later, but it shows the power of the Democrat base as regards the pecadilos of their leaders."
Agreed! The double standard as far as it pertains to the Dums is disgusting. I've never understood how they get away with so much. I say there should be no turning a blind eye to anyone who engages in questionable sexual conduct with a person who is underage. No matter that the age of consent in DC is 16, these are not the types of people we want running our country. Both Republicans and Democrats must take in upon themselves to police their own and not back down. Of course, the chances of the Democrats doing that is slim to none, but at least by contrast the Republicans can show themselves to be the better party.
I don't see how this changes anything in the minds of a thinking person. Is there really anyone with half a brain that would logically decide that any Democrat would have handled this differently? Come on. Instead of ever thinking there was anything wrong with this, their ilk would embrace the behavior. They love homosexuals and pedophiles if they're their own.
This summarizes it appropriately. Well said.
Seriously, this "mindless rooting for team GOP "does nothing to further our cause and will soon lead to the deterioration of the most important site on the Internet. The greatest risks to the future of this wonderful oasis of conservatism are the thought police who would impose their rigid orthodoxy, and the ad hominem distemper, about which I've already posted.
I think pusterfuss has got the matter in hand and I agree with everything he says but that does not mean that the Republicans will not be in serious trouble if they don't get in front of this issue quick.
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