Foley and the Blame Game

The American Thinker ^ | 10-1-06 | Clarice Feldman

[AmishDude]

wa, you are right. But to clarify, "the Democrats" didn't know anything, either. At least, not the Democrats in Congress, that we know of. I think the slime machine has learned to keep itself as far from elected leaders as possible.

Again, I refer back to the cell phone call (Boehner, et al.) recorded by the elderly Martin couple.

[wideawake]

Yes the "democrats" didn't know anything, but CREW did.

[longtermmemmory]

The democrats DID know.

The opponent of foley knew.

The DNC must have known and timed the report.

The leadership knew of C.R.E.W.'s work given their past delaycoordination.

Now we have pelosi replace with dukakis look alike Harman. The democrats have blood on their hands.

The democrats allow CHILDREN to be endangered in order to TIME THE STORY!!!!!

This is CRIMINAL!

[AmishDude]

Don't go so crazy there. One of the reasons I think Foley will only get probation if he's convicted of anything is that he didn't solicit anything, even in the IMs.

When they nailed Scott Ritter, they had to wait until he showed up at the rendezvous point.

[spatso]

"The evidence given in this article shows that the information which proved wrongdoing was new to the GOP."

Totally unacceptable for any business or government enterprise. If you have a complaint involving sexual harassment, or worse, an apparent predatory practice involving a minor you turn everything upside down to get to the bottom of it. The best excuse for the party leaders involved in this matter is that they were negligent in failing to exercise appropriate diligence. Worst, they failed to act consistent with the information uncovered.

I will not accept anything other than a moral standard that is appropriate to my values. I am not responsible for Democrats and perhaps you may not yet be fully awake to the seriousness of this matter.

[spatso]

"Now, what did they know and when did they know it?"

We are not responsible for them. If I have a predator in my family, I am responsible to deal with it. If we go down the road of trying to blame Democrats for a problem within our own ranks we enter into a moral relativism that becomes a slippery slope many conservatives will choose to avoid.

[caffe]

Perhaps the GOP should get rid of the log-cabin republicans; they do more harm than good. Let them go to the dim party!

[spatso]

"The democrats allow CHILDREN to be endangered in order to TIME THE STORY!!!!!"

Do you guys realize how naive you appear? Long enforcement uses sting operations all the time to try and nail Internet and sexual predators. Do you you really think there are a bunch of people out in the real world who are going to say it was unfair to catch him in such an underhanded way? The only option for conservatives is stand tall and be outraged by the predatory behavior. Not only is it the right moral choice, it is the only political option.

[longtermmemmory]

you are wrong. I have seen court cases where police will cut investigations short when there is someone in danger.

This is about what did the reporters know. Sitting on a story and allowing criminal predation to progress so a report can be timed is despicable.

The fact is that republicans handled the situation correctly once the INSTANT MESSAGES were revealed. This was not politically advantageous, but it was correct. (especially given how easy it is to fake IMs)

Republicans are doing fine, the MSM is in trouble.

[AmishDude]

Son (and I mean that in the most condescending way possible), it is "dealt with". What more is there to do? The evidence that we know of is out there. Law enforcement will subpoena everything and try to find more. And if it's there, they'll find it.

Again, one possibility that this brings up is that Democratic operatives are hacking into Congressmens' (and who knows who else's?) emails.

Here's a clue: That's a crime, too.

[longtermmemmory]

asking for foley to resign pretty much makes that point.

[wideawake]

The article describes in painstaking detail how the GOP leadership took the matter very seriously, and investigated in an official manner the emails that were turned over to them and made a determination that they were weird but innocuous.

The sexually explicit IMs - as opposed to the emails - were not revealed until later.

[AmishDude]

First, Foley isn't an "employee".

Second, just try to fire an actual employee based on somebody saying that he sent a minor teenager unpleasant, but non-sexual (the parents made this crystal clear to the Congressman) emails.

Third, the parents didn't want them or the page to get dragged into this. They just asked for it to stop. Remember, without the parents, you have no evidence of anything and if you try to pursue it, they would be exposed and that's precisely what they didn't want.

The leadership acted consistently with what they knew. And you are acting consistently for someone who signed up in March of this year.

Welcome to FreeRepublic -- election edition.

[spatso]

"This is about what did the reporters know. Sitting on a story and allowing criminal predation to progress so a report can be timed is despicable."

Yes, and I can see the stories now, "Republicans in Denial." But, I have great confidence that is not going to be the response. We will hear a strong condemnation of the behavior no later than this afternoon from all levels.

There is only one option for Republicans and that is to condemn the behavior without qualification. If you want to lead the protest over a supposed sting operation, fine. But, don't think for a moment it is going to mitigate the outrage necessary to confront predatory practices involving adolescent youth at the heart of government.

[longtermmemmory]

you have to be specific as to when.

The IMs were revealed last week.
(exactly the day after the name could not be changed on the ballot)

48 hours later, foley was gone.

[spatso]

"The article describes in painstaking detail how the GOP leadership took the matter very seriously, and investigated in an official manner the emails that were turned over to them and made a determination that they were weird but innocuous."

I would happy if GOP leadership simply says we investigated and we missed some stuff. Now that additional information has come forward we have dealt with it in the most vigorous manner. On the other hand, to go down the road of arguing against the behavior of Democratic operatives is redundant. More important, it commits conservatives to the track of moral relativism that we so bitterly oppose. I do wish you would think about that.

[wideawake]

I'm not talking about moral relativism. Moral relativism is "Gerry Studds got away with bedding willing pages, so Mark Foley should get away with sending them X-rated IMs."

That's garbage. Foley deserves to be in prison, not Congress.

The issue here is that Democrats knew he was a predator and instead of doing the responsible thing, they waited until it was politically convenient to report him.

They were playing politics with people's lives.

What's worse, they developed this information solely for politics, never intending to use it to help victims.

[af_vet_rr]

teh dems are gonna gnaw on this like a pit bull on an attackers arm. we won't see the end of this till after the election.

The GOP deserves it though. Regardless of how much anybody things the GOP leadership knew, it's pretty clear that somebody in the leadership knew Foley was trouble long before now, and they should have had him leave then, when a replacement could have been found. I'll reserve judgement on whether they thought this would blow over, but I'd like to see, in the future, anytime anything vaguely evil-sounding is dealt with then and there, nipped in the bud so to speak.

[spatso]

"The issue here is that Democrats knew he was a predator and instead of doing the responsible thing, they waited until it was politically convenient to report him."

Your statement is an excellent example moral relativism. In illustrating a wrong we attempt to mitigate it by advancing a comparative second wrong. Essentially, they are two wrongs that should stand alone. They are morally responsible to deal with their behavior. I (we) are responsible for ours. Regardless, of their behavior, it does not let me off the hook for mine.

[caffe]

LOL Good point!