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Skriven 2006-09-30 21:04:00 av ROSS SAUER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Foley
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The Foley case really isn't about if Foley is gay, or not.
*THIS* is what is important, how GOP leaders in the House covered up a 
pervert.
A pervert who was in charge of "ensuring childrens' safety."

GOP House leaders speak out against Internet predators 

(updated below - updated again re: Denny Hastert's statement)

As noted in the post below, one of the laws which Mark Foley appears to 
have violated is the so-called "Adam Walsh Child Protection Act of 2006" 
which, among other things, increases penalties for adults who use the 
Internet to discuss or solicit sexual acts with "minors" (defined as an 
"individual who has not attained the age of 18 years"). GOP leaders 
hailed this law as a vital tool in protecting our nation's children 
against Internet predators:

Denny Hastert, who said the Act was critical in "preventing child 
exploitation, stopping child pornography and creating new criminal 
offense penalties protecting children from the Internet," proclaimed:

"At home, we put the security of our children first and Republicans are 
doing just that in our nation’s House. We’ve all seen the disturbing 
headlines about sex offenders and crimes against children. These crimes 
cannot persist. Protecting our children from Internet predators and 
child exploitation enterprises are just as high a priority as securing 
our border from terrorists. . . That’s why today we passed the Adam 
Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006."


Majority Leader John Boehner similarly intoned in referring to passage 
of the Act:

House Republicans have a record of working to strengthen our communities 
and protect American values. So far this year, House Republicans have 
approved legislation that protects our children from Internet predators 
and violent criminal offenders; improves communications capabilities of 
first responders and emergency personnel; and guarantees Americans’ 
freedom to display the American flag and recite the Pledge of 
Allegiance.


As much as anything else, that is what this scandal is about -- GOP 
House Leaders prancing around as the Protectors of our nation's children 
from Internet Predators while, at the same time, apparently knowing that 
there was such a predator in their midst. And they not only failed to do 
anything about it, but they actively worked to conceal the behavior (by, 
as noted below, ensuring that all Democrats -- including even the 
Democrat on the House Page Board -- were blocked from learning about 
these accusations). As Hastert put it at the top of his Press Release 
(emphasis in original): "At home we put children first, and Republicans 
are doing just that in the House."


UPDATE: From George W. Bush, President of the United States, when he 
signed the Act into law:

And the bill I sign today will strengthen federal laws to protect our 
children from sexual and other violent crimes, will help prevent child 
pornography, and will make the Internet safer for our sons and 
daughters. . . .

Protecting our children is our solemn responsibility. It's what we must 
do. When a child's life or innocence is taken it is a terrible loss -- 
it's an act of unforgivable cruelty. Our society has a duty to protect 
our children from exploitation and danger. By enacting this law we're 
sending a clear message across the country: those who prey on our 
children will be caught, prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent 
of the law.


Republicans decided in this bill that the "minors" we have to protect 
from predatory behavior on the Internet means anyone under the age of 18 
years. Yet self-evidently lurid and sexually suggestive emails sent by a 
leading GOP Congressman to a 16-year-old page certainly didn't seem to 
move them to do very much -- other than work to conceal the behavior so 
that the predator could remain in Congress, surrounded by other 
vulnerable American children sent to Washington, D.C. by their parents.


UPDATE II: As Renato notes in Comments, isn't it about time for Glenn 
Reynolds, Michael Barnone, Fred Barnes and all of the objective-
independent-two-sided media political pundits to start explaining how 
this scandal hurts the Democrats and how it's a win-win for Republicans? 
Somehow, I'm absolutely sure it's the case that this scandal presents 
Democrats with the terrible dilemma of having to satisfy their rabid 
left-wing base without alienating the normal Americans who will 
naturally side with the Republicans here. How that works in this case 
will undoubtedly be explained to us very shortly. Check here and here 
for updates.

UPDATE III: One of the strangest and most incriminating aspects of this 
story is the excuse being proffered by the GOP House Protectors of 
Children that they didn't do anything about Foley because the parents of 
the page with whom he exchanged the emails didn't want it pursued. For 
one thing, as Josh Marshall notes, the fact that they wanted to 
investigate further but didn't because of the parents' wishes by itself 
proves that the knew there was something to investigate. Why didn't they 
investigate further: talk to other pages, determine -- as seems to have 
been the case -- whether there were rumors around that Foley had engaged 
in predatory behavior repeatedly rather than in just one case? There 
were plenty of steps they could have and should have taken to 
investigate.

Moreover, the fact that the parents of this one page did not want to 
pursue the issue further is hardly a reason for GOP House leaders to do 
nothing. As former prosecutor Christy Hardin Smith rightly points out, 
by doing nothing, they knowingly endangered all of the other pages in 
Congress. Their responsibility here was to the other children who serve 
as pages as well as to the one page in question. By doing nothing -- 
even failing to investigate meaningfully -- they endangered the welfare 
of every child-page on the Hill. What justifies that? As Denny Hastert 
said: "At home, we put the security of our children first and 
Republicans are doing just that in our nation’s House." 

UPDATE IV: Josh Marshall has the statement released by Denny Hastert. I 
think Hastert is in a lot of trouble here. First, John Boehner said he 
told Hastert about Foley, then Boehner changed his story, and Hastert's 
office flatly denied Hastert knew. But today, Tom Reynolds emphatically 
said that he also told Hastert about this months ago, directly 
contradicting Hastert's denials.

With regard to Hastert's story, ask yourselves these question: (1) even 
if everything happened the way Hastert claims, does that sound more like 
an attempt to "investigate" Foley's wrongdoing or cover it up?; (2) 
given that several high-ranking members of Hastert's staff were 
coordinating the handling of the page's complaint about Foley, is it 
even remotely possible that Hastert didn't learn of this -- wouldn't 
complaints about a GOP Congressman's conduct regarding a Congressional 
page be something they would tell Hastert?; (3) Hastert says he has no 
reason to doubt Reynolds' claim that he spoke to Hastert about this, but 
Hastert just doesn't recall that. If Rep. Reynolds told Hastert that a 
Congressional page and his parents complained about Foley's behavior and 
insisted that he not contact the page again, isn't that something 
Hastert would remember?

Then there is this statement from Rep. Dale Kildee, the Democratic 
member of the House Page Board, who says: "any statement by Mr. Reynolds 
or anyone else that the House Page Board ever investigated Mr. Foley is 
completely untrue. I was never informed of the allegations about Mr. 
Foley's inappropriate communications with a House Page and I was never 
involved in any inquiry into this matter."

That remains the most incriminating fact in my view -- they purposely 
excluded the Democratic member of the Board from knowing about these 
accusations to ensure that the accusations would remain concealed and un-
investigated.

posted by Glenn Greenwald | 4:08 PM  

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/09/gop-house-leaders-speak-out-
against.html

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