The Foley Follies

AHH- we have an interesting situation here, to say the least.

By now, most of you know the story...a respected Republican Congressman from Florida, Mark Foley, was busted for sending some rather explicit e-mails to a 16 year old congressional page, and has since resigned his House seat (where he was a virtual shoe-in to be re-elected) and checked himself into rehab as an alcoholic.

Apparently the fun is just beginning, with the Republican House leadership being targeting as aiding and abetting Foley's little prediliction. Or as Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman put it `what did they know and when did they know it?'

I agree with the congresswoman. I merely think the inquiry should be asked on both sides of the aisle.

Some of these e-mails are three years old, and some of them are instant messages, which can only be saved if somebody cut n' pastes them and saves them via a word processing program. Yet, these e-mails were only released recently, a month before the election. Who was holding on to these for partisan purposes for use in an election campaign? What did they know and when did they know it?


The timing is suspicious, to say the least. Obviously, the Democratic National Committee has a hit list, and a lot of other nuggets in store for us before November in their quest to regain power.

Or to quote House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a letter to the Washington Times in response to the conservative paper's call for Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign his speakership. :

"We also need to know why these messages surfaced only last week, on the final day of legislative business before the November elections. If this evidence was withheld for political purposes, one can only speculate as to how many additional children may have been endangered before this information was finally revealed."

I'd also be interested in how the Leftist group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) who first released the e-mails got copies of them, and from whom.

Foley may or may not have committed a criminal act. Ages of consent differ in different states. But what he did, in terms of utilizing his position to solicit sexual favors was wrong and disgraceful. He deserved to lose his seat, and anyone who covered for him deserves to be pilloried.

What's most disturbing to me is that Foley had a superb record on national defence and the War on Jihad, and was even willing to point out the fatuousness of the Bush Admonistration on these matters. Foley was one of the first congressmen of either party to speak out on the ridiculous Dubai Ports deal..something that Democrats and Republicans who hopped on the bandwagon to oppose the Dubai deal are giving him scant credit for now.

He did the right thing by resigning and checking himself into rehab, and his fellow Republican congressmen are rightly not condoning his behavior..a course of conduct that might be compared with ex-President Clinton's in a similar situation. Of course, Clinton actually did commit felonies in an effort to avoid any fallout for his conduct.And many of his party members continue to cover for him to this day.

I can't help but think that this is karma to the Bush Administration for their shameful treatment of Tom DeLay.

This will undoubtedly affect the midterm elections, and not in a good way. Some members of congress who understand that we're at war and have voted accordingly will be jettisoned, and others will be elected who haven't a clue....to go head-to-head with our unfortunate president like a flea-maddened dog chewing his own rear, while the Jihad goes on unimpeded for the next two years.

Stay tuned..