hell yes - please share links.
Some GOP
finally start speaking out
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/09/gop-house-leaders-speak-out-against.html ...however it appears House Majority Leader John Boehner is still covering up in an attempt to protect House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill).
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 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:
“At home we put children first, and Republicans are doing just that in the House.”The NYDailyNews reports that
Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) took $100,000 from the political PAC of
Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) in July of 2006. Which would just be GOP business as usual but for one thing — Reynolds had been informed months before that Foley had a certain e-mail problem.
You tell me — which was more important to
Rep. Reynolds: principle or politics? I'd say Reynolds has some explaining to do, not just about the money trail, but about how "in the loop" on all of this he has been all along, given that
his Chief of Staff is the former CoS for Rep. Foley…and that said CoS has been very actively involved in the Republican CYA over the last few days.In the GOP pattern of behavior throughout the Bush Administration (and beyond, frankly, but let's stick to recent history), the public pronouncements and the behind-the-scenes honest facts don't match up. Again.
And this time, it wasn't soldiers at risk from lies and the cover-ups — it was teenagers entrusted to work as pages in Congress, and a Republican leadership more interested in keeping smarmy Uncle Foley's secret "in the family" than in making certain every page serving in the House stayed safe from the hard cruise and grooming e-mails, with the GOP leadership's outrage reserved only for the after-the-fact time when they got caught with their hands in the cover-up jar.
Furthermore, ...as I type the revelations are pouting in. It seems Mark Foley's habits were known more than a year ago. One former congressional page has come forward...
GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001October 01, 2006 4:00 PMA Republican staff member warned congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page.
Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-2002 class, told ABC News he and other pages were warned about Foley by a supervisor in the House Clerk's office.
Loraditch, the president of the Page Alumni Association, said the pages were told "don't get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff."
Staff members at the House Clerk's office did not return calls seeking comment.
Some of the sexually explicit instant messages that led to Foley's abrupt resignation Friday were sent to pages in Loraditch's class.
Pages report to either Republican or Democratic supervisors, depending on the political party of the member of Congress who nominate them for the page program.
Several Democratic pages tell ABC News they received no such warnings about Foley.
Loraditch says that some of the pages who "interacted" with Foley were hesitant to report his behavior because "members of Congress, they've got the power." Many of the pages were hoping for careers in politics and feared Foley might seek retribution.
Loraditch runs the alumni association for the U.S. House Page Program, and he is deeply concerned about the future effects this scandal could have on a program that he sees as a valuable educational experience for teens.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/guide?category=Brian_Ross_Investigations&subcategory=&id=2509590#2509590Also I've never been a fan of Woodward's - but is the book that good? I know the WH is dodging it.
You tell me.
http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=97507.msg1416258#msg1416258 At this point, seriously, for all us Americans, politicla party shouldn't matter anymore. We can no longer say "heathen democrats". We should be aware that repubs have really put what is right on the backburner, for what is best for the American Empire.
Agree/disagree?
They have NOT done what is best for the American Empire, ...they're miserable failures at that too. The situation in Iraq is a mess. They did however do what was best for terrorists. They recruited them better than the terrorists were ever able to do. That's not hearsay from Woodwards book. That was the unanimous conclusion of 16 US intelligence agencies, ...but Bush and the rest of those psychopaths kept lying to the American public, as well as themselves. Campaigning for re-election on what a great job they were doing over there.
Now their about to attempt damage control with a new campaign using military personnel and halliburton employees, claiming the media only wants to talk about bad news, but they know the truth about what's happening over there. They plan to wage yet another propaganda campaign discrediting their own NIE report, in an attempt to once again get American's to dismiss recent revelations of sexual predators in congress and house leaders who covered it up as well as the NIE report, and halliburton revelations, ...and to shove it all down the memory hole.
