Foleygate Whimpers Off Into Oblivion

[Conan71]

Just as I predicted:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061208/ap_on_go_co/congress_ethics

Somehow congress policing it's own ethics just doesn't seem right.  And isn't Congress and ethics spoken in the same sentence an oxymoron?[]

[Cubs]

the report says the GOP did not break any rules ..... saying that they left pages "vulnerable" is a pretty lame cop out if you ask me

[Chicken Little]

quote:Originally posted by Cubs

the report says the GOP did not break any rules ..... saying that they left pages "vulnerable" is a pretty lame cop out if you ask me

Whatever, dude.  The guy's a pedophile.  He did dirty things to pages. The GOP leadership knew about it and did nothing.  That's pretty much a texbook definition "vulnerable", if not child endangerment.

Bad management and bad behavior lost you guys an election.  Most people would be pretty upset about that, and seems like you are making excuses for them.  Am I wrong?

[guido911]

I cannot believe I am going to say this, but, gulp, I agree with Chicken...Is this a sign of the end of days?

[tim huntzinger]

But that whimper is a dying echo of a seismic boom called the 2006 Midterm Election.

Santorum? RRRRROOOAR!  Hayworth? RRROOOOAAAR! DeWine? RROOOOAAAR!

[rwarn17588]

I said two years ago that corruption would be the death of the Republican Party in Congress unless they got its act together fast.

I saw the same thing happen a few years ago in Illinois after the bribes-for-driver's-licenses scandal (the former GOP governor is reporting to prison next month), and I saw that the same type of voter disgust against the GOP was building nationwide.

The Republican Congress had two years to clean up the mess. They didn't. You saw what happened.

Not to mention there was a certain Iraq thing.

[inteller]

insert the absolute power corrupts absolutely quote here.

[USRufnex]

quote:Originally posted by Chicken Little

quote:Originally posted by Cubs

the report says the GOP did not break any rules ..... saying that they left pages "vulnerable" is a pretty lame cop out if you ask me

Whatever, dude.  The guy's a pedophile.  He did dirty things to pages. The GOP leadership knew about it and did nothing.  That's pretty much a texbook definition "vulnerable", if not child endangerment.

Bad management and bad behavior lost you guys an election.  Most people would be pretty upset about that, and seems like you are making excuses for them.  Am I wrong?

Actually yeah.  Especially wrong to use the term "pedophile" so loosely.  And it didn't sound like Cubs was trying to excuse anybody's behavior here...

Whether any of us like it or not, it appears most of what he did was technically legal...

http://teenadvice.about.com/library/weekly/qanda/blageofconsentchart.htm
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Age_of_Consent.png

... er, uh... legal in Maryland and DC, technically illegal in Virginia...

So in this case, Foley did lots of things that were immoral and unethical, and really sick-o, especially if you're a parent who has enough problems trying to make sure your teenager doesn't "do it" with another teenager.  

I just don't see this as much different than a high school teacher taking sexual advantage of a junior or senior but waiting until the student is of "legal age" to actually DO anything sexual.  Sick? yes.  Grounds for losing his/her job?  Definitely.

Reason to vote my Illinois congressman out of a job.... GOD YES!!!  If I coulda voted early and often (a tradition in Chicago), Denny Hastert would be out of a job.  You'd think a former wresting coach/teacher could pick up on something like this sooner rather than later  and take action... and Shimkus, also an Illinois Repub (downstate) and former teacher, shoulda known better and been held accountable.  But BOTH of these guys got re-elected with over 60% of the vote...

I seriously doubt this was much of an issue for voters when they pulled the lever/touched the screen to vote for their individual congressmen.  It'd be like firing all the teachers in a school district for one teacher's repeated escapades of sexual harassment...        

[tim huntzinger]

The 'Mercan people voted against Bush, the constellation of scandals surrounding the vote sealed the deal.

90% of incumbents are re-elected, so is it surprising that the Speaker was able to retain his seat?  In the era of handcrafted districts especially, this is really no surprise.

[Conan71]

One of two things happened here: Either the committee looked at it realistically and recognized that it's not incumbent upon nor possible to police every action of individual house members, and they recognize how deftly internal issues are passed around the house via the use of aides -or- there were Democrats as well in the chain of command who were aware of the issue and did nothing either so it was better not to incite a backlash from Republicans.

Nothing anyone tells me will ever convince me  that there were not any ranking Democrats who were aware of Foley's behavior.  The whole account of how the story was leaked to the press has DNC fingerprints all over it.

All they needed was one last salacious story to ensure a mid-term victory.  The purpose of leaking the story wasn't to get Foley to step down, but to try to implicate the highest ranking Republican in the House, which was a stretch at best.

Congress is an Ivory tower, now that power has shifted back to the Democrat party, they have the option to truly clean the place up, or wind up being labeled a corrupt party in the coming years.

And if there is another Foley-type scandal in the house or Senate involving a Democrat, it better be handled in the same manner.  Past history shows it's not been handled the same as Foley was.

People kept harping on all the contributions to Republican candidates and how much more money was being thrown the GOP members of Congress and the corruption that bred.  Now that the Dems are back in power, without changes in lobbying and ethics rules, the money will be flowing more freely to the Dems.  Had the Dems been in power during Abramoff's heyday, I assure you, it would have come off as a Democrat scandal.