Absolved: The alcohol made me do it...

[okiebybirth]

From John at Americablog:

Denny Hastert has put me in a difficult position.

I've heard rumors. Unsubstantiated talk. No proof yet. But I've heard things. Just like I heard things about Mark Foley this past July. This time I've heard things about a relatively senior Republican member of the House, and also about someone on the Speaker's own staff. Both rumors seem relevant to this story as it's unfolding.

So here's my dilemma. Denny Hastert says that if I don't report the unsubstantiated allegations I've heard, I'm a criminal. But the thing is, I'm also a journalist, and a good human being. I don't think it's right to print unsubstantiated rumors I've heard, rumors that could make life quite difficult for this Republican congressman and this senior member of Hastert's staff.

So what do I do? Do I publish unsubstantiated rumors about a GOP congressman and one of Denny Hastert's top aides? I don't want to, I don't think it's right, but Denny Hastert says he'll sic the FBI on me for hurting children if I don't. And he'll probably end up blaming Nancy Pelosi if my rumors turn out to be true and I didn't go public with them.

So what do I do? Maybe I'll just call Denny Hastert's office on Monday, tell them what I've heard, and let them decide how comfortable they are with the Speaker's new standard of justice.

[okiebybirth]

^^  Could he be talking about this?

From Wayne Madsen:

"There is also much focus on the relationship between House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his chief of staff, 56-year old Scott Palmer. Hastert and Palmer, Hastert's longtime unmarried adviser, live together in a DC townhouse along with Hastert's Deputy Chief of Staff, Mike Stokke, while Hastert's wife Jean lives in Yorkville, Illinois and stays at a hotel when she visits Washington."
________________________________________________

The railing of the "sanctity of marriage" by closeted gay Republicans while either ignoring or covering up the crimes of a pedophile is the height of hypocrisy.

I'm sure McHenry (R-NC), the attack dog for the Republicans, doesn't want them to go looking in many more closets either.

[rwarn17588]

Feh. This insinuation is nothing. A lot of Washington lawmmakers and staffers room together because housing costs are so high in the Beltway.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by okiebybirth

From John at Americablog:

Denny Hastert has put me in a difficult position.

I've heard rumors. Unsubstantiated talk. No proof yet. But I've heard things. Just like I heard things about Mark Foley this past July. This time I've heard things about a relatively senior Republican member of the House, and also about someone on the Speaker's own staff. Both rumors seem relevant to this story as it's unfolding.

So here's my dilemma. Denny Hastert says that if I don't report the unsubstantiated allegations I've heard, I'm a criminal. But the thing is, I'm also a journalist, and a good human being. I don't think it's right to print unsubstantiated rumors I've heard, rumors that could make life quite difficult for this Republican congressman and this senior member of Hastert's staff.

So what do I do? Do I publish unsubstantiated rumors about a GOP congressman and one of Denny Hastert's top aides? I don't want to, I don't think it's right, but Denny Hastert says he'll sic the FBI on me for hurting children if I don't. And he'll probably end up blaming Nancy Pelosi if my rumors turn out to be true and I didn't go public with them.

So what do I do? Maybe I'll just call Denny Hastert's office on Monday, tell them what I've heard, and let them decide how comfortable they are with the Speaker's new standard of justice.

Some anonymous 17 year-old blogger getting his jollies...whoo hoo...real smoking gun stuff there Okie.[)]

[okiebybirth]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

quote:Originally posted by okiebybirth

From John at Americablog:

Denny Hastert has put me in a difficult position.

I've heard rumors. Unsubstantiated talk. No proof yet. But I've heard things. Just like I heard things about Mark Foley this past July. This time I've heard things about a relatively senior Republican member of the House, and also about someone on the Speaker's own staff. Both rumors seem relevant to this story as it's unfolding.

So here's my dilemma. Denny Hastert says that if I don't report the unsubstantiated allegations I've heard, I'm a criminal. But the thing is, I'm also a journalist, and a good human being. I don't think it's right to print unsubstantiated rumors I've heard, rumors that could make life quite difficult for this Republican congressman and this senior member of Hastert's staff.

So what do I do? Do I publish unsubstantiated rumors about a GOP congressman and one of Denny Hastert's top aides? I don't want to, I don't think it's right, but Denny Hastert says he'll sic the FBI on me for hurting children if I don't. And he'll probably end up blaming Nancy Pelosi if my rumors turn out to be true and I didn't go public with them.

So what do I do? Maybe I'll just call Denny Hastert's office on Monday, tell them what I've heard, and let them decide how comfortable they are with the Speaker's new standard of justice.

Some anonymous 17 year-old blogger getting his jollies...whoo hoo...real smoking gun stuff there Okie.[)]

Not to imply there is smoking evidence, but I do think we are going to see closeted Republicans outed.  It's all hearsay at this point, I agree.  But it does puzzle me why his wife would stay at a hotel while she is in Washington?

[Conan71]

My guess is the missus doesn't like the smell of dirty gym socks at the townhouse [?]

Do you have personal knowledge of Mrs. Hastert's sleeping habits in D.C?

If there is a mass outing, I'm sure the GOP will have their own mass-outing of leftie hetero conservative christians. [:O]

Why does anyone give a schnitzengruber about this petty crap when congress is spending money like drunken sailors, lobbyists and special interests are taking precidence over your own interests, there is dissention amongst the ranks on national security, we still have no energy policy, etc.?

[Chicken Little]

CNN -- Hastert seems to be positioning his senior staff as fall-guys for a coverup...they hid it from him, or so the story goes.

Anybody believe that?

[okiebybirth]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

My guess is the missus doesn't like the smell of dirty gym socks at the townhouse [?]

Do you have personal knowledge of Mrs. Hastert's sleeping habits in D.C?

If there is a mass outing, I'm sure the GOP will have their own mass-outing of leftie hetero conservative christians. [:O]

Why does anyone give a schnitzengruber about this petty crap when congress is spending money like drunken sailors, lobbyists and special interests are taking precidence over your own interests, there is dissention amongst the ranks on national security, we still have no energy policy, etc.?

From the Chicago-Sun Times:

Just ran into Jean Hastert, the wife of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) in the hallway outside the speakers' Capitol office suite. She just dropped in on her husband.

It's a rare D.C. appearence for Mrs. Hastert. She was here a few weeks ago for President Bush's State of the Union address. She was off to an afternoon tea, at an ambassador's residence, sponsored by some international group.

When in Washington, the speaker lives in a group house with his chief of staff, Scott Palmer and top deputy, Mike Stokke.

I asked her if she is bunking with the guys.

She is not. She stays in a hotel.

This was published on Valentine's Day.
______________________________________________

Chief of staffs normally don't room with the boss, and I could care less unless someone is caught up in something they either hid or was careless not to notice or investigate.

I'm not particularly friends with Haskert or his wife, do you have personal knowledge of anything being said? I think we all read the news and I haven't heard anyone say they have any personal knowledge on this subject.

[okiebybirth]

quote:Originally posted by Chicken Little

CNN -- Hastert seems to be positioning his senior staff as fall-guys for a coverup...they hid it from him, or so the story goes.

Anybody believe that?

Family Research Council believes it:

To: Friends of Family Research Council
From: Family Research Council President Tony Perkins
October 9, 2006 - Monday

Party of Whose Values?

The ricochets of the Foley scandal continued to whistle overhead this weekend. As a guest on Fox News Sunday I again raised last week's report by CBS's Gloria Borger about anger on Capitol Hill that "'a network of gay staffers and gay members protect[ed] each other and did the Speaker a disservice'" in the Foley scandal. On Friday, an internet site quoted a "gay politico" observing that "[m]aybe now the social conservatives will realize one reason why their agenda is stalled on Capitol Hill." Sunday's New York Times revealed that a homosexual former Clerk of the House of Representatives, Jeff Trandahl, was "among the first to learn of Mr. Foley's" messages to pages. The Clerk's job is described as a "powerful post with oversight of hundreds of staffers and the page program." This raises yet another plausible question for values voters: has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members and or staffers? When we look over events of this Congress, we have to wonder. This was the first House to pass a pro-homosexual hate crimes bill. The marriage protection amendment was considered very late in the term with no progress toward passage. Despite overwhelming popular approval, the party seldom campaigns as the defender of marriage. The GOP will have to decide whether it wants to be the party that defends the traditional moral and family values that our nation was built upon and directed by for two centuries. Put another way, does the party want to represent values voters or Mark Foley and friends?

I hope this is not the direction Haskert is going to take.

[papaspot]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Why does anyone give a schnitzengruber about this petty crap when congress is spending money like drunken sailors, lobbyists and special interests are taking precidence over your own interests, there is dissention amongst the ranks on national security, we still have no energy policy, etc.?

For the same reason anyone paid attention to Clinton's misbehavior--it's the nature of the beast to make everything possible out of the foibles of the opposition. 'Course the shoe's on the other foot now and some of the same people that were morally outraged by Clinton's behavior are now saying that this is no big deal. I can't help wondering if maybe some Democrats are feeling just a bit of sweet payback.

[jamesrage]

quote:Originally posted by Chicken Little

Jamesrage,

I think you and I are in agreement in that those who put those children at risk should be held accountable.

But you should really think through what you are saying.  Do I think that those previous incidents involving Republicans and Democrats are okay?  Of course not.  Nor do I think that prior screw-ups and mishandlings are a legitimate defense for a coverup of Foley's actions.

And I would agree that pedophilia is a distateful subject, but that is in no way an excuse to ignore it.

And homosexuality and pedophilia are seperate, unrelated behaviors.  Pedophilia is not liberal behavior, its mental illness, it harms children, and nobody's defending it.

You've also tried to blame the so-called, "liberal media".  Tell me, Jamesrage, what exactly are they getting wrong here?  Or is it that you simply wish that they would forget about it and help sweep it under the rug as the Republicans are trying to do?

You've given four bad excuses for why the Republican leadership took no action to protect these children.  You left out the "blame the children" defense, btw.  

I am not excusing any behavior.I just think the hypocritical democrats who are pretending to be all sanctimonious in this situation need to be knocked off thier high horse.The media should expose the pedophiling vermon in office they should also expose the hypocrits in office who let off other pedophilers who are now pretending to be want something actually done about Foley.If Foley was a democrat they wouldn't give two ****s about Foley.As I said before I am confident the republicans will actually do something about the vermon in their ranks,unlike the democrats who have a history of letting these vermon off the hook.

[rwarn17588]

So what exactly is a "vermon"?

[}:)]

[NellieBly]

What the heck is a pedophiler?

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

What the heck is a pedophiler?

I believe that's a phile clerk who organizes philes on a bicycle.

[okiebybirth]

A source with firsthand knowledge of events says that this coming Thursday, Kirk Fordham — former chief of staff to both Foley and more recently Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y. — will testify that a few years ago he was told by then-House clerk Jeff Trandahl that Foley had been stopped while trying to enter the pages' dorm in an apparently intoxicated state. The source said Fordham will testify that he recalls this being the event that convinced both him and Trandahl to warn Hastert's office, with Fordham designated to have the conversation with Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer. The source said that both aides had been watching Foley's behavior with pages and that Fordham had counseled Foley to watch his behavior.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2550501&page=1