Tuesday, October 03, 2006

My Letter to Dennis Hastert

I'm disgusted by the recent revelations of sexually-explicit emails sent from Representative Mark Foley to young men serving as House pages. I'm also a little astonished at his ignorance -or hubris. Are there really people who still don't understand that e-mail is public? He's not just a predator; he's a dumb one.

I'm equally dismayed, however, that the leadership of the House (and let's review who THAT is... oh! You!) seems to have tried to cover this scandal up for months, if not years. It's simply disgraceful. In some states, if you are aware of potential sexual abuse of a minor and fail to report it, you can be found guilty of a crime.

When Bill Clinton had an affair, which arguably harmed only him and his wife, there was an impeachment. The least you can do in this situation of sexual impropriety that harmed more -and more vulnerable- people, is step down. But, before you go, have the integrity to call for Congress to come back into session and investigate this matter thoroughly. The American people deserve answers -- and we also deserve to know that you're taking the proper steps to protect the high school students in your care from child sex predators.

I look forward to your reply on this topic.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!" Hastert went on the Limboob's radio show this afternoon. His story now is that this whole scandal is just a partisan attempt to deny the Republicans their God-given right to a majority in Congress. Where's Zeus with a big ol' thunderbolt when you want him?

The good news is, the longer Fat Denny holds on, the longer this story stays at the top of the news cycle. And that can't be good for Republicans' chances five weeks from today. Recent polls taken even before Foleygate got going show Bush's numbers dropping back below 40% again, and Congress's approval ratings are somewhere south of those for used-car salesmen: especially if there happens to be an (R) after the name of the congress-critter in question. As I said over at my place tonight, Democrats didn't need to make up anything to flush the Republicans out of Congress--they were doing a bang-up job of it all by themselves. But since they've handed us this mess on a silver platter, you're damn right we're going to use it against them. Just as they would against us, if the shoe were on the other foot.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure this story will be spun into being the fault of the young boy - just as most rape cases are quickly morphed by the "liberal media" into being the woman's fault - whether because she actually might have had sex before, or because she was "being a tease," etc.

Mark my words- we'll be hearing about how this page "tempted" poor Mr. Foley before long. Someone will claim that the page probably set up the congressman so that he could get rich, or famous, etc.

Sad.

Lisa :-] said...

The contortions that the Republicans are going through to wipe this scandal off their shoes and smear it ON to the Democrats would be laughable if they weren't so blatantly disgusting. They have been dredging up everything from Bill Clinton to some guy in the House in the 90's to Chappaquiddick in an effort to spread the slime around. The state of our "government" is a complete abomination. And it goes far beyond and above Denny Hastert.

Lisa http://journals.aol.com/mlraminiak/ComingtotermswithMiddleAge/