Republican Sleaze
Tales of lobbyist influence in Congress and the White House continue to bedevil the Republicans. Karl Rove’s office is increasingly being linked to the Abramoff scandal. This week, Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned after news of inappropriate and sexually explicit emails and instant messages he sent to Congressional Pages were revealed in the press. Foley is obviously in need of help and his disgrace is not the issue. The allegations revealed all too typical Republican attitudes toward publicly saying one thing while privately doing its opposite. Foley built his reputation on ‘protecting’ children while publicly castigating sexual predators. He is the Chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus!
Even more reprehensible, the Republican leadership found out that there were improprieties at the beginning of 2006. Their first instinct, which lasted until this week’s breaking news, was to verbally tell Foley to stay away from the pages, and then do everything they could to insure that this news did not become public. Foley remained the head of the caucus and the visual face of the Republican concern for abused children.
Speaker Hastert stated publicly that he first learned of this event this week until other Republicans forced him into telling the truth. Initially he seemed content to allow Representative Tom Reynolds (R-NY), Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee be blamed for not following through on the original information. But Reynolds decided not to be the fall guy and informed the press that he had notified Hastert early in 2006.
Most revealing, the head of the House group responsible for oversight of the Page program, chose not to tell the one Democrat in the group, nor the other Republican. Instead of going to the House Republican leadership, he chose to inform Reynolds. Rahn Emanuel (D-Ill.), Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee got to the heart of the issue when he said "that's to protect a member, not to protect a child." This reveals real Republican values - do anything as long as it gets you elected.
Today in one of the more amazing political statements ever made, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) issued a request that his Senatorial campaign be judged on issues not character, admitting that the character issues that are derailing his reelction can't be overcome. For six years we have had 'values' thrown at us as if only Republican candidates had them. What they really have had is the ability to mislead the American public into believing this. The same misleading rhetoric that they have used regarding terrorism and Iraq, which is being exposed with new revelations, is now also showing up their claims about values.
Even more reprehensible, the Republican leadership found out that there were improprieties at the beginning of 2006. Their first instinct, which lasted until this week’s breaking news, was to verbally tell Foley to stay away from the pages, and then do everything they could to insure that this news did not become public. Foley remained the head of the caucus and the visual face of the Republican concern for abused children.
Speaker Hastert stated publicly that he first learned of this event this week until other Republicans forced him into telling the truth. Initially he seemed content to allow Representative Tom Reynolds (R-NY), Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee be blamed for not following through on the original information. But Reynolds decided not to be the fall guy and informed the press that he had notified Hastert early in 2006.
Most revealing, the head of the House group responsible for oversight of the Page program, chose not to tell the one Democrat in the group, nor the other Republican. Instead of going to the House Republican leadership, he chose to inform Reynolds. Rahn Emanuel (D-Ill.), Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee got to the heart of the issue when he said "that's to protect a member, not to protect a child." This reveals real Republican values - do anything as long as it gets you elected.
Today in one of the more amazing political statements ever made, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) issued a request that his Senatorial campaign be judged on issues not character, admitting that the character issues that are derailing his reelction can't be overcome. For six years we have had 'values' thrown at us as if only Republican candidates had them. What they really have had is the ability to mislead the American public into believing this. The same misleading rhetoric that they have used regarding terrorism and Iraq, which is being exposed with new revelations, is now also showing up their claims about values.
posted by John Weiss at 5:05 PM
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