Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Foley Scandal, thus far...

Last night on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes show, Democratic strategist Bob Beckel said, “[the] fact that Mark Foley was gay should have raised questions about more innocuous emails.” I am a little amazed that this isn’t getting any coverage in the main stream media. I can understand why ABC wouldn’t want to air it. They have made a few mistakes with the Foley story in the last few days that now gives them a vested interest in it becoming a big deal. I am a little surprised some of the other news agencies and websites haven’t talked about it. I had to go to a few bloggers (including the Ace of Spades HQ) to find the exact quote after hearing about it on the Bennett in America broadcast this morning.

For a Democratic Strategist to get away with saying what Mr. Beckel said is unacceptable. Imagine if last night on CNN a prominent Republican had said something similar during a Democratic scandal. There would be MoveOn.org members in the streets this morning burning Bush in effigy (as we all know, the Democrats believe everything in the world that is bad is somehow Bush’s fault). In stead, very few people even know this exchange took place.

What Foley did was creepy, and disturbing. If he had sent these emails to my son, I would have wanted the police involved. However, with the information we have seen as of the time of this post, no laws have been broken. The Pages he sent the IM’s to were of the age of consent at the time. The emails that have surfaced were creepy, but not illegal. Foley has shown an incredible lack of judgment, he has admitted he needs help, and he has left in disgrace. Unless something new surfaces, this is probably where the story should end. Foley has done the right thing by resigning.

Speaker Hastert has also done the right thing. He has asked, and is getting a full investigation. Unless something new and incriminating surfaces, Speaker Hastert shouldn’t resign. Much like Foley, he hasn’t broken the law. Nothing that has shown up suggests that the Speaker should have done anything more than what he did. If evidence shows up that he knowingly endangered any Page, then throw the book at him. If this evidence doesn’t appear, then anyone calling for his resignation either doesn’t know the facts, or is just trying to create an October surprise in time for the November elections.

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