Hastert Made Same Mistakes With Foley As He Did With Delay

Mark Foley delayed a house vote on HR 1559, Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations, to have internet sex.

Maf54: ok..i better go vote..did you know you would have this effect on me
Teen: lol I guessed
Teen: ya go vote…I don't want to keep you from doing our job
Maf54: can I have a good kiss goodnight
Teen: :-*
Teen:

In other news, Dennis Hastert tells Rush Limbaugh it's a Democrat smear campaign. Hastert even invokes 9/11.

But, you know, this is a political issue in itself, too, and what we’ve tried to do as the Republican Party is make a better economy, protect this country against terrorism — and we’ve worked at it ever since 9/11, worked with the president on it — and there are some people that try to tear us down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well.

If you say Hastert didn't do enough to stop Foley then you are helping the terrorists.

Hastert is so detached from reality. He viewed Foley through the same rose-colored glasses as Tom Delay. Hastert changed the ethics rules to keep Delay as Majority Leader. Covering scandals are part of business for Hastert. The Speaker is going down the same road as Delay. Hastert is refusing to step down. Already, other Republicans in the House are turning on Foley. Case in point is John Boehner. The number 2 Republican in the House.

``I believe I had talked to the speaker and he told me it had been taken care of,'' Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told Cincinnati 700 WLW Radio this morning. ``It's in his corner, it's his responsibility.''

President Bush is showing his usual bad instincts by backing Hastert. The Republicans need Hastert to disappear for the good of their party. Americans need Hastert gone for the good of the country.

Update: Hastert's story is constantly changing. On Friday, Hastert said he was not aware of the original Foley email. Now he does not dispute that Tom Reynolds told him about the Foley email.

"Rodney Alexander brought to my attention the existence of the e-mails between Mark Foley and a former page of Mr. Alexander's," Reynolds said Saturday. "Despite the fact that I had not seen the e-mails in question, and Mr. Alexander told me that the parents didn't want the matter pursued, I told the speaker of the conversation Mr. Alexander had with me."

Hastert's office knew about the email late 2005. Hastert contends he doesn't remember the conversation with Reynolds. It does seem obvious that Republicans knew that the Foley email was a political problem.

Republicans appeared to have kept the matter tightly under wraps. Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan, the only Democratic lawmaker on the page board, said Saturday: "I was never informed of the allegations about Mr. Foley's inappropriate communications with a House page, and I was never involved in any inquiry into this matter."

Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, questioned Saturday why Alexander had gone to the House Republicans' chief political operative rather than to other party leaders. "That's to protect a member, not to protect a child," Emanuel said.

Rep. John Shimkus questioned Foley and Foley said he didn't do anything wrong. Did they expect him to say anything else? Why didn't Republicans question the page? What bothers me is that pages were warned in 2001 to stay away from Foley. That leaves two questions.

1. Why did the Republican leadership not know about Foley preying on teens for so long?

2. If they did, then why didn't they do anything about it?

Either question is disturbing.