Where's The House Leadership Investigation?

by DemFromCT

Sexual predator cover-up? Abuse of power by congressmen labelled R? What's going on here - and how will we know? Right now, there are two criminal investigations (one by the FBI and one by FL that hasn't gotten started yet) called for by Hastert.

What's the ethics committee doing? When will they do it? is hastert investigating who leaked the Ims or what really happened when leadership was told? Is this an election year stall?

These are important questions to clarify. Unlike leadership, all the D's (and Rs lower on the food chain like Peter King and Chris Shays) are calling for action. If anyone in leadership sat on these, they'll have to resign.

Foley Scandal Sends Tremors Through Other House Races

ABC News' affiliate in Palm Beach, Fla., received a fax from Foley Sunday night, saying he had entered an alcohol treatment facility and was sorry for the harm he had caused.

But the focus is quickly shifting from what Foley did to what House Republican leaders did — or, more to the point, did not do — after they learned of another contact Foley had with a former House page still in his teens.

It is a politically-charged issue.

"Voters in an election season have a right to know what the leaders in Congress did," said Rep. Jane Harmon (D-Calif.). "What they knew and when they knew and what they did.

And what they didn't do.

[UPDATE]: Add Heather Wilson and Rob Simmons to the low food chain R's worried about this taint. Where's Nancy Johnson?

[UPDATE]: Add Fitzpatrick in PA. And the eagerly awaited Note spin is this:

This is how ABC News' George Stephanopoulos dissected the politics of the Foley affair on this morning's "Good Morning America": "Right now it's a category 3 hurricane and it's picking up steam. Republicans all across the country are getting questions about it. But here's the key question: Did any Republican leaders know about those x-rated emails that" ABC's Brian Ross "is talking about? If they did, it's game over. The leadership will have to resign. It will cost Republicans control of Congress. As one top GOP aide told me this morning, 'the place will burn down'."

Yet from the public's perspective, it's much simpler:

Here's how one senior Democratic aide summed up the Foley situation this morning for The Note: "The R's desperately want this to be about whether or not they knew of the sexually explicit e-mails/I.M.'s.

"Most parents we talked to over the weekend (including my own conservative R mom) feel the issue is that the R's were given and ignored a huge warning with the first set of e-mails."

"Had there been an investigation at that time, the sexually explicit emails may have been uncovered. But, Members lost that opportunity when the R's chose to protect Foley instead of those kids."

The Old Media and the liberal bloggers share that attitude, and Republican strategists know it.

Comments

[DemFromCT]

from the ABC link:

Republicans Critical of Leadership

Even some House Republicans were critical of their leaders.

"We should be rushing to get all the facts out," said Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) "Certainly anyone in the Republican leadership, any member of the Congress who knew anything about this should tell exactly what they knew and when they knew it."

"If it were my child or grandchild and I heard it happened, I'd be absolutely furious," said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). "I'm sure the American people are reacting the same way."

...

"It's another problem the House Republicans have to deal with on top of all the other stuff they've been buried under over the last two years," Rothenberg said. "It's more evidence of confusion among the House Republicans as they point fingers at each other."

[DemFromCT]

reality check from First Read:

On the House side, the fast-growing scandal surrounding electronic messages sent by Foley to male teenage pages threatens much more than Foley's formerly safe seat. It conveys a politically risky sense of entitlement among the majority party just weeks before election day. It also has the potential to revive a perception, created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, that Republicans don't know how to govern; to deflate the party's conservative base; and to undermine any efforts by the party to play the moral values card over the next five weeks. And it has had House Republicans giving conflicting accounts of who knew what and when.

[recentdemocrat]

Over 2400 news stories according to Google. The later ones are focusing on 'who knew what when?". Halls of power, sexual predators, coverup. This is going to be a circus. A nice simple story that the media excels at.
Even the Christian conservatives are going to be forced to come out strongly or risk being seen as out of touch. Remember the Windsors when Diana died? They were forced via public opinion to acknowledge her death and join the national displays of grief even though they found it distasteful to be honoring their strongest critic.

[oldtree]

I am afraid that we are seeing business as usual. Resign? the only people that have resigned are ones that have been indicted, or have a conscience and have quit because they couldn't stand it any more. Foley has to quit now so he can use his campaign fund for his defense. Think he is giving back money to the Pubs they gave him for his erection? not too likely with what he is going to go through. Foley must have it real bad, he resigned before he had to, this is the first such indicator that he is in deep, and he has a lot of other friends. Now we must count those taking bribes from abramoff and those members of nambla. the Marianna island sex trade may have gotten a lot closer together? Does congressman Ralph Hall know Mark Foley for example? Mr. Hall is on the record as being in favor of forced child prostitution. He has been to the Marianna's and may be physically involved, not just getting paid to say nasty things about the victims of the child sex trade?
our american values. there may be some suicides now, some that will flee to countries they know are okay with rendition and such. the ones that will take payment for asylum (like the USA)

where is our federal law enforcement? state? why are they not arresting people and jailing them as dangerous?
wonder if the meat puppet is channeling josep stalin now instead of ronnie? and the baghdad curfew has been extended for a month?
will we get out alive?

[Mimikatz]

There are a lot of suggestions that this was known about Foley since 2001. Tom DeLay was in power during most of this period, along with Hastert. DeLay knew every weakness and pressure point of every GOP Congressmember. The House Clerk's office clearly knew a lot as well. Look for an impact on all races involving leadership, especially Reynolds in NY-25 and Pryce in OH-15, plus Hastert himself.

I think the simple theme is as suggested, "If they can't take care of the young peoople in their own House how can the take care of the country?"

[Crab Nebula]

The mom's are right....."why didn't they do anything before?" What I think this will do is lose even more of the women vote. And many partisans may just not vote in disgust (probably more than would switch a vote).

I think this could even affect the '08 R WH race....I think the religious right will actually be strengthened. They will want one of their own more than ever to clean up the moral mess. I can hear it now: "Our party has strayed from the path, but only with righteousness can we return to that path......" Who else can articulate a "we know the way back to the garden" message? Fundamentalists or hardcore anti-governmental types. The losers? Moderates of all stripes.

[Peacerme]

From my point of view, a very good argument could be made about hypocrisy. It's pretty obvious that they have said one thing and done another. The right wing looks more and more like a cover for anti social behavior. Don't you know that they've all been saved and many have backgrounds of past crimes and abuses...they turn to religion as a way out, but funny how often times the behavior does not go away despite religion.

[mainsailset]

If indeed there were members of House leadership that were aware as far back as '01 that Foley had this problem, then their choice to promote him to a committee leadership position despite that knowledge points to a profoundly misguided set of American values, not to mention an inyourface disregard under the roof of the Congress for American law.

[DemFromCT]

Abuse of power, hypocricy, inability to govern, inability to put the interests of the children first.

This is not going away.

[smiley]

Denny presser starting now?

[Peacerme]

Wayne Madsen (who reads like the national inquirer) has an interesting story that combines the sexual abuse that has gone on in some of this "interrogations" and absolutely occured at abu ghraib. Again, it's a interesting thought. We heard about one boy who was sexually abused as his father watched in an effort to get him to talk. (guantanamo bay) It continues to tug me. Those pictures in abu ghraib so many, were sexually explicit. I never heard of our military using sexual abuse to interrogate before Bush??? I know rape occured, and that the military has sometimes had trouble with this but it does make me wonder about a very sick republican party. Very sick. There is a bigger pattern here, that deserves some attention.

[Meteor Blades]

The National Enquirer does better fact-checking than Wayne Madsen, but that is another story.

A concern many bloggers have had from the beginning of this scandal - as confirmed by the rantings at Powerline - is that there will be a concerted media effort to turn this thing into a gay=predator theme.

Moreover, as Bob Johnson notes in a very personal Diary at DKos:

Anyway, some of the discussion on dkos on this matter seemed to be missing the point that the victims are the ones to worry about. And they need justice. Even if these guys seem fine with this stuff now, I know they will be angry as they get older, particularly if Foley skates and his enablers remain untouched.

It's all about the justice and the guilty ones facing consequences for their actions. That goes for the perpetrator and those who covered for him.

[rukus]

You know, when the US government began practising and codifying the practice of torture, I thought that it was the slide down to the legalization of rape, etc.

But now I realize that the legalization of torture was the result of the acceptance of child sexual molestation by those in charge.

Boy, did I get that one mixed up!

[DemFromCT]

joe negron will be the R candidate in FL-16, with Foley on the ballot. A vote for Foley is a vote for Nnegron. Or, if you want Negron you have to vote for the Republican sexual predator who resigned in disgrace.

MB's point is noted. This isn't about Foley, it's about the House leadership and what steps they did or did not take to protect the kids.

[Jodi]

Meteor Blades,

you are correct. That is a slippery slope. That is what I have been trying to make a subtle point about.

As for Bob Johnson's point. I would caution against pressure to drag reluctant "victims" out in the harsh light of this mess. I see multiple purposes at work here. The demand for justice for victims may be legitimate but it may also be fueled by political motives.

The pages (according to interviewers) knew that Foley had sent at least a "few" explicit emails. They talk among themselves. They didn't want to tip the boat because then their references (Page for congress) and connections as well as their reputations would be tarnished, whether they had direct or even email contact with Foley or not. Also Foley was well liked by the pages. All this they have said, and like a lot of you I shake my head, but I do respect their wish for privacy.

[vachon]

It will be interesting to watch Keith Olberman tonight to see the official framing of this scandal and then how it's framed by KO. KO's forte is his "common sense" approach to being very outraged. Should be instructive to say the least.

[DemFromCT]

Jodi, y'know there is a POV that says that elections and politics allows for doing what's right - without the opposition political pressure, doing what's right would not happen. Dismissing it as 'politics' (you didn't, but many will) misses that major point. You see it when some journalists say that without a Dem rebutting an R charge or point, they can't write about it or challenge it (it's not their job to be the news).

[DemFromCT]

Timing is everything.

from AARP:

In the last three weeks of polling, the percentage of respondents undecided on how they will vote in U.S. House of Representatives races dropped from 70 percent to 59 percent. The same is true of U.S. Senate races with those undecided dropping from 60 percent to 52 percent.

[CLK]

The Repugs are so busy trying to save their own skins they have not reverted to form by blaming it all on Bill Clinton.

Wonder how long it will be before Hastert resigns.

Rove's head must be doing 360s-wish I coud see that.

[Jodi]

There are a lot of people working on the Republican "message."

But some people on the liberal side can't help the knee jerk "Rove."

I fear for their very dreams.

[DemFromCT]

Actually, I agree. Rove's a jerk, and not that smart. give him credit for the 72 hour GOTV, though this scandal blows it away. The social conservative troops are not happy.

[hauksdottir]

If Hastert and Boener and Reynolds quit, can we call it...

EX-FOLEY-ATION?

It is a wickedly precise pun on so many levels.