October 20, 2006
October 18, 2006
THE CAFFERTY FILES
October 15, 2006
Republican Hastert continues to Lie as Truth mounts,...
Foley
'confronted in 2000'
A Republican colleague of disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley confronted him about his e-mails with teenagers as early as 2000, a US newspaper reports.
A young congressional worker had shown Jim Kolbe inappropriate messages from Mr Foley, the Washington Post said.
The report comes as a congressional panel investigates claims Republican leaders knew of Mr Foley's explicit e-mails years ago, but took no action.
The scandal is dominating politics ahead of mid-term elections next month.
Correspondents say that if claims the Republican leadership knew about Mr Foley's messages were to be proven, he party's chances of holding on to Congress after the poll would be greatly reduced.
On Saturday the head of the Republican House campaign committee launched a TV commercial in which he apologise for not doing more to "catch his [Mr Foley's] lies".
Tom Reynolds repeated his claim that he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert about Mr Foley's behaviour in the spring.
"I trusted that others had investigated. Looking back, more should have been done, and for that, I'm sorry," Mr Reynolds said.
Mr Hastert has apologised over the row, denied any early knowledge of the e-mails and ruled out resigning.
'Corrective action'
Mr Foley, a member of the House caucus on missing and exploited children, resigned last month following recent revelations that he had sent lurid e-mails to young male staff.
The Washington Post report suggests his communications with pages - high school students appointed to help with administrative work in the House - were known to other lawmakers five years earlier than previously acknowledged.
A spokeswoman for Mr Kolbe told the newspaper that a former page had shown the Arizona congressman internet messages from Mr Foley, saying they had made him uncomfortable.
Mr Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline, told the Post that a Kolbe staff member advised the page last week to discuss the matter with the clerk of the House.
Ms Kline denied the messages were sexually explicit and said "corrective action" was taken, although she did not know whether that went beyond Mr Kolbe's confrontation with Mr Foley.
The ethics committee of the House of Representatives has launched an inquiry into who became aware of the allegations and when, although it has no jurisdiction over Mr Foley.
The youngest recipient of the suggestive e-mails is said to have been 16 years old.
Mr Foley - through his lawyer - has denied any sexual contact with minors.
© BBC MMVI
October 06, 2006
What kind of nation have we become?
The Real Foley Scandal is Much Bigger than Foley
By Dave Lindorff
By Dave Lindorff
It's a sad commentary on the state of American democracy, on the instincts of the American citizenry, and on the standards and judgement of the American newsmedia that the unsavory advances of a pathetic Florida congressman can have the nation in high dudgeon, while the ramming through of a patently illegal piece of legislation undermining a crucial 13th century civil liberty (habeas corpus), and the Fourth and Eithth Amendments of the constitution, and the secret planning for an illegal and catastrophic attack on Iran, both merit almost no complaint or mention.
Far be it from me to complain if Rep. Mark Foley's sexual obsession with teenage boys ends up sinking Republican hopes for hanging onto the House and Senate. But how sad that it would be if it is this, and the coverup of his crimes by the Republican leadership, that undoes the Bush administration, when its real crimes are of such grandeur and seriousness?
How are we to compare seeking to screw an underage youth with totally screwing the Constitution? How are we to compare secret email solicitations with a secret plot to attack a nation of 62 million that poses no immediate threat to the U.S.?
How are we to compare the Republican Party's cover-up of a member's efforts to corrupt young pages with the same party's conspiracy to cover up the Bush administration's ineptness and possible foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks, and of the campaign of lies and misinformation it used to drum up hysteria for an illegal and totally unwarranted invasion of Iraq?
How are we to compare the media feeding frenzy over the Foley scandal with the profound silence about Bush's Iran invasion planning, and with the deliberate brownout about information regarding a growing popular movement to impeach the president for his crimes?
And finally, how to we to compare the public revulsion over Foley's indescretions with the widespread acceptance or, or even support for abuse of American captives in the War in Afghanistan, the Iraq War, and the so-called "War" on Terror, which has included rape, sodemy, sexual humiliation and torture of all kinds, and murder--especially when it is known that the vast majority of those captives were either guilty of nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or of simply being honest fighters for their respective countries, deserving of decent treatment under the Geneva Convention, and of a fair hearing into the propriety of their detention?
What kind of nation have we become?
At least the Foley saga makes it clear why the farcical impeachment of Bill Clinton for his extramarital escapade moved forward through the House to a Senate trial, while George Bush, whose crimes far exceed those of any president before him, including Richard Nixon, and place the whole American experiment in jeopardy, has not even faced censure, much less a bill of impeachment.
Democratic Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid should be ashamed of themselves for leaping so boldly to the attack over Foley's crime and the Republican leadership's cover-up, while continuing to assert that there will be no effort to impeach the president for his own crimes even if they manage, with Foley's assistance, to wrest control of the House November 8.
The American media should be ashamed of themselves for wallowing in swill, when there is a cancer in the White House that is attacking the very foundations of the nation.
The American public should be ashamed for its sheer inanity and inattention to the responsibilities of citizenship.
Dave Lindorff <dlindorff@yahoo.com> has been working as a journalist for 33 years. Author, with Barbara Olshansky, of The Case for Impeachment: Legal Arguments for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (St. Martin's Press, June 2006), he is also the author of three earlier books--This Can't Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy (Common Courage Press, 2004), Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For Profit Hospital Chains (Bantam, 1992), an investigative report on the for-profit hospital industry, and Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Common Courage Press, 2003), the only independent examination of this important capital case. Visit his website http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/
CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK
Information Clearing House
CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK
October 02, 2006
The Perversions and Hypocrisy of Mark Foley and our Republican Congress
Republican Cover-Up Charge
over sex e-mails to boy, 16
BY JACQUI GODDARD IN MIAMI
BY JACQUI GODDARD IN MIAMI
REPUBLICAN Party leaders in the United States faced calls for an inquiry yesterday amid accusations they turned a blind eye to a Florida congressman who sent sexually explicit e-mails to a 16-year-old boy.
Mark Foley, 52, a deputy Republican whip, resigned last Friday following the revelations. Since then, it has emerged that he shared a series of salacious communications with at least two other messenger boys who worked on Capitol Hill.
Dennis Hastert, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, yesterday condemned Mr Foley's actions as "abhorrent" and "an obscene breach of trust", adding: "His immediate resignation must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."
But it has emerged that Mr Hastert was told about some of the e-mails months ago by congressman Thomas Reynolds, chairman of the Republican national congressional committee, who failed to pursue the matter.
The scandal has rocked Capitol Hill and left the Republican Party scrambling to limit the damage just weeks before the congressional elections, where they face losing their majority.
"Congressman Reynolds's inaction in the face of such a serious situation is very troubling and raises important questions about whether there was an attempt to cover up criminal activity involving a minor to keep it from coming to light before election day," said Karen Finney, spokesman for the Democratic national committee.
It emerged that several other members of the Republican leadership - including the House majority leader, John Boehner - also knew of the messages.
Mr. Foley could now be prosecuted under laws he helped enact as chairman of Congress's missing and exploited children's caucus, a role in which he often vowed to root out child predators.
Copyright 2006 The Scotsman
Actual 'Instant Message' Transcripts by Foley - ABC News
GOP Child Sex Ring Cover Up - The Washington Times
Related Article on Omaha Republican Sex Scandal
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