AP has a list of Repuke "excuses" for Foley's not being fired earlier.

[MrCoffee]

"At the Capitol, Republicans spent the night trying to explain how this could have happened on their watch.

Among the explanations during the night:

_The congressional sponsor of the page, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., said he was asked by the youth's parents not to pursue the matter, so he dropped it.

_Alexander said that before deciding to end his involvement, he passed on what he knew to the chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y. Reynolds' spokesman, Carl Forti, said the campaign chairman also took no action in deference to the parents' wishes.

_Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the Page Board that oversees the congressional work-study program for high schoolers, said he did investigate but Foley falsely assured him he was only mentoring the boy. Pages are high school students who attend classes under congressional supervision and work as messengers.

_The spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert, Ron Bonjean, said the top House Republican had not known about the allegations. Shimkus said he learned about them in late 2005."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060930/ap_on_go_co/congressman_e_mails;_ylt=AkxxtkpVKS.xx5nfZbzlf5ayFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--


Edited to remove some Yahoo News links that didn't work in the cut & paste.

[Warpy]

1. "asked by the youth's parents NOT to pursue it????"

My guess is that a considerable amount of money had to have changed hands for that one, enough to put the "youth" all the way through grad school.

This one stinks on so many levels.

[MrCoffee]

4. Here's Rodney Alexander's statement about that...

Alexander said the boy notified a staffer in his office about the e-mails. The congressman said he learned of it from a reporter 10 or 11 months ago and promptly called the boy's parents.

"My concern then was the young man's interests and the parents' interests," Alexander said Friday. "We weren't trying to protect anybody except the parents. ... They told me they were comfortable with it and didn't want to pursue anything, didn't want to talk about it anymore."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15063977/

[catnhatnh]

13. So really

The boy notified his staffer who told him nothing, sometime PRIOR to a reporter telling him 10 to 12 months ago-what is the staffers status after failing to report a FELONY??? or is THE REAL TIMELINE LONGER???

[TrogL]

15. "weren't trying to protect anybody except the parents"

What about the kid?

Any parent failing to protect a child from sexual harassment is guilty of child abuse.

[Seen the light]

6. I actually think it's quite understandable

Since this story came out, the kid's full name, hometown, Xanga blog, and Myspace have been plastered all over the Internet in different places. Combine that with the fact that he talks graphically (truthfully or not) about his private masturbation techniques, well, I think I can understand them not wanting this.

[DemPopulist]

17. That's a different kid

n/t

[kskiska]

23. He's probably also being deluged with calls from the TV networks

wanting him to appear on everything from Oprah to Nancy Grace. BTW, Hannity and Colmes had nothing on the story Friday night.

[rainbow4321]

14. So the parents were letting him free to pursue OTHER boys?

Nice folks :mad: :wtf: :grr: They should be charged with obstructing justice, accomplice, etc.. for covering it up. Anyone look up their name on newsmeat.com yet? To see if they were gave $$ to Foley's campaign?

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Makes you wonder how many more perverts

they are covering up for?

[Subdivisions]

3. None of that floats. Not even the parents request. No one will get

me to believe that parents of a child who has risen to the prostegious appointment of Congressional page would not want action taken on this.

[yurbud]

7. depends on their own political proclivities or business ties...

if they are wealthy and need the republicans to carry their water, that could complicate their response--"What's more important, stopping a middle age man from hitting on 16 year old boys or getting rid of those pesky environmental laws? It is so hard to decide!"

[valerief]

9. Excellent point. nt

[MrCoffee]

8. Bizzare as it is, i think it's a common reaction to try to sweep it under

the rug. I'd want to kick the everloving shit out of some pervert doing that to my kid, but I get the impression that this isn't that uncommon a response.

[yurbud]

5. Every Republican who knew about it and remained silent should get

a campaign ad highlighting this.

"When we send our children to Washington to see how our democracy works, we don't expect our elected officials to treat them like their own private sex dolls. But that is exactly what Rep. Foley did. And when Dennis Hastert found out about it, what did he do? Nothing. For a year. Foley wanted to do to that teenager what the Republicans have been doing to America for the last six. These guys don't belong in congress--they belong in prison."

[marions ghost]

20. right, there's a definite parallel

"Foley wanted to do to that teenager what the Republicans have been doing to America for the last six..."

It's acceptable to be a predator among Republicans. Just bidness. Seduce Americans of a certain mindset to do your bidding. Seduce vulnerable children to do your bidding...

When people have no sense of ethical boundaries, predation is seen as normal behavior. I doubt Hasdirt was seriously appalled. He was just worried about the political fallout.

[yurbud]

22. What the Republicans did to Iraqis with mop handles, they are doing to us

with legislation designed to make us a Third World country economically and in terms of civil liberties.

[marions ghost]

24. I couldn't agree more

some abuse is obviously more direct than other forms of abuse, but it's all coming from the same place--the same urge to dominate, to crush others, to wield unchecked power. There is the same lack of boundaries, lack of empathy, lack of self control. Abusing can easily become habitual, addictive.

We must redefine the meaning of "leader," politician, government service. And undo as much of this damage they have done as possible.

[MADem]

10. Ha, surfing past FAUX they just tried to say they were "on the case"

GOP aggressively investigating, and heads DID roll, they claimed....and of course, they blamed the boy's PARENTS in a snide aside, saying "well, they didn't WANT to pursue it...!!!"

Bright spot--the idiot doing the FAUX NEWS ALERT didn't sound like he believed what he was saying. He had a little tremor in his voice, like he was trying to eat shit and call it chocolate ice cream!

I clicked away when they went on to some shit about how great it's going in Eye-Rack.

[rocktivity]

11. TORO TURD!

I can certainly understand the parents' fear of the resulting publicity. But certainly the GOP could have taken action directly against Foley without getting the parents involved. And they should have because they KNEW it wasn't an isolated incident.

:headbang:
rocknation

[onethatcares]

12. at least the Lafavre defense hasn't come out yet.

although I was under the impression that child predation was a crime here in sunny florida. A "zero tolerance" thing.

[rocktivity]

16. Maybe Foley was working undercover

Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect.

"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said.

First, Dog Chapman gets busted for being a bail-jumping fugitive, and now this. And it certainly explains the tepid reaction of the organization that America's Most Wanted's John Walsh began--he and Foley must have been, uh, very close.

And here's something else that Foley has said. Bill Clinton must be laughing himself sick.

:headbang:
rocknation

[BrotherBuzz]

18. The parents can decline to pursue a civil case against Foley but....

do they have any say about a criminal case? Maybe I'm missing something here. :shrug:

[CoffeeCat]

19. Criminal/civil matters are ONE THING...

So what, if the parents decided not to pursue civil or criminal charges.

That's a moot point!

The central point here is---why did Rep Alexander allow Foley to continue on as a United States Congressman? Trolling for teenage boys, using sexually explicit language, isn't grounds for asking a United States Congressman to resign?

Help me out here. I'm try really hard to understand why several United States Congressmen allowed Mark Foley to remain in Congress, after he engaged in pedophile behavior with teenage boys.

How do they explain that? So what if the parents didn't want to "pursue it". Do you just allow Foley to represent this country--and possibly find new young victims?

Keeping quiet was more important than stopping child abuse?

WTF?

[Junkdrawer]

21. My dog ate the complaint..I had a flat tire...Some friends came in...

from out of town....



It wasn't my fault.