The Republicans keep claiming Foleygate boils down to just emails ("he's really in good shape") versus IMs (
"take off your boxer shorts"... "cute butt bouncing in the air"... "don't forget to measure {your penis}"...
"i want to see you"... "then what happens").
(Never mind that once ABC had the "overly friendly" emails, it took them about a day to get the "overtly sexual" IMs as well. Memo to Hastert: that's what's called "investigating". You ought to try it sometime, instead of covering your eyes and ears and doing your best
Sargent Schulz imitation.)
But aside from the emails and the IMs, Shimkus, Hastert and the rest of
the Republican leadership also let Foley take a page out on a friggin' "date" to Morton's steakhouse in Foley's BMW -- after they knew for years about Foley's "page problem", from emails -- emails which the page himself had described as "sick sick sick". They turned a blind eye to it -- probably for three reasons: (1) they didn't want to lose the seat, and (2) it was probably convenient to them to be able to reward Foley this way by giving him access to "
our pages", and (3) their leniency with him (and the possibility that they could take it away at any minute) would have bought a lot of loyalty from him. (The implicit threat of blackmail is a great way to ensure party unity!) What I'm saying is: Shimkus and Hastert BENEFITED from Foley's page problem, they actively worked to provide him with access to "
our pages", they actively worked to both keep it under wraps and also to indulge it from time to time. Hastert and Shimkus could easily face
conspiracy charges for giving a person they knew to be a potential sex predator access to minors who worked for them and who they were supposed to be protecting.
So there's three things going on here: the emails, the IMs, and the "date" in at the dimly-lit, mahogany-paneled powerbroker steakhouse which they "cruise to" in Foley's BMW -- by his own admission, in a
public speech! They let Foley take that page on a date knowing about his inappropriate emails already, which would have been reason enough to block him from taking that kid out on a date. And they would have known about the IMs too if they had investigated the emails instead of covering them up.
Shimkus and Hastert are going to both have to resign from Congress -- just over what's been revealed so far. And there probably are still, so to speak, a few more shoes about to drop.
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