See no Evil. Hear no Evil. . .
The fact that Republicans in senior leadership positions knew about former Congressman Mark Foley’s interest in under-age Congressional pages and did not encourage him to get counseling or to investigate the content of electronic communications between Foley and these youths shows that the “values agenda” that Karl Rove unleashed during the last election cycle is and was bankrupt.
Hastert failed at a moment when leadership was required. He side-stepped a moral decision of importance.
This story is not going away soon, and I wish it would.
I don’t like to see Democrats winning on the cheap, and the Foley affair makes this battle feel like one that is being fought in gutter slime. But the Republican leadership brought this on itself; it wasn’t inflicted by Democrats.
Hastert and his close pals in the know on Foley deserve the shame, ridicule, and ultimately the disinterest in voting from their own constituents.
And just to remind all — Hastert, Foley and the rest would have deserved this siege whether Foley was talking to underage boys — or girls, something the Family Research Council has neglected to comment on.
— Steve Clemons
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