CapitolFax.com - Latest Comments in Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

AliceBlueGown — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:23:56 -0000

For once I agree with Mayor Daley. If Congressman resign because they covered up corruption, there would be nobody left in Congress!

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Charles Martel — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 09:52:52 -0000

This entire Foley incident is disgusting. I would expect this from the party of the Hollywood gang and the big labor bosses but not the party of the self righteous. Time for Mr. Foley to turn over a new page in his life.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

BonVoyageJohn — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:26:21 -0000

Sounds like John is preparing for his exit interview and/or session with teh FBI by trying to blame Dems.
Many are still wondering if John:

1. Talked to the parents that the pervert/drunk
wanted to ..... or yeah get a photo before or after ht talked with the pervert/drunk
2. thought talking to the GOP campaign committee chair (Reynolds) was better than calling the police or whoever checks out pervert/drunks in DC?

I am sure there will be more questions later in the day

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

notsofast — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:00:03 -0000

No, T.C., when someone says something on the record, in front of witnesses, that is easily, repeatedly, and incontrovertibly proven untrue, that someone is guilty of lying.

So that pretty much rules out the use of the term "allegation," which is a claim that is yet unproven.

Nice try though. What's next? An even more ridiculous attempt to divert attention from or muddle this scandal, say, a nationally televised attempt to misidentify Foley as a Democrat? Oh wait. Someone got there first: http://tinyurl.com/pjfz2

(be patient and try, try, again--that site is really slow tonight)

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

T. C. — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 22:14:35 -0000

It would seem that those are just allegations. That is probably the same thing that you would vehemently disclaim as being groundless when talking about the allegations against our illustrious governor.
Sorry that I cannot spar with you any more, but I have one of those things called a job that I must attend early in the a.m.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

RealClear — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:16:38 -0000

It's not about stringing anyone up T.C. It's about something called an election five weeks away, and about the kind of people we want running our country.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Troy News Guy — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:43:48 -0000

I'm still bothered that Shimkus is being kept quiet by the GOP machine. Refusing interviews from St. Louis radio stations he used to be in-studio for (KMOX and McGraw on KTRS) and no comment from his office. Just buying time as the GOP investigators start combing the Hill for every page ever.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

T. C. — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:35:34 -0000

RealClear that is called assuming. I haven't heard them as being facts. Let's stay open-minded, shall we.
As I recall from a previous posting, someone mentioned high level Democrats that had the information and did not turn it over to the L.E.O.s. If that is the case that could be considered withholding information dealing with a crime being committed. I am not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV (:)) but like I said, lets get all the facts before we string anybody up besides Foley.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Anon — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:32:47 -0000

Enough of the small talk, let's hear it from another Illinois Republican Congressman about how to responsibly and morally respond to this shocking matter and get down to what's really important, as reported this afternoon by Reuters:

"Illinois Rep. Ray LaHood told CNN (that) Republicans faced a challenge in winning back supporters and "we have to change the subject and get back to the issues that energize our base."

Whatta stand-up guy he is. Impressive. Impressively shallow and crass, that is.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

RealClear — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:14:53 -0000

Here's a simple fact:

Shimkus and Hastert would STILL be playing cover-up if ABC News hadn't forced their hand.

And that's the real problem here.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

T. C. — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 19:18:53 -0000

After reading NW burbs rambling diatribe at 11:03 a.m., it is so obvious that liberals still cannot get it through their heads that Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice. Not for giving Monica her presidential kneepads.
They also seem to believe tha all Republicans are guilty when one of them turns out to be a sleazeball. They seem to also have a short memory. I think it is called selective memory. How about Mel Reynolds, Gary Studds, Joe Biden, William Jefferson, and America's favorite lifeguard Ted (Chapaquidik) Kennedy. That doesn't make all Democrats guilty.
A person can pick out any demographic group, whether Democrat, Republican, Black, White, Right handed or Left handed and find a reprobate. That doesn't make all of them guilty by association.
I would like to hear the facts before I demand any resignations.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

BonVoyageJohn — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 18:18:26 -0000

Post Dispatch still looking for Shimkus...try Collinsville guys.
WGN radio had a guy who worked for Foley on this a.m. and he talking about being driven the airport and Foley rubbing his face and talking about a clean shave.
Maybe these guys can bring in the pope as a pr adviser.
anyone ask Shimkus for his emails yet?

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

annon — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 18:00:21 -0000

Yea !!! Typical liberal Dem responses.....fire them all & make them resign damn it !!! Is there no due process...ever once think that Ahhhh ! Shimkus , Hastert & others are telling the truth !!!! No because it's an election year & of the 435 house members, one screwed up so the whole bunch is guilty !!!???? So I know let's blame the party in the majority. What about Clinton ??? NO Dem's were calling for resignation then ...were they now. And we ALL know what that entailed....8 years of nothing but !!! It's sad that Foley has these problem{s} booze & kid tendacies & yes the children exploited is an inmeasurable degradation & I'm sure {as many will agree} devastating & appalling. By how on earth {without the benefit of fact} can anyone blame anyone else for this guys inappropriate behavior ???? Answer ! You can't. We don't know yet the extent & how far it's gone. Hastert & the boys are limited. Foley resigned ....good ridance ....so let's let law enforcement do it's thing...hell it might surprise you "resign mongers" to know at the end of it all they were telling the truth & maybe did ALL they could do at that given time.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Carl Nyberg — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:45:33 -0000

Hastert, Shimkus and the rest of the Republicans implicated don't have a good reason for not investigating once they saw the emails.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Carl Nyberg — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:43:28 -0000

Wasn't Shimkus "helping" Foley by introducing him to pages he wouldn't have met otherwise?

Was Shimkus so naive he couldn't tell what was going on?

Would you want someone of Shimkus' judgment representing you?

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Southern Ilinois Democrat — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 14:49:25 -0000

Shimkus and Hastert should go. It doesnt matter to me which party they belong to if they make this kind of error in judgement. These men put children in danger by attemtping to sweep a problem under the rug. Now that they are caught, they are spitting out excuses left anf right. The next thing I expect to hear is that Shimkus and Hastert will admit they have a drug and/or alcohol addiction and are admitting themselves into a program. These guys make me sick.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Enraged — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:53:36 -0000

The Washington Times is right. Hastert should step down. How insensitive (or even politically tone deaf)can you be? You're in charge of the safety and well being of children and you know one of your members is sending inappropirate messages to these kids and you DON'T DO A FRIGGIN'THING?!! Not even ask some questions?

I guess that's the Washington buddy system--look the other way, cover up for your guy.

What a pathetic bunch this Congress is--rubber stamps for Bush's war, rubber stamps for Hastert's look-the-other-way polcies.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Tip O. Iceberg — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:35:07 -0000

Just wait.

They're gonna find some kid that Foley molested AFTER Shimkus got the e-mail.

Then all kinda hell's gonna break loose.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Bill Baar's Physician — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:23:36 -0000

In addition to banning the House Page program - to solve the problem of Members and staff preying on Pages - Shimkus wants to ban children from the Capital.

These kids are just too tempting for Members.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Scott Fawell's Cellmate — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:20:18 -0000

In our discussion about the sexually graphic online emails from Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and the GOP leadership's cover-up of Foley's sexual predatory practices, lets not lose focus about the victims. Remember, we are dealing with particularly vulnerable victims: House pages. 16-year old kids living in dorms, away from home (most likely for the first time), looking for adult mentors and leaders in public service.

Accordingly, Members and their staffs owe a special duty to these children and to their parents, as the below excerpt from an online article from ABC News shows.

"The bright high school juniors who come to Washington to be pages are wards of Congress, much like orphans were when the House first hired them to run errands in centuries past.

In their gray and navy uniforms, they get a taste of power while doing humdrum jobs, serving at the whim of an institution that shelters, educates and pays them while they are far from home.

The potential for abuse is apparent, as it always is when power and powerlessness are in the same room....

Members of Congress are expected to take special responsibility for the welfare of pages and act in place of their parents. Protections introduced since the early 1980s include an increase in the starting age of pages to 16 from 14, dorms for them to live in, heightened supervision and a board to protect their well-being." (http://www.abcnews.go.com/P...

House Pages have done nothing wrong, and yet Hastert and the GOP leadership who failed the Pages now want to destroy the House Page program. The House Pages were the innocent victims here, and now Hastert and the GOP want to punish them - again.

I have a proposal for Speaker Hastert, Shimkus, Boehner, Reynolds and the rest of the GOP leadership who failed to protect children they knew were actually at risk: demand that Foley donate his $2.7M campaign warchest to the House Page program to create real safeguards for these young people.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

winco — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:31:29 -0000

it was Studds, not Stubbs. No jokes please.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

NW burbs — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:15:46 -0000

Here's a link to the Roy Blunt story claiming even he was kept in the dark by Hastert and Shimkus and Reynolds. I don't know that I believe it, but it puts the lie to any notion that Democrats knew and were simply keeping it quiet til October.... Dumb.

(And why was Tom Reynolds even made aware of this -- he's the head of the Republican re-election committee, a purely political post. Nothing to do with House ethics, etc.)

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

Bill Baar's Physician — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:15:00 -0000

DSOWNSTATE:

Nice try to change the subject (its funny to watch conservatives still obssessed with Bill Clinton - everything is related to Clinton, everything is Clinton's fault, everything was Clinton's fault, Clinton did it so it was wrong, Clinton did it so it must be okay now, Clinton, Clinton, Clinton). Also, you wrote that Clinton was chasing "them down the halls." Monica Lewinsky was an adult. As his emails and the itnerviews with former pages show, GOP Cong. Foley preyed on children, minors, kids. The law is clear that minors cannot legally consent to sexual relations, so when Foley chased "them," Foley was preying on children.

And nice try to try to work the GOP talking points, i.e. this is all just a Democratic witch hunt.

Sorry, but Republican Members are the ones stepping forward. From the Charleston Daily Mail (via Hunter at Daily Kos (http://www.dailykos.com/sto...

"Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., says she was not told about suggestive e-mails that a Florida congressman sent to a 16-year-old former Capitol page, even though she is one of three representatives who oversee the page program. [...]

Several high-ranking House Republicans have known about the e-mails for months, including Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the House Page Board.

Late last year, Shimkus met with Foley about the e-mails. But Shimkus never told Capito or the board's other member, Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., about them until Friday, according to all three.

"There's only three of us on the page board. I feel that we should have been informed," Capito said. "I'm absolutely disgusted by what I'm hearing. I was caught totally unaware." [...]

Capito said she would have been very concerned if she had read those e-mails.

"I don't think it would pass the sniff test," she said. "Even asking those questions -- that is not normal between a 52-year-old adult and a 16-year-old. It's not like they're family friends or anything. I think it would raise some serious questions. But I wasn't given that opportunity."

Late last year, Shimkus and former House Clerk Jeff Tandahl met privately with Foley to talk about the e-mails, but did not tell the other House Page Board members or launch an investigation."

Hastert has changed his story again and again and again, trying to claim the House leadership "didn't know." That's a flat lie. There have now been at least two high-level GOP figures, Boehner and Reynolds, who gave direct quotes to the press saying Hastert personally knew about the Foley "problem". Hastert has pointedly refused to dispute Reynold's assertion.

The undisputed facts here are these: the GOP pages (but not the Democratic pages) were "warned" about Foley as of 2001. GOP Members Alexander, Shimkus, Reynolds, Boehner, and Hastert, at minimum, knew about the problem. It came up very directly again in late 2005, and there are stories in the press describing Hastert and the others as discussing the problem multiple times between then and the spring of 2006.

And nothing happened. Hastert himself knew, his office knew, and a sizable chunk of the leadership knew -- and they just didn't do nothing, they prevented the usual channels from even investigating the claims. As Capito says, it doesn't pass the sniff test.

Sad quote from Hastert at his press conference yesterday: "'Would have, could have, should have,' Mr. Hastert said, responding to questions about whether Republicans should have done more."

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

NW burbs — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:12:29 -0000

Dsownstate -- I'd hardly call Fox a "news" outlet. Republican propoganda outfit maybe, but not really "news" in the traditional sense of the word.

Again, how could the Dems have known about this when Shimkus and Hastert were keeping the Foley affair secret? Even Republican Leaders like Roy Blunt are claiming to have been kept in the dark.

Why are you politicizing this pedophile and cover-up? It doesn't matter if Republicans or Democrats or Whigs or Tories were involved. A Congressman of any party preying on 16-year-olds and asking them to take off their boxers and measure themselves is flat out wrong.

Do you have kids? You'd be a heck of a lot more upset about this if you did.

Re: Still behind, Illinois media tries to play catch-up on Foley scandal

(618) Democrat — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:10:56 -0000

Downstate: If what you say is true about the two high ranking Democrats, lets have their names, then I will ask them to resign from congress along with Shimkus.

I will not support or make excuses for anyone who protects and enables a child sex predator, Democrat or Republican.