De-Coding The Foley Scandal
Here's the $64 question about the Foley scandal: Why? What was so important about this degenerate that presumably savvy politicians like Hastert went out on a limb to protect him?
A possible clue: Look at the timing. It has now been widely reported that Republican Arizona Congressman Rep. Jim Kolbe was told by a former page about Foley's practice of sending inappropriate (at best) emails to pages. Kolbe supposedly confronted Foley about this and took unspecified "corrective action." He also passed on the information to others in the leadership of the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, but exactly who was informed is somewhat unclear. The logical person who would have been informed about all of this was Republican New York Congressman Sue Kelly, who was then in charge of overseeing the page program. Kelly is now embroiled in a tough reelection fight in her Hudson Valley district. The bottom line of all of this is that nothing got done about Foley.
Now here's the interesting thing: this all happened some time in 2000. What else was going on in 2000? Seems to me that there was the small matter of a Presidential election going on at the time. And the GOP was making Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky the centerpiece of the campaign. How do you suppose it would have looked if a prominent GOP Congressman (at the time, Foley was the Deputy Whip and a major fund-raiser for the GOP) was revealed as a sexual predator? What would have happened to the GOP "family values" campaign then? Can there be any doubt why the information about Foley wound up firmly ensonced under the big Republican Congressional rug?
Foley proved to be a critically-important operative for the GOP during the contested 2000 election. Foley's district includes Palm Beach, site of the notorious "butterfly ballot." Throughout the post-election battles, Foley was an important spokesman for the GOP, regularly appearing on news shows, defending the Palm Beach officials who had created the absurd ballot. In fact, on November 18, 2000, less than 2 weeks after the election, Foley delivered the weekly national radio broadcast on behalf of the GOP, attacking the Democrats as outsiders and sore losers who were supposedly pursuing bogus legal challenges in order to undermine what Foley proclaimed to be Bush's "legitimate victory" in Florida. The rest is the sad history we know all too well.
Of course, Foley's predatory behavior did not end in 2000; nor did the efforts of the GOP leadership to cover up for him. The reason for the Republican Party's protection of Foley is obvious. George Bush literally owed his Presidency to Foley.
I don't have any illusions about any politicians. But I just don't understand how these people can live with themselves.
A possible clue: Look at the timing. It has now been widely reported that Republican Arizona Congressman Rep. Jim Kolbe was told by a former page about Foley's practice of sending inappropriate (at best) emails to pages. Kolbe supposedly confronted Foley about this and took unspecified "corrective action." He also passed on the information to others in the leadership of the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, but exactly who was informed is somewhat unclear. The logical person who would have been informed about all of this was Republican New York Congressman Sue Kelly, who was then in charge of overseeing the page program. Kelly is now embroiled in a tough reelection fight in her Hudson Valley district. The bottom line of all of this is that nothing got done about Foley.
Now here's the interesting thing: this all happened some time in 2000. What else was going on in 2000? Seems to me that there was the small matter of a Presidential election going on at the time. And the GOP was making Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky the centerpiece of the campaign. How do you suppose it would have looked if a prominent GOP Congressman (at the time, Foley was the Deputy Whip and a major fund-raiser for the GOP) was revealed as a sexual predator? What would have happened to the GOP "family values" campaign then? Can there be any doubt why the information about Foley wound up firmly ensonced under the big Republican Congressional rug?
Foley proved to be a critically-important operative for the GOP during the contested 2000 election. Foley's district includes Palm Beach, site of the notorious "butterfly ballot." Throughout the post-election battles, Foley was an important spokesman for the GOP, regularly appearing on news shows, defending the Palm Beach officials who had created the absurd ballot. In fact, on November 18, 2000, less than 2 weeks after the election, Foley delivered the weekly national radio broadcast on behalf of the GOP, attacking the Democrats as outsiders and sore losers who were supposedly pursuing bogus legal challenges in order to undermine what Foley proclaimed to be Bush's "legitimate victory" in Florida. The rest is the sad history we know all too well.
Of course, Foley's predatory behavior did not end in 2000; nor did the efforts of the GOP leadership to cover up for him. The reason for the Republican Party's protection of Foley is obvious. George Bush literally owed his Presidency to Foley.
I don't have any illusions about any politicians. But I just don't understand how these people can live with themselves.
posted by democratic core at 3:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home