Jon Stewart on Foley/GOP child sex predator scandal

Don't miss the post below about the Washington Times calling on GOP Speaker Denny Hastert to resign. Having said that, I couldn't let the evening go without Jon Stewart's latest.

Okay, I just published this video, if it doesn't work for you, check back in a few minutes, it will.

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"Resign, Mr. Speaker"

UPDATE: Check out Hastert's quote in Tuesday's NYT

“Would have, could have, should have,” Mr. Hastert said, responding to questions about whether Republicans should have done more.

Buh bye, Denny.

Lead editorial in Washington, DC's Republican mouthpiece, the Washington Times, Tuesday edition:

The facts of the disgrace of Mark Foley, who was a Republican member of the House from a Florida district until he resigned last week, constitute a disgrace for every Republican member of Congress. Red flags emerged in late 2005, perhaps even earlier, in suggestive and wholly inappropriate e-mail messages to underage congressional pages. His aberrant, predatory -- and possibly criminal -- behavior was an open secret among the pages who were his prey. The evidence was strong enough long enough ago that the speaker should have relieved Mr. Foley of his committee responsibilities contingent on a full investigation to learn what had taken place, whether any laws had been violated and what action, up to and including prosecution, were warranted by the facts. This never happened.

Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, the Republican chairman of the House Page Board, said he learned about the Foley e-mail messages "in late 2005." Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the leader of the Republican majority, said he was informed of the e-mail messages earlier this year. On Friday, Mr. Hastert dissembled, to put it charitably, before conceding that he, too, learned about the e-mail messages sometime earlier this year. Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hastert insisted that he learned of the most flagrant instant-message exchange from 2003 only last Friday, when it was reported by ABC News. This is irrelevant. The original e-mail messages were warning enough that a predator -- and, incredibly, the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children -- could be prowling the halls of Congress. The matter wasn't pursued aggressively. It was barely pursued at all. Moreover, all available evidence suggests that the Republican leadership did not share anything related to this matter with any Democrat.

Now the scandal must unfold on the front pages of the newspapers and on the television screens, as transcripts of lewd messages emerge and doubts are rightly raised about the forthrightness of the Republican stewards of the 109th Congress. Some Democrats are attempting to make this "a Republican scandal," and they shouldn't; Democrats have contributed more than their share of characters in the tawdry history of congressional sexual scandals. [NOTE FROM JOHN: Uh, last congressional page scandal was 1983, and at that time there was a Dem and a Republican involved. Good try, though.] Sexual predators come in all shapes, sizes and partisan hues, in institutions within and without government. When predators are found they must be dealt with, forcefully and swiftly. This time the offender is a Republican, and Republicans can't simply "get ahead" of the scandal by competing to make the most noise in calls for a full investigation. The time for that is long past.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.

A special, one-day congressional session should elect a successor. We nominate Rep. Henry Hyde, also of Illinois, the chairman of the House International Relations Committee whose approaching retirement ensures that he has no dog in this fight. [NOTE FROM JOHN: That would be Henry Hyde, the adulterer. Nothing like going from one youthful indiscretion to another. I guess the defense of marriage ain't what it used to be in the Republican party.] He has a long and principled career, and is respected on both sides of the aisle. Mr. Hyde would preside over the remaining three months of the 109th Congress in a manner best suited for a full and exhaustive investigation until a new speaker for the 110th Congress is elected in January, who can assume responsibility for the investigation.

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Washington Times editorial will call on Hastert to resign as Speaker, Drudge reports

First I'm posting videos of Bay Buchanan, and now I'm quoting Drudge. From Drudge:

WASHINGTON TIMES ON TUESDAY WILL CALL FOR SPEAKER HASTERT'S RESIGNATION, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE... DEVELOPING... Editorial titled: 'Resign, Mr. Speaker': 'House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once... Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance'... -- Washington Times, October 3, 2006...

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Cliff kicked butt today on MSNBC

Go Cliff. Our own Cliff Schecter kicked some serious butt on MSNBC today discussing the Foley child sex predator scandal, and all the other 42,000 GOP scandals.

Note from John: I literally laughed out loud watching this. Cliff rocks.

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BREAKING: Cong. Tom Reynolds' (R-NY) chief of staff tried to get ABC to cover-up evidence of Foley predatory sex chat

It's confirmed. Congressman Tom Reynolds' (R-NY) chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, tried to broker a secret deal last Friday to get ABC News to cover up the worst part of the Foley child predator scandal, the lurid five-plus-page instant message chat in which Foley asked a child to measure his penis and then led the child into a detailed discussion of masturbatory techniques.

Howie Kurtz in the Washington Post wrote about this in this morning's Washington Post, though at the time Kurtz didn't name names - he simply referred to the deal-maker as a "former chief of staff" to Mark Foley. It's subsequently been confirmed to me, by Kurtz, that the individual who reportedly tried to broker the cover-up deal was Congressman Reynolds' own chief of staff (and former Foley chief of staff), Kirk Fordham. Here is what Kurtz wrote:

On Friday afternoon, a strategist for Rep. Mark Foley tried to cut a deal with ABC's Brian Ross.

The correspondent, who had dozens of instant messages that Foley sent to teenage House pages, had asked to interview the Florida Republican. Foley's former chief of staff said the congressman was quitting and that Ross could have that information exclusively if he agreed not to publish the raw, sexually explicit messages.

"I said we're not making any deals," Ross recalls.

(As noted above, I have confirmed that the guy offering the deal was Fordham.) Yes, God forbid Congressman Reynolds let the public know the truth. But we're to believe that he was interested in the truth when he first found out about Foley's creepy emails months ago. Right.

Congressman Reynolds, you'll recall, is the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the congressional body in charge of helping House republicans get re-elected. Reynolds had been notified about Foley's page-baiting months ago, yet wants us to believe he did everything he could and that he's not responsible for the sexual predator getting an easy ride, for his being permitted to remain in congress, permitted to remain the chair of the House caucus on missing and exploited children, and being permitted to remain in the House Republican leadership.

Now we know otherwise.

Congressman Reynolds let his own chief of staff secretly work for a child predator in an effort to cover-up the worst evidence of the predator's sexual wrongdoing. Without that evidence, this case might not have broken wide open. Add Reynolds to the list, alongside Hastert and Shimkus, of members of Congress who need to resign now. Read the rest of this post...

Holy cow. Bay Buchanan rips Hastert and GOP leadership

Oh my God. Bay Buchanan. Didn't even try to defend Hastert and the Republicans. This is Pat Buchanan's sister. Oh my God. "That email had predator stamped all over it," she says. Hastert and company "were so removed from the real world"... Hastert and company told the pages "fend for yourselves," she added. "This is unbelievable that we have leadership that believes the predator."

"This is the most serious issue that the Republicans face... they failed in the most important responsbility. Their priorities must be so screwed up that they wouldn't act immediately on something like this... this is not the kind of people we expect to have as our leader."

Watch the entire video.



(Only problem is that Buchanan gets hung up at one point on this "known homosexual" thing about Foley - yeah, well, known homosexuals helped run her brother's presidential campaign. Whatever.) Read the rest of this post...

Dazed Denny Hastert gives confused, contradictory interview to CNN about Foley child sex predator scandal

This video was just uploaded, it may fitz in and out a bit, keep trying.

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Milk man kills girls at Pa. Amish school

I understand Denny Hastert has called the shooter an overly friendly gunowner. Read the rest of this post...

Woodward as Journalistic Hero: the Real State of Denial

Arianna has a point. Read the rest of this post...

ABC: Foley sought in person dates with children he was cruising

So now the other shoe drops. Not only did the GOP cover-up of a child predator since at least 2001 lead to the serial sexual harassment of numerous children, but now we find out that Foley tried to arrange what were clearly in-person sex-dates with children. (And from the sounds of the communications below, he may have already consummated one such rendezous.)

I want to hear Denny Hastert and the other members of the Republican leadership say that they had NO IDEA that Foley had a problem with being too close to the pages. I want to hear it. Because they knew.

From ABC News:

In addition to explicit sexual language, former Congressman Mark Foley's Internet messages also include repeated efforts to get the underage recipient to rendezvous with him at night.

"I would drive a few miles for a hot stud like you," Foley said in one message obtained by ABC News....

Maf54: I miss you lots since san diego.
Teen: ya I cant wait til dc
Maf54: :)
Teen: did you pick a night for dinner
Maf54: not yet…but likely Friday
Teen: ok…ill plan for Friday then
Maf54: that will be fun

Maf54: I want to see you
Teen: Like I said not til feb…then we will go to dinner
Maf54: and then what happens
Teen: we eat…we drink…who knows…hang out…late into the night
Maf54: and
Teen: I dunno
Maf54: dunno what
Teen: hmmm I have the feeling that you are fishing here…im not sure what I would be comfortable with…well see

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GOP member of Page Board contradicts Hastert and Shimkus, says Foley emails were clear evidence of a problem, not just simply "overly friendly"

Not only that, but they never told her about the Foley emails.

From the Charleston (WV) Gazette:

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.”

Foley sent the e-mails to a former page from Louisiana about one year ago. Foley wrote, “send me an email pic of you as well” and “what do you want for your birthday coming up?” according to ABC News.

Foley also comments on another page, saying he “acts much older than his age...and he’s in really good shape.”

The teen forwarded the e-mails to someone else and wrote, “Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out,” and that one e-mail was “sick, sick, sick, sick, sick.”

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 Trandahl met privately with Foley to talk about the e-mails. They did not tell the other House Page Board members or launch an investigation.

“My evaluation was there’s no smoking gun here,” Shimkus told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. “At the time, that e-mail had no significance ... other than ‘Mark, stay away from this kid; this doesn’t look good.’”

Shimkus added: “I think, based on the information I had, what I did was fine. If I regret something, maybe I should have had Dale [Kildee] with me because now it’s going to be a political football.”

Shimkus said he did not know about sexually explicit instant messages that Foley allegedly sent to a former page. According to ABC News, one asked, “Do I make you a little horny?” and another said, “You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip down and get relaxed.”

Capito said she heard about the explicit e-mails and instant messages from the media. She heard Friday afternoon that Foley resigned and then found Shimkus waiting for her in her office. That’s when she discovered that Shimkus and other Republican House leaders already knew about some of the e-mails, she said.

“I was astounded he knew about this before,” Capito said. “I thought they were as surprised as I was.”

Friday night, Capito and Shimkus went to visit the pages, who stay in a Washington dorm.

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Stephanopoulos: "It's a category 3 hurricane and it's picking up steam"

On Good Morning America today.

Right now it's a category 3 hurricane and it's picking up steam. Republicans all across the country are getting questions about it. But here's the key question: Did any Republican leaders know about those x-rated emails? If they did, it's game over. The leadership will have to resign. It will cost Republicans control of Congress. As one top GOP aide told me this morning, 'the place will burn down.'

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GOP tried to cover-up worst of Foley story

Howie Kurtz reports in the Washington Post that Foley's former chief of staff tried to work out a deal with ABC to cover up the worst of the Foley scandal from the public.

More from Howie (you'll need to click and scroll down)

On Friday afternoon, a strategist for Rep. Mark Foley tried to cut a deal with ABC's Brian Ross.

The correspondent, who had dozens of instant messages that Foley sent to teenage House pages, had asked to interview the Florida Republican. Foley's former chief of staff said the congressman was quitting and that Ross could have that information exclusively if he agreed not to publish the raw, sexually explicit messages.

"I said we're not making any deals," Ross recalls.

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House GOP leadership "decapitated"

From Josh Marshall:

The simple fact is that Foley's downfall has pretty nearly decapitated the leadership of the House GOP with just five weeks to go before election day. And that's devastating.

What do I mean by decapitated? Let's assume, for the sake of discussion, that nothing else really comes out about how the House leadership handled this. No more shoes drop. Not a safe assumption from what seems to be in the reporting pipeline. But let's assume it.

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) is in a tight race for reelection and he's chairman of the NRCC, the Republican House campaign committee. He's in charge of the effort to keep the majority.

What's the number one thing on his mind right now? I doubt it's the NRCC or even his race for reelection. I think Reynolds is, to put it mildly, distracted right now.

How about Denny Hastert and John Boehner? I don't see them going on shows or making any public appearances for a while. They'll get asked awkward and possibly unanswerable questions about Foleygate. I'd say they're out of commission for fundraisers too.

And pretty much any campaign joust or jab at the Democrats from one of these guys, on whatever issue, will be instantly transformed into some sex-with-pages snark. "How can we trust them to protect America when they can't even protect the summer interns on Capitol Hill."....

Foleygate has made it very hard for the leaders of the House GOP to go on the offensive on anything relevant to the election. For political purposes they're basically out of commission. And they've given Democratic challengers in every district around the country a slew of questions with which to pummel GOP incumbents or any Republican, for that matter, who puts his head up on television. This is in the context of an election that was already going very badly for House Republicans. Foleygate has now made them all but politically defenseless in the final stretch of the campaign. And that is a very big deal.

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PS And don't forget, you can also make a substantial contribution by buying an ad on our site. Read the rest of this post...

Denny Hastert is overly friendly to sexual predators

"Overly friendly," Republican House Speaker Hastert called Mark Foley's creepy emails in his letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Overly friendly? Overly friendly is Harriet Miers' gushing letters to George Bush.

When a 52 year old man emails a 16 year old boy to tell him that he thinks his 16 year old friend is hot, that's not overly friendly. That's disgusting. Especially when both boys were away from their parents and in a mentoring relationship with the not-so-secret admirer.

The poor kid clearly didn't find Foley's fan letters friendly. He complained that he was "freaked out" by the entire unsolicited episode, and called Foley's actions "sick." And now that it's been reported that Foley routinely targeted underage kids for his online affections, and repeatedly asked them to measure the size of their penises for him, the 16 year old's concerns about his special friend were clearly warranted.

Of course, downplaying the suffering of sexually harassed children is nothing new to Denny Hastert and the GOP. On Friday, GOP Rep. John Shimkus described Foley's youth outreach thusly:

In that email exchange, Congressman Foley asked about the former Page's well-being after Hurricane Katrina and requested a photograph.

Isn't that special? Foley simply wanted to show he cared. Pass the ruler.

Then today White House Spokesman Tony Snow describes the Foley scandal as "simply naughty emails" but not a big deal. I mean, what adult hasn't asked a sixteen year old boy to describe how he masturbates? (You can watch the video here.)

Denny Hastert and the GOP leadership need to stop downplaying the trauma Foley caused to this kid and far too many more. Or the voters may not be overly friendly to GOP predator-enablers come November 7. Read the rest of this post...

VA, TN, OH and MT Senate races are very, very competitive

Good polling news for key Senate races emerged over the weekend. Control of the Senate is in play.

The Virginia Senate race between G. Felix "Macaca" Allen and Jim Webb is even at 43 according to a Mason-Dixon poll conducted for MSNBC and McClatchy Newspapers.

The Associated Press has the Mason-Dixon numbers for Tennessee, Montana and Ohio:

The Mason-Dixon polls done for various media outlets found:

-Ford had the backing of 43 percent in Tennessee, while former Chattanooga, Tenn., Mayor Corker was backed by 42 percent. Corker had a lead in midsummer polling matching the two.

-Tester has pulled ahead of Burns in Montana, by 47 percent to 40 percent. They were tied in August polling.

-Brown had 45 percent and DeWine had 43 percent in Ohio, findings similar to those of a Quinnipiac poll released a week ago.

UPDATE: Hotline On Call has more Senate polls and says "Democrats ahead everywhere":

In RI, Sheldon Whitehouse (D) leads Lincoln Chafee (R) 42%-41%. In PA, Bob Casey (D) leads Rick Santorum (R) 49%-40%. In MO, Jim Talent (R) is tied with Claire McCaskill (D) 43%-43%. In NJ, Bob Menendez (D) leads Tom Kean Jr (R) 44%-41%. In WA, Maria Cantwell (D) leads Mike McGavick (R) 50%-40%. And in MD, Ben Cardin (D) leads Michael Steele (R) 47%-41%.

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White House downplays Foley scandal as "simply naughty emails"

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, appearing on CNN this morning, downplayed the Foley scandal. Soledad later noted that Snow "tried really hard to minimize the impact and any kind of political fallout."

Soledad asks as "a parent" why any communication between a 16-year old page and a Member of Congress doesn't "raise red flags, major, massive red flags." Snow responds, "[I]t's not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails."

ThinkProgress has the video of the Bush White House defending a child sex predator.

"Simply naughty emails"? That's all they were says the Bush White House. Just naughty emails between a 52 year old member of Congress and some 16 and 17 year old childen. Just naughty emails when a grown man asks a sixteen year old boy to measure his penis. Just naughty emails when a member of Congress asks a child to describe how he masturbates.

That's why the GOP House leadership is scrambling. That's why they had to call in the FBI. That's why the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.



According to ABC, Foley was talking about the boy's penis. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Foley and the cover-up have consumed the Republicans on the Hill. The NIE and "State of Denial" have exposed Bush's lies about Iraq and forced the White House into a frenzy. The Republican Party is cracking up before our eyes. It's going to take a hell of an "October Surprise" to overcome this. Karl and Kenny must be in overdrive scheming.

The GOP is in trouble. Let's kick them while they're down. And kick them hard. Read the rest of this post...

Members of Congress, staff, could face criminal conspiracy charges in Foley case

NYT:

And Mr. Foley is not the only person who could possibly face prosecution, Professor Berman said. “If there were people who knew about him or protected him,” he said, “some sort of complicity or conspiracy charge is certainly viable.”

I'm waiting for one of the past pages to sue the entire GOP leadership. Read the rest of this post...