Saturday night open thread

Ask and ye shall receive. Read the rest of this post...

Katherine Harris defines christian behavior (Hint: she is one, Nelson's not)

Katherine Harris, whose GOP colleague Mark Foley resigned in the wake of a Republican child sex predator scandal, is defining who is Christian and who is not. She's got a full plate these days between running for Senate and defining christianity:

Republican Senate hopeful Katherine Harris says Florida's Democratic incumbent supports unchristian political policies.

Harris - whose comments were made on a Christian radio network and published Monday by Agape Press, a Christian news service - did not mention specific policies, but she has repeatedly berated Sen. Bill Nelson for not supporting a ban on certain late-term abortions and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The congresswoman has worked to attract Christian voters throughout her campaign. This summer, Harris told the Florida Baptist Witness newsletter that Christians should be involved in politics because otherwise legislative bodies would "legislate sin," and that the separation of church and state is "a lie we have been told." The comments caused a stir among Democrats and many Republicans, as well as some Christians.

In an effort to explain those remarks, Harris told American Family Radio News: "I was being specific in talking to them and differentiating myself from Bill Nelson, who claims to be a Christian and yet votes completely contrary to what we say we believe."

Katherine Harris needs to clean her own party first. Protecting child sex predators doesn't exactly seem Christian. Nor does starting a war based on lies. Nor does destroying the environment instead of being stewards of the earth. Read the rest of this post...

Video of my CNN segment this afternoon about Mark Foley

If you like the video, make sure you "rate it" on the YouTube page - you can get there by double-clicking the video image you see below.

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ABC source says Hastert's chief of staff met Foley about pages "years" before e-mails emerged

(UPDATE: It's not clear from the ABC story if there are one, two, or three sources now confirming Kirk Fordham's allegation that Denny Hastert's chief of staff met with Mark Foley several years ago to discuss Foley's creepy page obsession.)

Denny Hastert thought his little "buck stops here" speech calmed the waters on Thursday. But, there is further evidence that Denny Hastert hasn't been telling the truth about the Foley scandal. Another source confirmed for ABC News that Hastert's Chief of Staff met with Foley "years" before the "overly friendly" e-mails showed up:

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff met with disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley to discuss the time and attention Foley was giving House pages years before the speaker's office admits becoming aware of the issue, a current House staffer told ABC News.

The staffer, who asked not be identified because of the ongoing FBI and House Ethics Committee investigations, told ABC News of learning in November 2005 about an earlier meeting between Hastert Chief of Staff Scott Palmer and Foley, R-Fla.

Over to you, Denny. Read the rest of this post...

John will be on CNN around 5:30 pm

About the Republican child sex predator scandal, of course. Should be good. Read the rest of this post...

The GOP is tanking and Bush hits an "all-time" low

The Republicans have lost every advantage they've ever had according to Newsweek's latest poll:

For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power. If the election were held today, 51 percent of likely voters would vote for the Democrat in their district versus 39 percent who would vote for the Republican. And while the race is closer among male voters (46 percent for the Democrats vs. 42 percent for the Republicans), the Democrats lead among women voters 56 to 34 percent.

And Americans aren't loving Bush and where he's bringing the country:

Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new all-time low for the Newsweek poll: 33 percent, down from an already anemic 36 percent in August. Only 25 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, while 67 percent say they are not.

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Michael Steele really is just a GOP hypocrite

Here in the DC market, we see the t.v. ads for the Maryland and Virgnia races. Michael Steele's has been running ads attacking Ben Cardin for taking money from the drug companies -- and makes the implication he won't be bought that way. Only problem for Steele is just before that ad began running, he was having a drug company fundraiser:

In a recent commercial advertising his bid for U.S. Senate, Maryland Republican Michael S. Steele tells voters that his opponent, Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin, has been tainted by contributions from pharmaceutical companies and special interests.

"Congressman Cardin took money from drug companies," Steele says. "I want to ban gifts from special interests."

The ad does not mention that less than a week before the commercial began airing, a top drug company executive and an industry lobbyist hosted a $1,000-a-person fundraiser for Steele at a K Street steakhouse in Washington.

The invitation to the fundraiser, obtained by The Washington Post, says the Sept. 20 lunch reception was to be hosted by Sally Walsh, a director of federal government relations at GlaxoSmithKline, and Michael Carozza, a lobbyist for Bristol-Myers Squibb.

It advises donors to send contributions to lobbyist Frederick T. Dombo III, who identifies himself on his Web site as a Steele campaign volunteer. Federal records show that Dombo represents AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group, one of the largest pharmaceutical services companies in the country.

Steele is not only a hypocrite, he's using a dog as a prop to spread his venom. That's animal cruelty. Read the rest of this post...

CNN claims, falsely, that Foley resigned because CREW published his emails

That is a flat-out lie.

Foley resigned because ABC called him up and read him the salacious instant messages they'd just received from God-knows-who. CREW published the emails online AFTER ABC had already reporting on the emails and quoted the relevant substance. Not to mention, I published the emails online at the same time, as did RawStory, as did ABC I suspect and many others. So what exactly is CNN's point here?

Oh that's right, CNN and MSNBC and the rest of the mainstream media are trying to blame the Democrats for the fact that the Republicans coddled a child molester. I forgot that "fairness" means blaming both parties even though only one screwed up.

Foley resigned last week after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning watchdog group, posted some of the e-mails he exchanged with the former male page in 2005, who was then 16 and had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican.

And if CNN tries to claim that their sentence is factually correct - Foley did resign after CREW published the emails, even though the two events were unrelated - then I hope CNN will also correct their story to include the fact that Foley resigned after Wolf Blitzer showered. After all, that is factually correct as well (I'm going on a limb here and assuming Wolf showered on Friday). Read the rest of this post...

FOX News had the Foley e-mails

Well, well, well Denny Hastert. Your own Republican news channel had the Foley e-mails. Why didn't they protect the children? Or were they trying to protect Foley, too:

Reporters and editors at Florida's St. Petersburg Times, The Miami Herald and the Fox News Channel all say they obtained e-mails that seemed to be between Rep. Mark Foley and a former congressional page -- but that they didn't have enough to go public with the story.

No wonder CNN is so cranky....they really are the only ones who didn't have the emails. Read the rest of this post...

Second Republican congressman snared in page sex scandal?

Denny Hastert has put me in a difficult position.

I've heard rumors. Unsubstantiated talk. No proof yet. But I've heard things. Just like I heard things about Mark Foley this past July. This time I've heard things about a relatively senior Republican member of the House, and also about someone on the Speaker's own staff. Both rumors seem relevant to this story as it's unfolding.

So here's my dilemma. Denny Hastert says that if I don't report the unsubstantiated allegations I've heard, I'm a criminal. But the thing is, I'm also a journalist, and a good human being. I don't think it's right to print unsubstantiated rumors I've heard, rumors that could make life quite difficult for this Republican congressman and this senior member of Hastert's staff.

So what do I do? Do I publish unsubstantiated rumors about a GOP congressman and one of Denny Hastert's top aides? I don't want to, I don't think it's right, but Denny Hastert says he'll sic the FBI on me for hurting children if I don't. And he'll probably end up blaming Nancy Pelosi if my rumors turn out to be true and I didn't go public with them.

So what do I do? Maybe I'll just call Denny Hastert's office on Monday, tell them what I've heard, and let them decide how comfortable they are with the Speaker's new standard of justice. Read the rest of this post...

Once again, Hastert's office is playing with the evidence

What in God's name is Denny Hastert's office doing playing junior spy in a criminal matter? Not mention, a matter before the Ethics Committee? Someone should slap a subpoena on Denny Hastert's computers fast.

On Wednesday night, [Hastert chief of staff] Palmer was described as highly emotional while aides sifted through e-mails and files to determine whether he had ever spoken to Fordham. Several people who spoke with Palmer said the chief of staff was emphatic in denying that he knew anything about Foley's questionable contacts with young male pages.

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Open thread

Ha, I'm awake before Joe. Read the rest of this post...

2nd witness now says Hastert's office was warned about Foley well before November 2005

Well isn't that interesting. When I received the Foley emails this past July, had I been warned two or three years ago that Foley was stalking pages, I'd have turned the emails over to the FBI myself, not waiting for CREW to do it (which was shortly after I received them anyway). But I didn't receive the warnings Denny Hastert received. I didn't know five years ago that Foley was stalking pages - like Denny Haster knew, since his office warned the pages 5 years ago to stay away from Foley.

Had the news media known what Denny Hastert knew, I bet they'd all have turned their information over to the FBI toute de suite. But the only person who knew the full story about Mark Foley sexually harassing underage pages was Denny Hastert and the Republican majority in the House. And they covered it all up for as long as they could.

And this article is another nail in the Republicans' coffin.

From the NYT:

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff confronted then-Rep. Mark Foley about his inappropriate social contact with male pages well before the speaker said aides in his office took any action, a current congressional staff member with personal knowledge of Foley and his behavior with pages said yesterday.

The staff member said Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, met with the Florida Republican at the Capitol to discuss complaints about Foley's behavior toward pages. The alleged meeting occurred long before Hastert says aides in his office dispatched Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.) and the clerk of the House in November 2005 to confront Foley about troubling e-mails he had sent to a Louisiana boy.

The staff member's account buttresses the position of Foley's onetime chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who said earlier this week that he had appealed to Palmer in 2003 or earlier to intervene, after Fordham's own efforts to stop Foley's behavior had failed. Fordham said Foley and Palmer, one of the most powerful figures in the House of Representatives, met within days to discuss the allegations.

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