I think a lot about the contingency of history, about the essentially random events that wind up turning our lives one way or another.
My strongest reaction to the news of “The Foley Scandal” was a kind of amusement that the course of future events might wind up depending on one self-righteous pervert’s lack of sexual self-control. I mean think about it – while I don’t think these elections will irreversably impact the intermediate future we all face, they’ll be important – and the results may well turn on some dumbass Congressman’s inability to keep it zipped when teenage boys are around. How can you say that the human condition isn’t a comedy?There’s a serious point as well, and it’s my long-standing one about the increasing isolation of the elites from the rest of us, a characteristic that is best called into sharp relief by an article on Ray Ozzie in this month’s Wired:
“When I find a hairy bug,” he wrote in a 2003 blog posting, “I love having the developer come in and debug it face to face. It gives me a chance not only to understand more about the product’s internals, but also, you have no idea what I learn chitchatting while waiting for debug files to copy, etc. Design and implementation issues, stuff that people have been building off to the side, things about the organization, rumors, etc.” He continued: “I suppose this is just classic ‘walking the halls,’ but I feel as though without this sort of direct nonhierarchical contact I would lose touch with my organization, and people throughout would know I was disconnected and would have no respect for me.”
[emphasis added]
The strongest feature of our society is that everyone is called to account. Power and wealth shield you from it – somewhat. But what is happening that frightens me far more than a randy Congressman and abused teenagers is the increasing ability of many elites to keep themselves from being held to account – a trend that is (slightly) pushed back by the increasing transparency of society and the fact that so damn many of us are watching. Foley felt free to indulge his (immoral, illegal) sexual obsessions because he felt protected by his position. The GOP leadership looked away because he was inside the walls, and so entitled to the protection of his position.
He got caught, and they got caught, and the fallout will be a price they have to pay. (note that Mickey Kaus has some numbers that suggest that Florida voters either expect this kind of thing or just don’t care.)
But, on a cosmic scale, or to an American soldier somewhere, it must seem funny as hell that this is the kind of thing that can turn elections.
Kerry Howely at Reason has one of the better commentaries on the Foley affair.
In the end its effect may be far smaller than projected. It depends, mostly, on if the people really care about this nonsense as much as the media thinks they do.
If the media’s sense about these things recently has become any kind of indicator, I would say, no.
Well, I guess he’s “pulling a McGreevey”, which is something one might have predicted. That will win him some sympathy from the anti-conservative crowd in the aftermath, and could provide him a kind of sanctuary from which he won’t have to respond to substantive criticism about, oh I don’t know… hypocrisy? McGreevey’s “admission” that he’s gay covered up his wildly unethical behavior and fraudulent exercise of authority. Be interesting to see if it works for an R as well as it worked for a D.
Actually, for me the coverup (not the perversion itself) is the straw that broke the camels back. I’m now officially more upset with Congressional Republican leadership than I am afraid of Democratic majorities.
The saying goes that Liberals think Conservatives are evil; Conservatives think Liberals are stupid. Well, change the terms to Congressional Democrats and Republicans and I think both assessments are correct.
Except I’m starting to think that the Republican Caucus is both Evil and Stupid, and that is a combination I will not tolerate.
From this point hence, I’m blogging for Change in ’06.
I’m sure an investigation conducted by the House leadership, undoubtably to be labeled a witchout, to out a gay Republican would have been better.
The real question is what the leadership could have done. Pressed on him to resign for being gay?
I have to agree with Tollhouse. The thing that people are forgetting or perhaps isn?t being made clear by the coverage of the story is that there were two communications (1) emails and (2) instant messages and only the latter was outright explict.
Last fall the only thing that the House leadership knew about were the emails (click on my name for their text). If you read the content they come off as kind of creepy but haven?t crossed the line at being more than inappropriate. Hastert confronted Foley when he learned about them last fall and Foley maintained that they were innocent which is why he was told to knock it off.
The really explicit material was in the IM?s but the Speaker only found about them recently when the former page?s parents contacted him to complain that Foley was in contact with their son. The problem with the coverage is that people may not understand that Hastert probably didn?t even know about the explicit material last fall and assume erroneously that he must have learned about the IM?s and the emails at the same time rather than only learning of the former recently. Without the IM?s there probably wasn?t enough to justify doing more than telling Foley to quit contacting the page which is what Hastert appropriately did.
#6, wasn’t it incumbent on Hastert to determine if the communications were with only this one page, or if other pages were subject to Foley’s advances as well, and if those emails were the limit of the communicatoins? IMHO, it is the responsibility of management to determine the full scope of the problem when presented with one. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” doesn’t work here.
And, no, I’m not saying there should have been an FBI investigation, either. Hastert could have easily asked the page involved who he talked to about the emails, then tracked those people down, etc., until he either discovered other instances of inappropriate behavior (or worse), or ran out of leads. Maybe no one would have been willing to talk, but that doesn’t excuse Hastert from his responsibility.
Lsatly, while I’m not a fan of term limits, I think AL’s commentary provides good justification for them. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The majority of people sent to that dismal swamp seem unable to avoid its corrupting powers for very long.
Blake, that’s exactly what, in other contexts, could be termed a witchhunt.
“Are you gay?”
“Have you ever had sex with a page?”
“What about these emails, what is going on here?”
“Have you ever behaved inconsistent morally?”
“Tell us about your sex life…”
Stuff like that would never fly in America today without ironclad proof.
Tollhouse, I’ll disagree – I’ve dealt with harassment issues a few times in the workplace (when you’re as handsome as I am…but seriously). I worked in a shop where the Managing Director had a habit of hiring, seducing, then firing cute young recptionists. After the third settlement, senior management told him that he was on his own for the next one, and sat with each of the senior team and had a full and frank chat about our views about sex with young employees and made the rules perfectly clear.
Not a witch hunt – just good management.
A.L.
Re. #6, #7:
Any links to reports that show what Hastert’s office knew about Foley’s behavior prior to late last week?
As far as I know, the only thing they were aware of were the brief and very tame (but still creepy by implication) emails Foley sent to the 16 year old Louisiana page. Links to supporting posts and to those emails as well as the obscene IMs in the comments of Demosophist’s earlier WoC post.
If this is so, Hastert’s in a Catch-22 position.
* He has Foley mildly rebuked (as he did), and gets hit with “You Coddle Pedophiles!!” when the X-rated IMs become public. The hostile Press conflates the tame emails and the X-rated IMs, implying that Foley knew about the bad stuff all along. This seems to be what happened.
* Had he reacted strongly to the tame emails (which he didn’t), he would have been attacked as being bigoted and hateful to Foley simply because Foley is gay. “If a hetero Congressman had sent a couple of mild messages to a page, would he have gotten the third degree from Hastert?!”
Maybe Hastert did know and did cover up for Foley. In that case, he deserves to be condemned. But where is the credible report that makes the specific claim that he (or his office) knew about more than the seemingly-innocuous emails prior to last week? (again, a good url would be appreciated).
Except, AL, this involves the proper response to a parental complaint. What is the proper course to take when the victim’s parents make the complaint, only provide limitted non-sexually explicit information and request that the matter be handled with discretion? Shimkus/Hastert say they were following the parents’ wishes in telling Folley that some parents are complaining about his emails and to lay off the pages. I don’t think that’s a completely illegitimate approach and the fact that it didn’t work suggests something more about Folley than anything. If the evidence was more explicit or if the victim was willing to come forward, I think the situation would have to be handled differently.
(Of course, if the parents step forward and contradict this telling of event, Hastert is toast)
Question regarding the conflation of the emails and the instant messages? Has anyone else read any confirmation about whether they were actually sent to two different people?
My understanding (and it’s subject to change upon further information) is that the non-explicit emails were sent to a sixteen-year old former page but that the explicit IM’s were actually sent to someone else who was over the age of eighteen at the time. In which case Foley may have in fact ceased his contact with the sixteen-year old former page when Hastert told him to.
Has anyone else read anything about this aspect of the story?
Isn’t that essentially what Hastert did though A.L?
What we risk to lose is _The Wizards’ War_.
Until that point a politician or party recognizes the value of SIGINT – and the fact that it must be collected under assumptions made by military commanders and not federal judges – everything else that spews forth turns into noise. Dots cannot be connected if they are never collected.
Can anyone here really contemplate a federal judge canceling an Orion mission of removing an SA-2 site from a MOB database because they did not agree with the way it was collected? That’s insanity.
Maybe we can find some lawyers to challenge a few ZSU-24 plots. Mission de-brief indicates multiple SA-18 launches? Not until you clear it through the JAGs.
Mark Poling, #4: Actually, for me the coverup (not the perversion itself) is the straw that broke the camels back. I’m now officially more upset with Congressional Republican leadership than I am afraid of Democratic majorities.
There have been a lot of back-breaking straws coming from the GOP in the past few days. What did it for me was the ill-considered online gambling ban passed by the House (including Rep. Foley), then snuck past the the full Senate by Sen. Frist who attached it to a port security bill so that it would sail through without debate or even so much as a committee hearing. Then there was Frist’s suggestion that we should consider letting the Taliban share power in Afghanistan, after five years of a war that was supposed to eradicate them.
It seems that the race to the bottom is just another race against the Democrats that the Republicans are determined to win at all costs.
The cover up appears to be manufactured based on some IMs whose provenance is unknown and that the R leadership was unaware of until after Foley resigned.
There are three centuries (in blog time) to go until the election.
This could very well wind up hurting the Ds.
#15: “Frist says the AP mis-quoted him.”:http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=2628 It wouldn’t be the first time that the AP has gotten things obviously wrong.
Wierd. Here’s what Inside-the-Beltway gay activist Michael Rogers wrote on his blog “BlogActive”:http://www.blogactive.com/2006/10/good-news-bad-news.html on Sunday 10/1/06:
bq. Well the good news is that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is finally getting it. I called their Director of Communications, Bill Burton, before the Foley story broke to let him know about Foley (and another case) were coming down the pike. …I am glad he followed up on my call and was ready on Friday to come out of the gate running. [Emphasis added]
And in the post’s comments, he adds:
bq. I had the emails before they were on the net. Additionally, I had the additional emails, written by the page to a friend. The story was being written by a number of outlets and I provided additional information to reporters involved in the breaking of this story. Was [I] the central figure in reporting on Foley’s latest scandal? Never said I was. Was my work on the case important to helping make sure it came out before the election? Yes.
In my opinion, Foley is a creep and a hypocrite who deserves every bad thing that has happened to him, and more.
Hastert is being characterized as Foley’s enabler. As far as that goes, the key question is whether Hastert or his office knew about obscene emails or IMs prior to last week. I still haven’t seen any credible evidence to this effect. Does a reliable story claiming Hastert’s knowledge of anything beyond the G-rated emails to the Louisiana page even exist? How about a link? Bueller? Anyone?
At the moment, it looks to me like Hastert is being smeared in an organized fake-but-accurate campaign.
Immoral? Possibly?
Illegal? Maybe.
Abuse of authority? Definitely.
Coverup? Not a chance. Too radioactive.
I cross-posted comment #18 at BlogActive. Hopefully, someone will click over to here, and post a link to a story that lays out the basis for charging Hastert with enabling Foley by covering up his behavior.
At some point, absence of (credible) evidence becomes evidence of absence. In the case of a ‘radioactive’ charge like this.
I don’t think it’s odd that an issue like this could turn an election.
How do people become apostate?
Usually after one small, irrefutable proof that everything they believe is wrong…
Here are the original series of emails Foley sent to the 16-year-old Louisiana page. Hastert’s office definitely knew about these. Based on the numbering of the Subjects and of the PDF files, these three are unlikely to be the entire set. It’s what’s linked at ABC News’ “The Blotter’s” story of 3:08 PM on Thurs., 9/28/06, “Sixteen-Year-Old Who Worked as Capitol Hill Page Concerned About E-mail Exchange with Congressman.”:http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/sixteenyearold_.html That story begins:
bq. A 16-year-old male former congressional page concerned about the appropriateness of an e-mail exchange with a congressman alerted Capitol Hill staffers to the communication…
The linked emails:
“Subject: email 2”:http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/Foley_email2.pdf
bq. glad your home safe and sound…we don’t go back into session until Sept 5,,,,si it’s a nice long break….I am back in Florida now…its nice here ..been raining today…it sounds like you will have some fun over the next few weeks…how old are you now?…
“Subject: e-mail 3”:http://abcnews.go.com/images/US/Foley_email3.pdf
bq. I am in North Carolina…and it was 100 in New Orleans…wow that’s really hot…well do you miss DC….Its raining here but 68 degrees so who can argue…did you have fun at your conference….what do you want for your birthday coming up…what stuff do you like to do
“Subject: email 5”:http://abcnews.go.com/images/US/Foley_email4.pdf
bq. how are you weathering the hurricane…are you safe….send me an email pic of you as well….
Since this is a family blog, I’ll pass on typing out the instant messages.
The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator
Men’s News Daily
October 04, 2006 | Doug Powers
Are you a politician who’s gotten into just a little bit of trouble? You and your attorney can’t get on the same page because you got on the wrong page? Tired of having to think up an excuse at the last second? Well worry no more, because The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator™ is here.
Don’t end up having to throw your excuses together at the last minute in haphazard fashion. Don’t be the next Mark Foley. Be prepared!
Just choose what you’ve been accused of, insert the proper information, and viola, The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator™ does the rest!
With The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator™, you get excuses for 199 different crimes, misdemeanors and morally questionable slip-ups — Yes, you heard it right, 199 different crimes, misdemeanors and morally questionable slip-ups — for only $9,999.95!
That’s right, for the price of the first ten minutes of a re-election fundraiser, you get quality blame deflecting press releases that can either be faxed or emailed to the media, or read at a press conference by your attorney or family member (if there’s one who isn’t furious with you).
Here’s just one example of what you get when you order The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator™:
Drunk driving
As most of you now know, (insert time of arrest, i.e. “last night,†“early this morning,†etc.) I was pulled over by officers from the (name of city) police department. As a public figure and servant of the people, I take full responsibility for my actions. I plan to check into an alcohol treatment program to confront the effects of the dreaded disease with which I have been afflicted. In taking full responsibility for my actions, I must confess that, years ago, I was sexually assaulted by (insert “clergy,†“scout leader,†etc.) which caused me to seek relief at the bottom of a bottle, but fortunately that didn’t take away my ability to accept full responsibility.
Regular beatings by my father diminished my ability to discern right from wrong, and a mother who left feminine hygiene products hanging over the shower curtain rod (or “tampons in the toilet†or “performed sexual favors on the mailman while forcing me to watch†or all of the above) cost me many friends as a child. As a result, this further pushed me to seek a means of emotional escape, culminating years later in my arrest (if election year, replace “arrest†with “cry for helpâ€) for drinking and driving, for which I alone accept full responsibility.
Also, being afflicted with Crohn’s colitis (or chronic fatigue syndrome, shingles, painful rectal hematoma, etc.) which was misdiagnosed by a doctor at the (name of out-of-the-way hospital in an area making it difficult for the press to substantiate the claim) made it necessary to seek relief from the physical agony in the form of (name of favorite drink — for men, if the answer is “Cosmopolitan,†use “Vodka martinis†instead).
Accepting full responsibility isn’t easy, yet it’s the right thing to do, even though I do have a child with runtism which has accumulated medical bills to the point where my arthritic wife has been forced to take a job at White Castle (if in rural area, use “Denny’sâ€) to allow me to continue a life of public service.
It’s been a pleasure to serve my constituency and I look forward to serving you, not to mention the homeless people I dish out turkey and potatoes to on Thanksgiving even in the throes of chronic migraines, in the future – as I continue to grapple with this disease that I can’t help having while taking on full responsibility for this incident even though I was forever scarred by a kindergarten teacher who called me retarded.
Yes, that’s right, and with The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator™, you get 198 more press releases, all fully customizable! Here’s just a sampling of accusations you’ll be fully prepared to confront:
Intern groping
Punched airport security
Instant messages to pages
The “Kennedy trifecta†(drunk driving, rape, public nudity)
Bribes
Kickbacks
Gay prostitution ring
3 a.m. voicemail
Who’s that other woman in my car?
Adultery
Highway rest area
Crack smoking
Bestiality
Prescription medication addiction
The “N†word
Botched suicide attempt
Bathhouse bust
Free event tickets
How’d that cash get in my freezer?
“Fact-finding mission†to Fiji
Peepshow
High treason
Low treason
“She sure looked 18!â€
Mysterious staffer disappearance
Bullwhip fetish
Restaurant threesome
And many, many more!
The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generatorâ„¢. Never be caught unprepared again. Order yours today! How much is your career worth to you?
To order The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generatorâ„¢, call 1-800-RESPONSIBLE, or send $9,999.95 (include $999 for S&H) to:
Capitol Building E Capitol St NE & 1st St NE Washington, DC 20001
AMac,
Rep. John Shimkus, head of the page board, said in an interview this morning that Hastert didn’t know about the emails when he addressed the issue with Foley. “(Radio interview)”:http://kmox.com/pages/66176.php
For those who don’t want to listen to the whole thing, here’s what Shimkus said:
* The matter was brought to his attention by the Clerk of the House, who apparantly has some sort of administrative responsibilities for the page program.
* The Clerk showed him a redacted email (which appears to be AMac’s email #5), and informed Shimkus of the parent’s desire that Foley be told to leave their son alone and that the matter be handled discretely.
* The parents had removed the “to” and “from” line and other identifying information. Its not clear to me whether Shimkus knew the name of the page.
* Shimkus told Foley to leave the pages alone.
* Foley agreed, saying that he recognized that he was probably too freindly with the pages, but that he fondly remembered a mentor that took him under his wing when he was a young man.
* Shimkus didn’t know about the IMs until last Friday.
Hastert doesn’t figure into the story, but I assume he or his staff was notified at some point.
PD Shaw #24:
So once the story goes beyond Foley, is there any there there? To read news accounts and blogs, by golly there’s a huge scandal with Hastert at its epicenter. E.g. check “Kevin Drum’s”: posts on the subject over the past few days, and the comments.
And yet. Here’s a story from “today’s ABC News The Blotter–“:http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/top_gop_staffer.html
bq. Those sources said Fordham [who just resigned under a cloud], a former chief of staff for Congressman Mark Foley, had urged Republican leaders last spring not to raise questionable Foley e-mails with the full Congressional Page Board, made up of two Republicans and a Democrat…
bq. People familiar with Fordham’s side of the story, however, said Fordham was being used as a scapegoat by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. They said Fordham had repeatedly warned Hastert’s staff about Foley’s “problem” with pages, but little was done.
bq. The complaint about Foley was brought to the chairman of the page board, Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL), last spring, and he then consulted with the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Jeff Trandahl.
bq. At Fordham’s urging, according to the sources, the matter was not given to the full board, and instead Congressman Foley was privately approached and told to stop all contact with the page he had been e-mailing.
All that buildup about coverup! and scapegoating!! and leadership guilt!!! Based on Fordham’s handing of… of…
… of the email exchange reproduced in comment #22, above.
No time for the facts–we’ve got witches to burn! And anyway, if they’re innocent, then why are prominent bloggers and journalists going after them? That proves their guilt!
FIRST OFFICIAL USE OF THE BESIEGED POLITICIAN RANDOM EXCUSE GENERATOR!
First official use of the Beseiged Politician Random Excuse Generator!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400287.html
Despite Revealing Photos, Senator to Run
By LAWRENCE MESSINA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 8:10 PM
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Sen. Randy White said Wednesday he would continue his campaign for a second term, despite the embarrassment of revealing photos of him aired on a Charleston television station.
The Webster County Democrat blamed a disgruntled former employee for stealing the photos from his computer. Some show him nude, while others show at least two men whose bodies were painted.
“There was nothing sexual about these pictures, and nothing sexual before, during or after they were taken,” White said. “But it does look bad, and it is not easy to explain.”
In a Tuesday letter to newspapers in his district, White apologized for the photos and cited a recent bout with depression and a “personal identification situation.”
White, who said he had consulted with his wife and their three children about his campaign, declined Wednesday to elaborate on the photos or the letter. White and his wife separated last year.
In airing the photos, WCHS-TV reported that White was the apparent victim of a blackmail plot. White said that no one has tried to extort him, and that the FBI told both him and the station it did not suspect blackmail.
“Without the extortion angle, it’s nothing but smut, a political smear,” said White, 51, who served three terms in the House of Delegates before winning his Senate seat in 2002.
FBI officials in Charleston and officials at the television station did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. White said he was considering suing the station.
White’s Republican opponent, Harold “Pete” Sigler, did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment Wednesday.
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/10/04/the-besieged-politician-blame-deflecting-press-release-generator%e2%84%a2/
The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator
October 04, 2006
Vox Populi, Doug Powers
Are you a politician who?s gotten into just a little bit of trouble? You and your attorney can?t get on the same page because you got on the wrong page? Tired of having to think up an excuse at the last second? Well worry no more, because The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator is here.
Don?t end up having to throw your excuses together at the last minute in haphazard fashion. Don?t be the next Mark Foley. Be prepared!
Just choose what you?ve been accused of, insert the proper information, and viola, The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator does the rest!
With The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator, you get excuses for 199 different crimes, misdemeanors and morally questionable slip-ups ? Yes, you heard it right, 199 different crimes, misdemeanors and morally questionable slip-ups ? for only $9,999.95!
That?s right, for the price of the first ten minutes of a re-election fundraiser, you get quality blame deflecting press releases that can either be faxed or emailed to the media, or read at a press conference by your attorney or family member (if there?s one who isn?t furious with you).
Here?s just one example of what you get when you order The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator:
Drunk driving
As most of you now know, (insert time of arrest, i.e. “last night,” “early this morning,” etc.) I was pulled over by officers from the (name of city) police department. As a public figure and servant of the people, I take full responsibility for my actions. I plan to check into an alcohol treatment program to confront the effects of the dreaded disease with which I have been afflicted. In taking full responsibility for my actions, I must confess that, years ago, I was sexually assaulted by (insert “clergy,” “scout leader,” etc.) which caused me to seek relief at the bottom of a bottle, but fortunately that didn?t take away my ability to accept full responsibility.
Regular beatings by my father diminished my ability to discern right from wrong, and a mother who left feminine hygiene products hanging over the shower curtain rod (or “tampons in the toilet” or “performed sexual favors on the mailman while forcing me to watch” or all of the above) cost me many friends as a child. As a result, this further pushed me to seek a means of emotional escape, culminating years later in my arrest (if election year, replace “arrest” with “cry for help”) for drinking and driving, for which I alone accept full responsibility.
Also, being afflicted with Crohn?s colitis (or chronic fatigue syndrome, shingles, painful rectal hematoma, etc.) which was misdiagnosed by a doctor at the (name of out-of-the-way hospital in an area making it difficult for the press to substantiate the claim) made it necessary to seek relief from the physical agony in the form of (name of favorite drink ? for men, if the answer is “Cosmopolitan,” use “Vodka martinis” instead).
Accepting full responsibility isn?t easy, yet it?s the right thing to do, even though I do have a child with runtism which has accumulated medical bills to the point where my arthritic wife has been forced to take a job at White Castle (if in rural area, use “Denny’s”) to allow me to continue a life of public service.
It?s been a pleasure to serve my constituency and I look forward to serving you, not to mention the homeless people I dish out turkey and potatoes to on Thanksgiving even in the throes of chronic migraines, in the future ? as I continue to grapple with this disease that I can?t help having while taking on full responsibility for this incident even though I was forever scarred by a kindergarten teacher who called me retarded.
Yes, that?s right, and with The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator, you get 198 more press releases, all fully customizable! Here?s just a sampling of accusations you?ll be fully prepared to confront:
Intern groping
Punched airport security
Instant messages to pages
The “Kennedy trifecta” (drunk driving, rape, public nudity)
Bribes
Kickbacks
Gay prostitution ring
3 a.m. voicemail
Who?s that other woman in my car?
Adultery
Highway rest area
Crack smoking
Bestiality
Prescription medication addiction
The “N” word
Botched suicide attempt
Bathhouse bust
Free event tickets
How?d that cash get in my freezer?
“Fact-finding mission” to Fiji
Peepshow
High treason
Low treason
“She sure looked 18!”
Mysterious staffer disappearance
Bullwhip fetish
Restaurant threesome
And many, many more!
The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator. Never be caught unprepared again. Order yours today! How much is your career worth to you?
To order The Besieged Politician Blame Deflecting Press Release Generator, call 1-800-RESPONSIBLE, or send $9,999.95 (include $999 for S&H) to:
Capitol Building
E Capitol St NE & 1st St NE
Washington, DC 20001
The consensus amongst the radio and news organizations in Shimkus’ district appears to be that he didn’t do enough. The emails were innocuous, but the fact that the parents were concerned about them was a red flag. I think that that fits in with the larger perception that he is a good guy, just not the brightest bulb in the pack.
Personally interesting was listening to a liberal talkshow host this morning complaining that the Democrat running against Shimkus hasn’t done enough during the last few months to map out positions on Iraq, the economy and reform. Nobody has heard from the Democratic candidate for weeks before this incident. Too little too late.
Given that the Democratic party hasn’t sought to be competitive in “traditional” districts and given gerrymandering, I’m skeptical that masturgate will cost the Republicans the House.
Thanks, PD Shaw.
It seems modest enough to want to be able to read the newspaper, and believe that further digging would reveal additional details that are in accord with the reporter’s space-constrained story.
What I get from Page 1 of today’s Baltimore Sun is that “a former senior aide to Rep. Mark Foley said he had repeatedly warned Hastert’s top aide about Foley’s inappropriate behavior toward underage pages more than two years ago.” The implication is that this warning referred to the sexually explicit material that’s been on the web for a week. But the only concrete details, buried on page 15A, go back to the 2005 exchange (see comment #22, above). Obviously, two year old warnings about Foley’s conduct with pages can’t refer to those–so exactly what is the reporter describing?
The NBC “Today” infotainment show was even worse this morning, as far as reporters cultivating a gap between what they are actually claiming and what most reasonable viewers would think they are hearing, when it comes to judging Hastert’s performance.
Print and broadcast journalism seem to be doing what they can to earn our disdain. This must be what it felt like during the 1950s Red Scare. There are Commies/perverts in High Places. Maybe these deer-in-the-headlights targets are some of them. Or maybe the media’s outrage is faux bluster, and there are mundane explanations for why these people did what they did.