I won't say "Republican pedophile ring" but feel free to think it...
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The page [that Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA) sent creepy IM messages to] worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander (news, bio, voting record), R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents. Alexander told the Ruston Daily Leader, We also notified the House leadership that there might be a potential problem," a reference to the House's Republican leaders.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Friday he had asked the chairman of the House's page board, Rep. John Shimkus (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill., to investigate the page system. "We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe," Hastert said.
OK, so that's ten or eleven months from the report of child abuse until now, right? So:
Denny, Denny, Denny:
1. What did you do to protect the children? [UPDATE: And that is children, plural.]
2. Why did you allow Foley to continue as Chair of the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children--when you had prima facie evidence that Foley was, himself, an exploiter of children?
3. Why did the Republican leadership do nothing, even though they've known about Foley's proclivities since 2005?
Majority Leader Boner knew Foley had a problem since "last spring". Rodney Alexander (R-Pageboy Sponsor) knew for "some months." Alexander told John Reynolds (R-Slime and Defend), chair of the Republican Campaign Committee, who "didn't do anything" because the parents said they didn't want anything done. And what about the parents of the next underage boy in their care? Alexander also told John Shimkus (R-Pageboy Honcho) in "late 2005" who did a rubbertamp investigation and issued Foley a Republican Get Out of Jail Free Card™. Naturally, no Democrats were told, even the ones on the Committee responsible for the pages. And oddly, or not, nobody's saying that they told Hastert anything. At this point with the Republicans, we know a stone wall when we see one.
To me, it looks like Denny was protecting Foley. Look at it from Foley's angle: Surely, he knew that IM transcipts can be captured and forwarded, which is just what the page ended up doing? So, either Foley was crazy, or he felt safe. And the only way Foley could really feel safe would be if he was protected.
But why would Foley assume he was protected?
In the best case, Foley could assume that any investigation would be buried, because that's in the Republican Playbook under "Best Practices."
In the worst case... Well, in the immortal words of Peggy Noonan, it would be irresponsible not to speculate. And way back in 2004, alert reader Steve at the Washington Monthly had a very interesting take on Our Denny:
You know, Hastert coached high school wrestling for years. Now I'm not saying he got into coaching wrestling because he liked to watch teenage boys grappling with each other and then showering naked in the locker room afterwards. I'm just saying he could be the sort of person who enjoys this sort of thing. We don't know. He does have a lot of ancillary interests out there....
"Ancillary interests...."
Which perhaps he shared with others?
Of course, they would never do that. Then again, we still don't know who got "Jeff Gannon" his White House pass for all those overnights, do we? Makes ya think....
NOTE I imagine we're going to start hearing "innocent until proven guilty" from Republican spin doctors. Just the kind of pre-9/11 thinking they abolished with the McCain Torture and Incumbent Preservation Act.
UPDATE There was an "investigation" After Foley hitchhiked on the Katrina disaster to email the boy for his photograph, Alexander asked John Shimkus (R-Pageboy) to look into the matter. Shimkus investigation consisted of asking Foley if Foley's request for a photo was extremely legitimate and Foley said Naturellement!. Shimkus then issued Foley a Republican Get Out Of Jail Free card. Oh, and told Foley not to have contact with the boy. And--I know you will find this hard to believe--Foley didn't tell Shimkus the truth!
