Apt description from one Kossack.

I really don’t get why this hasn’t made the Democrats’ radar. It’s got it all: sex, drugs, treason, corruption by the Republican former Speaker…What we’re talking about is Republicans literally selling us out in the War on Terror, and squashing any whistleblower who makes noise about it, classic crime-and-coverup material. This is a total of three former FBI people trying to get some attention in all this. Pelosi? Reid? Where the hell are you people? “Large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder,” isn’t that worth some attention? The silence in all is this enough to make a girl wear foil.

Yes, Denny the Hutt is still in action, and apparently believes he’s a draw for Republican candidates. No doubt he is.

[Hastert] recently endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, signaling that he may play a public role in the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign, at least in helping court Chicago-area donors.

This activity comes after a brief hibernation. After news of ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s [R-Neverland] inappropriate contact [“Don’t forget to measure for me”] with House pages [and waiters? Busboys?] emerged last fall, Hastert canceled dozens of fundraising events for Republican candidates as he dealt with a public-relations uproar [Very nice touch. No ethical, moral, or legal issues at all!] over how his office handled the page scandal. (The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct later concluded that Hastert’s top staff showed an “inexplicable lack of interest in the e-mails” from Foley to pages.)

“Inexplicable,” eh?  Read more 

It would be so nice to have a job that pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, plus all the perks I can scam for myself, plus access to hawt, firm, youthful flesh ready to service me at the drop of an email. No, you’re not surprised. Yes, Democrats better fix this kind of “oversight” ASAP:

The investigative subcommittee therefore recommends no further investigative or disciplinary proceedings against any person.

IOKIYAR, now, today, forever and until after the Rapture. If you don’t want Elder Statesmen Closet Cases showing up at your teenaged kid’s intern parties and message boards, you should move to China. Or something.

I confess I haven’t followed this all too closely, but there are plenty of links for readers who want to know more:

here is an email that mike mejia wrote to Risen at the NYT, re sibel:

Dear Mr. Risen,

Since 2002, the New York Times has written several articles on the case of former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. The substance of nearly all these articles has concerned the U.S. Justice Department’s actions to keep Ms. Edmonds’ allegations about security breaches at the FBI completely classified and top secret. Few of these articles have asked the important question, “Why is the government taking such extreme measures to keep Ms. Edmonds silent?”

Thanks to an article by Vanity Fair in 2005, we know have a good idea that the information the U.S. government is trying to suppress is, at least in part, a political bombshell- namely that the second in line to the Presidency, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, has taken several bribes from Turkey, dating back to the late 90s, in exchange for political favors. Of course, the Vanity Fair story was completely anonymously sourced, and thus was not picked up by the Times.

Now, Sibel Edmonds has two former FBI agents willing to go on the record confirming these allegations against Hastert.  Read more 

This post is starting to sound a lot more like truth. All you need to know from ABC today:

The Republican source said Trandahl planned to name Ted Van Der Meid, the speaker’s counsel and floor manager, as the person who was briefed on a regular basis about any issue that arose in the page program, including a “problem group of members and staff who spent too much time socializing with pages outside of official duties.” One of whom was Mark Foley.

More than one. More than two. Inclusive of staffers.  Read more 

I was just saying, and stories like this only prove my point further. Wake up, Dems. Make media reform a priority, or forever fight an uphill battle with no armor or weapons.

 Read more 

And it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of pedophile-enabling authoritarian death cultists. WaPo:

Weeks before the Nov. 7 elections, the Mark Foley scandal and its aftermath have already had a visible effect on Republican prospects: Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), the two men leading the GOP efforts to keep power in the House, have both been largely sidelined from the public campaign.

Both leaders, however, have drastically curtailed their appearances this month after coming under fire for what critics have called an inadequate response to early warnings about Foley’s behavior with House pages.

In the past week alone, Republicans have canceled nearly a dozen campaign events with Hastert and Reynolds. Rep. Don Sherwood (Pa.) — who is one of the GOP’s most endangered incumbents after revelations that his former mistress had sued him in Maryland, alleging assault — told both men not to come to his district, forgoing crucial campaign dollars to minimize additional negative press. In addition, at least seven House GOP candidates have donated to charity nearly $20,000 in contributions that they had received from Foley before the scandal broke.

No wonder Bush is so cranky. He’s having to work harder than usual, to pick up the slack.

Perhaps there is a God, after all.  Read more 

Finally, somebody picks up on this. ABC:

[This] should be the key bit of learning from this entire tawdry affair. The principals involved — Foley and Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the speaker of the House — offer some key lessons about abuse of power and the unwillingness of leaders to deal with that abuse.

Interestingly, the author, Bob Rosner, puts the story in the context of workplace harassment:  Read more 

Truthout:

Palmer, who shares a townhouse with Hastert when they are in town, is more powerful than all but a few House members. Members know that he speaks for Hastert.  Read more 

WaPo:

In a statement today, Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, said he passed on the youth’s complaint to Foley’s office and the clerk of the House after the page, whom he had sponsored, contacted his office in 2000 or 2001.

Asked today about Kolbe’s statement, Hastert said, “All I know is that Congressman Kolbe at that time was on the page board. But he was on the page board. That was … his job to do that, that confrontation. I don’t know anything more about it. If it was something that was of a nature that should have been reported or brought forward, then he should have done that.”

Honestly. Can’t the Republicans ever take responsbility for anything?  Read more 

And why am I using the past tense?

LA Times: Everybody knew about Foley:

Foley’s Proclivities an Open Secret?
“Almost the first day I got there I was warned,” said Mark Beck-Heyman, a San Diego native who served as a page in the House of Representatives in the summer of 1995. “It was no secret that Foley had a special interest in male pages,” said Beck-Heyman, adding that Foley, who is now 52, on several occasions asked him out for ice cream.

Jeebus.

Another former congressional staff member said he too had been the object of Foley’s advances. “It was so well known around the House. Pages passed it along from class to class,” said the former aide, adding that when he was 18 a few years ago and working as an intern, Foley approached him at a bar near the Capitol and asked for his e-mail address.

Hastert and the Republican leadership say “We didn’t see the Instant Messages! And besides, we banned Foley from from contact with that page!”(Anyone notice those two statements contradict? If they ban him from contact, why not dig deeper and find the IMs?)

But anyone, even Republicans, who’s not part of the leadership, can see that what Haster should have done:  Read more