The political party that has long represented the "moral" compass of our nation has reached another high. I've not written in a while so I need to rebuild things a bit(which I'm going to do) but this thing with Rep Mark Foley, R-FL, has given me a case of the redass.

I guess what bugs me the most about this is that the Repugs sat on this for months. Now today, Repug leadership came out and said Foley needs to be thoroughly investigated. The point is, they tried to keep it quiet and would've not doubt pushed it under the rug if some groups hadn't begun pushing.

_Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the Page Board that oversees the congressional work-study program for high schoolers, said he did investigate but Foley falsely assured him he was only mentoring the boy. Pages are high school students who attend classes under congressional supervision and work as messengers.

Certainly, I understand giving someone the benefit of the doubt, however, in some cases like accusations of sexually harassing teenagers, it's best to heed caution and be thorough. Obviously Shimkus and others thought this would go away.

Just as Shimkus' explanation was released, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California proposed to the House that its ethics committee investigate and make a preliminary report in 10 days. She demanded to know who knew of the messages, whether Foley had other contacts with pages and when the Republican leadership was notified of Foley's conduct.

Foley needs to be thoroughly investigated. If these accusations are anywhere close to being true, then he needs to be locked away. Of course NAMBLA might be having a pledge drive right now.

Technorati Tags: Mark Foley, John Shimkus, Dennis Hastert, Nancy Pelosi

posted by Stithmeister @ 12:44 AM