
 |
|
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Oct. 3, 2006
/ 11 Tishrei, 5767
The story they didn't want to know
By
Debra J. Saunders
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., has done what all pols who get caught do: He checked into rehab. Having been outed for sending explicit e-mails to underage male House pages, Foley issued a statement that announced he has "accepted the need for immediate treatment for alcoholism and other behavioral problems." Alcoholics should take offense.
What was he thinking? The answer is clear: He wasn't thinking. What were GOP leaders thinking? It's not clear that they were thinking, either. They were stuck in hear-no-evil, see-no-evil mode.
Speaker Denny Hastert has asked Florida and federal authorities to investigate Foley, and the FBI is doing so. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi wants the House ethics committee to investigate Hastert and other GOP biggies to probe how they reacted to the news that, in 2005, Foley sent inappropriate (if not explicitly sexual) e-mails to a 16-year-old Louisiana former House page, and asked him for his photograph.
Hastert said Monday that Foley "duped a lot of people." In 2005, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the House Page Board, confronted Foley about the Louisiana e-mails. Foley admitted to being too friendly and agreed not to contact the boy again. (It was not until Friday that Hastert says he learned of very explicit e-mails Foley sent to other pages.)
The Louisiana e-mails were not so damning that they alone rated a story. The St. Petersburg Times had copies of the Louisiana e-mails in November, but did not run a story because the e-mails were "not overtly sexual," the boy's parents did not want to go public and another page who swapped e-mails with Foley told reporters that the congressman's language was not inappropriate, political editor Scott Montgomery explained on the paper's political blog.
The Miami Herald also had those e-mails but did not run a story. I understand why. It was ABC News' airing of new, more explicit instant messages that made Foley's behavior seem not suspect and "creepy" as one page put it but predatory and quite possibly criminal.
Former GOP Rep. Tom Campbell, now dean of the University of California's Haas School of Business, believes House leaders had a responsibility to heed the misgivings of "an underage person in their care whose parents have complained." Campbell believes Hastert and company should have followed up by putting Foley in counseling and removing Foley from his chairmanship of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. A chairman of that panel would know better than to ask for a photo out of friendliness.
Democrats have been happily opportunistic in their response to the story. Witness a press release sent out by the campaign of New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who is challenging Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., calling on Wilson to return $6,000 in "dirty money" given to her by Foley. Wilson reportedly will donate the Foley contributions to charity.
Still, the Dems' opportunism has been eclipsed by Hastert's sorry demeanor. At Monday's press conference, Hastert was defensive, when he should have been angry at Foley, and at himself for not doing more. He looked like a man who didn't want to know.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.
Debra J. Saunders Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|