October Surprise
An October surprise: a sudden, stunning event late in an election season that has the potential to greatly affect the election itself.
We’re only one day from October, but it’s close enough. The blogosphere is alight with news reports that House Republican leaders Dennis Hastert and John Boehner have been aware of Foley’s pedophilic behavior for months and did nothing about it. Boehner, who initially told the Post he had told Hastert about it, later waffled and said he couldn’t remember if he had. Please. It sure wasn’t news to the pages, who were warned about Foley by people involved with the page program. The chairman of the House page board even mounted a cursory investigation and reported that fact to Hastert’s office, although Democrats were conveniently not informed.
Blogs are outraged by the hypocrisy of it all. Says Total Information Awareness:
D.C.’s age of consent is 16, but even with that, it seems like Foley could be in some serious legal trouble in addition to the political scandal. And where is the Religious Right on this issue, when apparently Bill Clinton getting his knob slobbed by a woman clearly far beyond the age of consent was equivalent to Sodom and Gomorrah?
*crickets*
…
And as for the GOP, well…cronyism, corruption, torture, and now child pandering. Behold what your modern right-wing movement has brought you.
Americablog is pounding on the Republican leadership from every angle, and is particularly outraged at Hastert:
ABC reported this evening that GOP House Speaker Denny Hastert has asked for an investigation to make sure other pages weren’t sexually harassed or abused. But the House leadership was told almost a year ago about Mark Foleys’ hanky-panky online communications with underage pages and Hastert did nothing. Why didn’t Hastert do an investigation at the time to make sure the pages were all right? Why did Hastert leave Foley in charge of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children when he knew Foley had some possible personal issues involving the exploitation of children? Why did Hastert let Foley remain in the House leadership for a good year after he knew about these accusations? Cruising underage kids isn’t a disqualifier for being in the House leadership? Why did Denny Hastert let Foley remain anywhere near underage pages at all?
Would you let your kids near someone like Foley if you had been warned a year ago? Then why did Denny Hastert? The parent of every kid who was a page in the last year should be livid at the Republicans right now.
If the Catholic Church’s pedophilia scandal is any indicator, the GOP may be in for a very hard few weeks ahead.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: congress, dennis-hastert, foley, john-boehner, mark-foley, pedophilia, republicans
I don’t know, Joe. In order for it to be an “October Suprise”, doesn’t it have to be surprising? I can’t say that anything in this article is. Neither the self-loathing Foley nor the reactions of the party leadership. It’s a bad case of “If no-one finds out, it didn’t happen!” The Catholic Church operated under this policy for decades, and who knows how long the Republican Party has been as well. It also strikes me that they are so desperate to stay in power that they’re willing to look the other way when people commit terrible acts just so they’d have another vote in Congress.
Here’s hoping for a major turn-around in the House and Senate, that sufficient number of Democrats get elected, and that we can start shining the spotlight of public scrutiny into the dark corners where the Republican leaders have been lurking.
JOhn.
you think they would have learned from Watergate…it’s not the crime - it’s the coverup.
This is Rove’s October surprise. The press should be talking now about Woodward’s bombshell book, the Torture, Detainment, & Pardon Law, Condi ignoring Tenet’s warning and the cover-up, and all the other major shit that just hit the fan. Instead it’s the relatively trivial Foley sex scandal, creepy as it is. Foley takes one for the team, but it won’t hurt anyone else.
Rove had this in his pocket and released it at the precise time he needed to to divert the always sex-scandal-hungry media.
I disagree….everyone has already heard the torture/detainee/coverup issues. The foley scandal demonstrates an appalling hypocrisy in the so-called party of family values, and polls show people are outraged at the GOP. Its leaders have effectively been decapitated by having to talk about this and defend themselves instead of keeping the focus on the terrorism issue, which is the only issue on which the GOP believes it has advantage.