The NYDailyNews reports that Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) took $100,000 from the political PAC of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) in July of 2006. Which would just be GOP business as usual but for one thing — Reynolds had been informed months before that Foley had a certain e-mail problem.
You tell me — which was more important to Rep. Reynolds: principle or politics? I'd say Reynolds has some explaining to do, not just about the money trail, but about how "in the loop" on all of this he has been all along, given that his Chief of Staff is the former CoS for Rep. Foley…and that said CoS has been very actively involved in the Republican CYA over the last few days. (via TPM)
The Chicago Trib reports that the GOP leadership is scrambing to do damage control in the wake of the public finding out about this mess:
Republican House leaders, including Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, scrambled Saturday to distance themselves from a scandal involving a Florida lawmaker's conduct with congressional pages, disavowing responsibility for investigating the matter when it came to light months ago.
Aides to the speaker say he was not aware until last week of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned on Friday after portions of racy electronic messages between him and current and former underage congressional pages became public. But the aides conceded they could not be conclusive on the timing.
In the chaotic hours after news of the scandal broke, GOP leaders offered confusing versions of events about how much they knew and when. One top House Republican said he relayed to Hastert his sketchy understanding of the situation months ago, and another said he "cannot say with certainty" whether he passed along the information or not….
"Obviously, there was more to this," he said. "Foley basically lied to him."
Hastert's office declined requests for an interview with the speaker, but in a two-page narrative it offered an account of what happened. According to the narrative, a staff assistant in Hastert's office got a telephone call in the fall of 2005 from the chief of staff for Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-Louisiana) saying he had an e-mail exchange between Foley and a former House page that had raised concern….
Oh, I see. Now it is all Foley's fault that the Republican leadership doesn't know how to do their damn jobs properly.
Let's look at the facts: the GOP leadership was informed of an inappropriate pattern of conduct with one of the members of the leadership team (Foley was a Deputy Whip). They confront Foley, he denies wrongdoing, they let the matter drop with a "don't have any more contact with this kid" sort of slap on the wrist, with seemingly no further investigation, no information being given to the Democratic member of the page supervision committee, no notification to the Democratic leadership whatsoever, and no warning issued to other pages that I have seen anywhere.
Except there are rumors that Foley has been doing this for quite a while, apparently, and yet he was left in the Republican House leadership, he was left in charge of the committee that deals with protecting children from internet predators, he was left to his own devices without any follow-up investigation or notification of outside authorities…what in the hell is wrong with these people?!?
I swear, I could not write this much idiocy into one story and sell it as fiction. Reality truly is strange and, in this case, it's emblematic of a very big Republican problem: where is the accountability?
If the GOP won't hold themselves accountable, it's up to the public to do so. Had enough?
(Photo of Tom Reynolds with a uniform police officer from his own website. H/T to reader BQ for the Palm Beach link.)
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Carpe diem!
Balrog gets the ‘0′, so he gets to repost this:
Sieze the perp!
Book ‘em Keith O!
-GSD
Mods, please note email to fdl at g***.com. Thank you.
(R)thugs aren’t bothered by sex or $henanigans, they sleep soundly (… there’s more);
http://www.canada.com/ottawaci…..266fad43ed
carpe scelestus!
A coupla-three days ago the NYTimes did a story on how the two parties assess Congresscritters “dues”. As I recall $100K was the minimum expected. Those in leadership posts or committee chairs were expected to cough up significantly more. Wasn’t Foley a deputy whip? That puts him in GOP Congressional Party Leadership. He should have kicked in way over $100K per year…
Ben Smith at the NYDailyNews is doing some good digging on this.
Republicans Coddle Pedophiles
Christy -
I’m not suggesting that this happened, but suppose that if someone at the White House knew for some months about this imbroglio involving Mark Foley and were involved with helping cover it up, what do you think the consequences would be?
EPU’d, so reposted:
Lessee now …
If the newer pages were being warned about this guy, that puts it going back a couple of years, at least.
If the e-mails and IMs go back to 2003, that’s four years, at least, that Foley was trolling among the pages.
Then there should be more than five pages that were hit on by this SOB.
(I would think that the e-mails and IMs would make it federal, given that it runs into interstate communication.)
EPU’d last thread:
Balrog @ 135
Thanks TwistedToony.
OT:
Are 17 recommends very good at KOS?
Oilfieldguy @ 14
Only if you provide a link here and let us add Recommends.
How, when and from whom did Foley raise his money?
“Which would just be GOP business as usual but for one thing…”
Congressman Reynolds took $100K from Foley and kept his mouth shut. Sounds like quid pro quo to me. Which is GOP business as usual, no ifs ands or buts.
Here’s what that picture at the top of the post says to me:
“Look, officer, I have no idea how those nekkid kids or the trashbag full of $100 bills got into the trunk of my car. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go vote on a very important bill. A bill to keep YOUR children safe. You have kids, right? Of course you do. So do I. Heh. The Republican Party loves kids. Love to protect kids. So, if you’ll let me go vote on that bill–why, Osama could be crawling into your kid’s bedroom RIGHT NOW, and you can bet Nancy Pelosi would do exactly dick to stop him. So, officer, heh, if you’ll just let me on my way, I’ll, uh, drop those kids off at an orphanage, and uh, take the bag of cash to the uh, Capitol’s Lost and Found Department. Hey! Look! Over there! Terror!”
OT – MSNBC reports on new Mason Dixon poll: GOP-held seats in Montana, Ohio and Tennessee at risk, latest polls show.
Republican lie?
Republicans fake an investigation?
Republicans pass money around?
Republicans cannot recall?
Republicans CYA?
Naaaaaa.
Couldn’t be.
Gotta see OLBERMANN on this one.
Has anyone else noticed that David Shuster has been doing some solid factual reporting for MSNBC, too, a real turnaround from his time at Fox News?
How wonderful is it that this fell out of the sky more than a month before the election? How likely is it that not a single Democratic senator or representative will talk about it on the air? How many more times will I bother to vote in America after over 40 years with a perfect record?
We need a NEW party. One can go on and on ad nauseum about “reforming” the one we’ve got, but they just allowed habeas corpus to be effectively struck from the Constitution. They have no substance any more. A person can argue this and that, but damn, they killed America. THEY KILLED AMERICA. I reject all so-called pragmatism in this instance. It doesn’t pass moral muster.
I don’t trust a single one of them any more, and I can’t possibly be alone in this.
Brought to you by the Corrupt Bastards Club
OFG – It was a good diary. Unfortunately, 17 reccommends(’recs’) are ‘good’ but probably not enough for the ‘top’ list. There are so many people there now that it often takes 35 or more recs to make it to the big time. Some writers automatically make it – like Bonddad or Teacherken. They both do at least weekly diaries strong on research or such. They are well known and everyone regularly just recs them.
And sometimes ‘piefights’ make the rec list for some good ole fashion venting.
But keep in mind that many, MANY, diaries do not even get one comment, let alone a recommend. So great diary and effort. Thanks.
Christy:
I haven’t anyone mention this except for moi.
Denny Hastert is a former teacher/coach. As such, he is a mandatory reporter (at least in Illinois) regarding child abuse. If he SUSPECTS a child has been abused (or he hears about something) he MUST report it. He cannot investigate or ignore, but MUST report it.
Now, this “manadatory reporter” doctrine is DRILLED into the head of every working teacher, administrator and coach. School districts will not defend employees who fail to report, but will defend employees who DO report, because they are following the law.
When does Denny loose his license? He has NO excuse for sitting on this. NONE.
OT :
Over at Making Light, DaveL posted this (in the If I Disappear thread):
‘The broad powers given to Bush by this legislation allow him to capture, indefinitely detain, and refuse a hearing to any American citizen who speaks out against Iraq or any other part of the so-called “War on Terror.”
‘I’ve read a lot of posts like the one quoted which claim that American citizens are subject to all the bad stuff in the MCA act if they are designated as “unlawful enemy combatants.”
‘I’ve read the bill and honestly, I don’t see where it says that. It specifically states that the bad stuff applies to alien unlawful enemy combatants.
‘The act is bad enough in its application to non-citizens. It would of course be infinitely worse if it applied to citizens as well, but I don’t see it in the bill. Can some helpful person point out where it is?’
I’m pretty sure from reading here that the definition is written loosely enough to cover most people, and that letting the Preznit making the decisions pretty much guarantees that he will use it on citizens.
But DaveL wants a very clear, exact answer, the kind that legal minds can beat him over the head with (figuratively speaking). Can someone do this for us?
I wonder if this Foley GOP pedophilia fiasco was part of the reason W and Rove went to the Hill last week. I wonder if this was mentioned at their meeting with the House “leadership.” Has anybody asked administration spokesliars about that?
It’s not only that Reynolds took money from Foley, or that Reynolds’ chief of staff used to be Foley’s chief of staff–it’s better than that. Fordham (COS in question) is in Florida advising Foley for a “few days”. What’s up with that?
Let’s just all ask our Republican elected officials why they coddle sexual predators. And for those upstate NY readers, call Reynolds’ office and ask why he is so willing to help out a known sexual predator.
An extremely strong commentary from the Miami Herald
Are we so morally sick? Have we lost our bearings?BY ARIEL DORFMAN
http://www.miami.com/mld/miami…..641045.htm
“It still haunts me, the first time — it was in Chile, in October of 1973 — that I met someone who had been tortured. To save my life, I had sought refuge in the Argentine Embassy some weeks after the coup that had toppled the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, a government for which I had worked. And then, suddenly, one afternoon, there he was. A large-boned man, gaunt and yet strangely flabby, with eyes like a child, eyes that could not stop blinking and a body that could not stop shivering.
That is what stays with me — that he was cold under the balmy afternoon sun of Santiago de Chile, trembling as though he would never be warm again, as though the electric current was still coursing through him. Still possessed, somehow still inhabited by his captors, still imprisoned in that cell in the National Stadium, his hands disobeying the orders from his brain to quell the shuddering, his body unable to forget what had been done to it just as, nearly 33 years later, I, too, cannot banish that devastated life from my memory.
It was his image, in fact, that swirled up from the past as I pondered the current political debate in the United States about the practicality of torture. Something in me must have needed to resurrect that victim, force my fellow citizens here to spend a few minutes with the eternal iciness that had settled into that man’s heart and flesh, and demand that they take a good hard look at him before anyone dare maintain that, to save lives, it might be necessary to inflict unbearable pain on a fellow human being.”
brat at 24 — we talked about that quite a bit in the comments of the last post, actually. You are correct that Hastert would have been a mandatory reporter as a teacher and should have had some passing knowledge of the red flag signs to look for in terms of grooming and other, shall we say, more obvious sexual harassment behaviors (such as discussing masturbation with one young man in IMs, which they seemingly never uncovered because they failed to do any investigation beyond a very superficial one, if that much). And if Hastert hadn’t been paying attention on that during teacher awareness training, any number of the former US attorneys that serve in Congress or work for the committees as counsel should have been able to tell him. Pathetic.
Christy,
I’ve got a couple of questions which may have already been asked and have certainly been implied in the Foley posts and comments so far. But here goes:
1. As a former prosecutor, what steps SHOULD Boehner et al have taken when it was reported that Foley may have been harrassing pages by e-mail and/or text messages? Is there a threshhold for required informing of law enforcement that appears to have been neglected somewhere?
2. Are the staffers who oversee the House Page program trained as many coaches, scouting administrators and educators now are to be wary of signs that something like Foley’s scam is taking place?
3. And for all the doggies here – should the page program be shut down until a review has taken place? Go to the nearest GOP or Dem’s web page and see if a page like this shows up under constituent services or some such topic:
http://donyoung.house.gov/pages.htm
As far as I’m concerened ALL Representatives and Senators should remove links to this kind of page page from their sites until an investigation IS CONCLUDED AND REMEDIES IMPLEMENTED.
Am I repeating a link? Sorry if so, but here’s a Page Alumni with some details: how long ago, who knew, how the Pages handled it, and Foley’s specific grooming behavior:
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/flor…..17,00.html
Balrog @ 15
Like this?
Not to blogpimp for my Diary at KOS on your blog Christy, but this candidate advocacy thing is heating up. I/we could probably use some pointers on effective internet utilization for this purpose.
In deference to FDL, I waited until after Howie put up his post here for the Saturday Blue candidate virtual townhall to post mine at KOS.
I’m sorta Forrest Gumping my way through this. This would make a kewl Late Night discussion, perhaps.
Teddy at 31 — I linked that above, but it is worth a repeat. Ick.
Was the page a Katrina victim?
Still, I do have some high calibre names on my recommend list.
This entire thing is just so disturbing.
JHF @ 21
No, you’re not alone but what we REALLY have to do is get $$$ out of politics.
A ‘bois’ nite out?
The cost of ‘busyness’?
A private weekend with the Vienna Boys’ Choir?
How much did BushCo know…and when did they know it? NRCC = Rove = Bush
OFG at 36 — I know, the ick factor in all of this is gross. The worst part about this is that I have not only seen much, much worse but that in most cases like this, when you find this sort of pattern of behavior, the more you dig…well, it doesn’t get any better, let’s just put it that way. Blergh.
Looking at Foley’s campaign fund, I noticed something. His contributions to the NRCC changed over the last three election cycles.
2002-$35,826 LINK
2004-$15,000 LINK
2006-$115,000 LINK
Hmm, what changed in 2005-06 cycle? Oh, yeah, those pesky emails.
Oilfieldguy @ 35
Where’s the recommend button? I registered at KOS last week so I could rec one of Mary’s diaries, which I did. Now, I can’t find the button??? WTF is it? ; )
TIA
Prairie Sunshine @ 39
That’s what I was driving at, though in my own less than concise way.
ET @ 11:22, for all practical purposes, since Congress is on recess, the Page Program is on hiatus. I know I’d be in DeeCee packing all my kid’s stuff (there’s a hypothetical!) and meeting with our Congresscritter to get some answers.
Here’s my question, though: what referrals to the criminal justice system have been made, by whom, and why the year-long delay? The “creepy” emails (which no one read) are grounds for referral under mandated reporting. Unless, of course, there was a program already in place for handling Foley’s problem:
1. Shut the kid up.
2. Placate the parents.
3. Tell Foley to quit it (again)
4. Exclude Democrats
I do not believe Hastert, Boehner, Blunt, Shimkus and Reynolds should survive this. Especially if there’s been no referral to law enforcement YET.
Coz: make sure you’re logged in under your user name. It happens to me sometimes, the login does not always remember or read by saved cookies.
I harken every one back to the Franklin/King controversy of the late 80’s and early 90’s. There has been smoke on this fire for many, many years…investigators died in strange plane crashed, suicides, kids reporting that they were used in a sex ring. This is part of a larger pattern and I have been waiting for many years for this to finally blow up. This could damage the republican party severly for years to come if there’s fire and it’s not just smoke. My gut says it wasn’t just smoke back then (why so many deaths and suicides???).
Check it out. Franklin/King case republicans child porno ring.
I’d also love to know how many phone calls were made between the NRCC and the White House. Calls like that are going to hurt the GOP in the NH Phone Jamming Scandal. Several people pled guilty or were convicted in that case form 2002, and there’s an ongoing lawsuit. Talking Points Memo has been all over that one, if you want details.
Pachacutec @ 45
I tried that this morning, logged out and then back in. Still nada
CHS,
The behavior of the Republican leadership reminds me of a story several years ago when Arkansas passed a law making it illegal for a husband to abuse his wife.
They had to go out and inform people of this new law.
Naturally, some of the men who were notified were outraged, making comments like it was their wife (property) and they could treat her however they see fit.
Does congres think their needs to be another law?
Pachacutec @ 45
It could be I just don’t know where to look!?
I had trouble finding it last week too
Why couldn’t Foley just be a “NORMAL PERVERT”? http://mediamatters.org/items/200609290003
He’d be up for a ‘Savage Reward’ or Freedom medal.
Upper right side, under “Menu.” See if your user name appears, or if you see a “Login” link.
THeotherWA at 41.. Reynolds was the recipient of 100,000 from the Foley pac in July. Can’t remember where I saw it, maybe AMERICABLOG, since John has been doing enormous work on this. Reynold’s is part of the cover up and hopefully that means another Dem pickup. I think he represents Buffalo but not sure.
I’m wondering how much ink/airtime this sex scandal gets in the mainstream press, as compared to the amount of ink/airtime devoted to the torture legislation that went through Congress last week. My guess is that the ratio will be something like 10-1 in favor of the sex…
Pachacutec @ 52
That part is fine, I’m logged in
JL at 53 — um, could it have been in this post that you saw it (see title above)…*G*
Inquiring Minds Want To Know –
Are ALL Elected Republicans Perverts, Pedophiles, and Child Molesters?
Pachacutec @ 52
OK, I think I found it. Thanks!
-ck- @ 57
Not all. Some are just pimps.
Speaking of being accountable to republicans, click (yeah, I know, you’ll feel dirty) and see joe4joe in his pajamas;
http://pajamasmedia.com/2006/0….._indep.php
Letter to the editor (Anchorage Daily News) I sent just now:
As a constituent and parent planning on having my son go to Washington, DC in the spring as part of the “Close-Up” program, it is appalling that days after Rep. Don Young’s friend Rep. Mark Foley has resigned for abusing young pages, Rep. Young is still soliciting kids and their parents to apply for entry to the program. Here is the link from Young’s web site: http://donyoung.house.gov/pages.htm
I call upon Rep. Young, who I have supported many times in the past, to immediately request an independent prosecutor in this manner, and to suspend the page program until the investigation is concluded and reforms put in place. I also hope Young has the courage to call for the resignation of all U.S. House Representatives, whatever their political affiliation, who failed to act appropriately in this sad affair.
Foley’s congressional district is the hometown of Bush’s deputy campaign manager for the 2004 presidential election. What are the chances that the entire political apparatus of the White House was not aware of Foley’s habits?
Wonder how Denny’s polling goes in the next couple of weeks…GO LAESCH
Could we do a little media activism this week, starting today?
There’s all those ‘newscasters’ or ‘news anchors’, what ever you call them, like Nancy Grace and the talking heads of Court TV, many newspapers, tv stations, radio talk shows that we should writing/calling this week asking for coverage of this scandal. Grace and her ilk are always hot to discuss the latest missing white woman, celebrity scandals up to and including murder. Several of these people got their big break covering OJ, or Jon Benet or Monica, surely this kind of scandal, powerful men covering up the actions of a child stalker member of their party, merely to avoid scandal and try to hold onto their power in the House should be perfect topics that could remain ‘hot’ for weeks on the talk circuits.
Work up a few pithy statments you could put in a ‘clean’ LTE, or send to Cafferty or local radio show, and get those internets and phone lines hot with our collective horror that the GOP leadership knew or should have known about Foley’s stalking of minor children. (Minor children as defined by a law that he, Foley, moved through Congress).
Be horrified, be upset, and keep mentioning that this scandal was covered up by Republican Congressmen with power over these young people.
No eye-glazing analysis needed, just heart-felt concern for the kids and anger at the Republican men who covered up for Foley.
Ed*ard Teller @ 61
WHOOO HOOO!
Somebody mentioned a while back seeing Rove somewhere using a disposable cell phone? Is this why? So the calls couldn’t be traced when he’s orchestrating his dirty tricks and coverups?
It’s not unusually large”. Why are people saying this without some research?
Damn. I meant to say “NOT unusually large” in my prior comment.
Fixed it.
JL @ 53
It’s hard to keep these straight, but Foley’s PAC is rather small. Leadership PAC didn’t make the $100K contribution we’re talking about here.
Foley’s campaign made the contribution to the NRCC, which is run by Reynolds. Foley gave rather small amounts in 2002 and 2004, but jumped to $115K for this election cycle. When spending patterns change that much, it means something’s up, IMHO.
OT — sorry, but I think this bears watching.
Something serious is happening right now in Oaxaca, MX.
Military is mobilizing, and there are rumors of an “attack” that is supposed to start at 10:00 pm.
We need to watch this carefully; this could just as easily be the U.S. in November if the elections are stolen again.
WaPo editorial calling for outside investigation of the GOP sex scandal; calls the ethics panel “a black hole of inaction riven by partisan divisions.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01028.html
I’m should be preparing a lecture right now…but, oh well. Americablog directs us to: http://blogs.nydailynews.com/d…..ds_def.phpEwwww. The Rough Riders? Double ewwwww.
Given the explosive nature of this latest GOP moral and political atrocity, I dread the coming October surprise that drives the GOP’s bad news off the front pages.
A thread post at Crooks and Liars had a suggestion that a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf would be “attacked” as a pretext to going after Iran.
It is a sickening thought but I believe these Mayberry fascists capable of ANYTHING especially when they’re slipping so badly.
From the link at my comment – #67:
Is today October 1st??
Hey Karl Rove…..
SUPRISE!!!!!
Crush the GOP.
What about those Family Values?
Where’s my man James Dobson?
Pat Robertson?
Jerry Falwell?
and the rest of the fundies?
What will Bill O say?
The Sounds of Silence are deafening.
Foley was just doing his part grooming the Jeff Gannons of tomorrow.
I’m with Thom about the need for further investigation.
I’m skeptical about 100K donated to the NRCC when it’s not uncommon to find large donations from other Repugs of more than 50K at a pop. I’ve done some opporesearch on Repugs in my state; they often send what is labeled “excess funds” to the NRCC or RNC. What’s more challenging is tracking the money after that point; we don’t know if Foley was getting shaken down by somebody because we don’t have all the details about allocations after it reaches NRCC.
Further, it is an election year and unusual for mid-terms at that; look at how much the Repugs are having to spend on negative ads as a clue to the degree of weirdness. You’ll also see unusual activity in Dem FEC reporting, with big spikes approaching this mid-term.
We need more data. The 100K story makes for good reading and should raise pique, but it’s not enough data.
What would be very nice is a report showing all contributions to the NRCC over the last decade, to see if there are any unusual outliers. Were Foley’s contribution to stand out, then I’d be very suspicious (more than I already am).
Balrog,
At the risk of great personal harm, it is my duty to inform you to
DONATE $20 to ACT BLUE
I will also donate $20 to the Mahoney race!
GO BLUE – Its great to be a Michigan Wolverine!
Cozumel @
42
I’ll be looking, too. Just registered in order to do the recommend thing over there. Sigh, all the talk about “high numbers”, I’ve been lurking there for years, never really needed to join, til now.
If there was a big push for money from officials in safe seats, then maybe Foley’s contribution doesn’t mean as much as I’d thought. Maybe.
Rayne
Correct. They were getting extra campaign cash for “sure thing” incumbents. (Not this one, we now know.)
windje @ 77
This usual gang of suspects shall hide in hopes that the media will make it go away for them. It may.
The GOP seems to work kinda like the Catholic Church. Morality is for the untermenschen.
-ck- @
57
ck- I think we need to be VERY clear and very insistent about this;
we need to shout it on the call-in shows, in the letters-to-the editors, to all conservative friends and relatives, from the rooftops:
ALL Republicans are NOT pedophiles.
We must not allow all of our conservative associates to be unfairly stereotyped, so please, repeat with me:
ALL Republicans are NOT pedophiles.
I’ll let you know as soon as I find one whom I can unconditionally swear is NOT a pedophile, but in the mean time:
ALL Republicans are NOT pedophiles.
ALL Republicans MAY be pedophile coddlers and enablers, however, so we should ask all Republicans if they support the covering up of child predation, and what legal action should be taken against those involved in such crimes.
I just don’t see how Hastert and Reynolds are going to survive this–we’re only two days into the story.
Anyone care to place bets on who resigns first? I say Reynolds, given that his CoS is now down there “advising” Foley. That’s REALLY going to bite him in the ass.
Looking ahead, how does this affect the RNCC when (not if) Reynolds goes?
Other question: who’s the other Republican on the House Page Committee? Shimkus and the Dem–there’s one more R.
Don’t know if this has been posted yet, but more details on Foley’s MO. He apparently waited until the pages finished their program and had returned home before contacting them. Then beginning with friendly the messages would become more explicit.
As one experienced law enforcement officer said, in cases like this, you often find that you are dealing with an iceberg phenomenon — there’s more underneath.
We’re entering the stretch, folks. Pressure’s mounting. Oh, my head.
Foley’s contributions to the RNCC are only relevant in terms of who accepted them knowing his predilections.
That’d be Reynolds, for starters.
TheOtherWA @ 82
I disagree. It really doesn’t matter if there was a quid pro quo or not. Their defense to a quid pro quo charge is that lots of Republican Congressmen write checks to Reynolds for $100,000. That doesn’t help them. It’s hard to protray yourself as an “average Joe” who cares about “regular people” if you’re someone who can whip out your checkbook and drop $100,000 on a man who’s shielding a pedophile.
Thom #83 – thanks.
Some of the money ends up going to very obvious places — like the 1.2 mil the Repugs ponied up for negative ads against Sherrod Brown alone (although that might not have come from NRCC).
And some of it clearly needs to be chased; a lot of the DeLay-Abramoff money was thoroughly washed through one or more PAC’s before it arrived at its destination. It’s mind-boggling once you start poking around through any Repug’s PAC monies to follow the money. Been there, done that, wanted to vomit from sheer frustration and rage afterwards. (You want to flagellate yourself? Try following the money in and out of Tom Coburn donations. Ugh.)
But to upgrade my comment on the NRCC contributions being relevant only to those who knew about Foley’s “habits,” that’s sure as hell NOT to say that Democrats shouldn’t make serious hay from those contributions: notice that Deborah Pryce’s (R-OH) opponent is demanding that she return Foley’s $$.
That’s a hell of a tough one to dodge, and the perfect thing to do while this is crippling them–attack, attack, attack.
I’m definatly of the mind that this mess pulled the rug out from under the October surprise planned by Rove. The GOP has been grooming their base as homophobic prudes for a couple of decades now and it has finally come back to bite them in the rear big time.
oddball @
80
Congratulations. $20 to Tim Walz on the way.
Moeman @ 60
And adding to that, Lieberman continues to receive tainted Republican money. This, from an article written by Robert Novak in Human Events: The National Conservative Weekly
“GWB for Joe
George W. Bush moved a step closer to Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s re-election bid in Connecticut as an independent candidate when Tom Kuhn, the president’s college roommate and close friend, co-sponsored a Lieberman fund-raising luncheon Thursday in downtown Washington.
Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, raised more than $100,000 for Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. Also among the Lieberman event’s sponsors was Rick Shelby, a longtime Republican operative who currently is executive vice president of the American Gas Association.
The luncheon’s sponsors pressed fellow Republican lobbyists to pay a minimum of $1,000 a ticket. Lieberman has announced he will stay in the Democratic caucus if re-elected. But Republicans backing him against antiwar candidate Ned Lamont, the Democratic nominee, hope for a change of heart by Lieberman.”
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=17292
I cannot express the depth of my humility for those who have answered my request for a recommend of my Kos diary.
An especial thank you to the sunrise lady of the lake, Christy Hardin Smith.
And now for something extremely disgusting.
I have noticed, in numerous examples, how Foley is described as Gay. Outside of this community, never in my life have I had a gay friend.
This equation of gay=pedophile truly enrages me. As a heterosexual male, I want all my FDL fairy (not meant to be a slur–a term of endearment) pals to be on notice, that I hear this dog-whistle bigotry, find it vile and do not approve.
Two Beers at 85: "All Republicans are NOT pedophiles "…and let’s add, "Nor are they sexual predators". Now THAT’S a slogan. Coming soon to a bumper sticker near you.
Foley’s the West Palm Beach rep, yes? Wonder if he was on any of those private jet flights down to the Dominican with Viagra LimpBalls?
Incidentally, no one’s mentioned the obvious reason that Reynolds’s Chief of Staff is “advising” Foley: He’s a spy. (And don’t try to tell me they’re just really good friends. He’s a Republican, after all.) They have no idea what else might surface, and they don’t know if Foley can bring down other members of Congress. If Foley’s antics were well-known, it would make sense for other pedophiles to contact him. I think Reynolds is trying to get a feel for how much Foley is going to say. Foley may be facing criminal charges, in which case he’s going to want to cut a deal. Reynolds knows he’s in deep shit, so he needs to be as far ahead of the curve as he can on this.
This has all the ingredients that cable TV just loves. Sex, Power, Corruption.
It was the same deal with Gary Condit in 2001. 24/7 coverage. It took 9/11 to knock it off their radar
Happy October, Karl! LOL
Reminder: Bob Woodward on 60 Minutes tonight. Obviously to talk about State of Denial.
I think cyberspace ate my last comment? Is there any connection between Foley and the sex tourism trips of V**gra Limp….?
Oilfieldguy @ 96
I whole heartedly agree OFG. I mentioned this in a thread yesterday. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with this matter other than sensationalizing it in the media. What really matters is the fact that these pages are TEENAGERS being preyed upon by a 50-year old man in a position of power who was effectively a direct supervisor in an employment situation. That is the baseline fact.
shooogarp at 102.
Right on target. Foley is a sexual predator. A Republican sexual predator. Nothing else to it.
chisholm @ 92
Speaking of noticing, Deborah Pryce’s (R-OH-15) opponent is Mary Jo Kilroy.
Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress!
**TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT — NEED TO BACKTRACK THESE NUMBERS. SUBJECT TO CORRECTION.**
Okay, more details. This is why I’m skeptical about the reporting so far on the 100K. Foley has an open campaign PAC that has made the following donations:
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE 11/14/2003 15000.00 24990203661
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE 08/26/2004 200000.00 24962412537
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE 07/27/2006 100000.00 26960337184
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS 09/10/1997 5000.00 98032720061
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS 05/08/1998 5000.00 98033371360
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS 09/09/1998 100000.00 98033711957
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS 10/27/1999 15000.00 20035204017
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS 10/29/2000 50000.00 20036541813
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS 01/04/2002 15000.00 22990637627
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONS 10/11/2002 20000.00 22992353298
The unique number you see with each line item is a transaction number generated by FEC, to the best of my knowledge.
The question I have is whether any of these transactions occurred in tandem with some other “political” event (i.e., somebody leaned on him about his situation, etc.), or if these were simply inocuous transfers from a district that has been safely red.
Why did the 100K get picked up versus the rest of these transfers?? Or was it only because Reynolds chaired the NRCC at the time of that transfer?
Foley also has another PAC: Florida Republican Leadership PAC. Did anybody look at these monies?
More and better reporting still needed.
**LINK TO CHECK ABOVE DONATIONS**
CTVoter @ 103
After the baseline fact I stated in 102, the real political issue that we need to hammer on is THE COVERUP. Because as Christy has emphasized, this CYA and “hold on to power at all costs” attitude is what the Republican Party is ALL about.
Further, we need to hammer home the point that the reason why they will commit actual crime to hold on to power, is all the money to be made through cronyism.
It’s GREED pure and simple.
They are essentially selling our children.
Moderator(s) – please close what appears to be an open italics tag from comments 72 through 85.
The GOP House leadership protected a sex predator of children for a YEAR. Where is law enforcement? Where is the FBI? What agency is charged with enforcing Foley’s Adam Walsh Law, for pete’s sake?
Paging Ken Starr.
Paging Rita Cosby.
Paging John Stoessel.
Watertiger’s offering an excellent Face The Snark upstairs.
Speaker Dennis Hastert has always been, and will remain, a get-along/go-along type guy. The Speaker’s power was always been accumulated by false fiat. Hastert is a victim of his own stupidity. So it is with George Bush. This man has fallen prey to his false perception of “Cowboyism”. There ARE a few real cowboys and cowgirls here in the southwest, and America. What Bush fails to perceive is that real cowpersons stand up for the ‘Little Guy’, strongly buy into the concept of hard work, and they know the difference between right and wrong. And most importantly, cowpersons are acutely aware of the trough that exists in the huge Grand Canyon size gulf that separates morality from it’s opposite. The ethic of the cowboy, George, has nothing to do with the clothes one wears, the music one listens to, the swagger, the bellicosity, the contemptible arrogance, or the haircut being sported. Cowboyism, George Bush, and cowgirlism, Karen Hughes (you Texas fake two-steppers) is a state of mind. A matter of principle. You guys will just never get it. Adios, Republicans. And tin-horns. It’s almost autumn. What “plays in Peoria” is not necessarily the ‘cowboy-way’, Georgie. President Bush, you are historically stupid.
Progressives are the real cowpersons.
And the Democrats will preside over the round-up this fall and in 2008. And you, Rove, Cheney and the rest know it. And it scares the living daylights out of you. And it should.
— JUST WONDERING OUT LOUD. HOW MUCH THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT MANAGED TO LAUNDER AND PASS TO MR. FOLEY’S RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGAN? OR, SAY, FOR FUN, THE PEDERARIST PROTECTION PEOPLE ? THE P.P.P. IF YOU GET MY DRIFT… HIS RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION[S] [SNARK] MIGHT ALSO PROVIDE SOME FERTILE GROUND, SOME SIFTING. SMELLY WORK, THOUGH… BUT, AJAX, WITH LIESOL WILL NOT WASH THIS OFF.
Gets very, very weird.
Foley’s Florida Republican Leadership PAC gave $1K to John Conyers in 1998.
Strange. This is one more reason why we have to be careful about the donations aspect.
Ooops. My Bad. Thanks for brining up the teacher thang.
I’m a licensed teacher (now working in higher ed) and I’ve been floored at how gawd-damned angry I am at Hastert. He’s just disgusting and utterly corrupt. It’s like he’s functiong in the 1970s….
Every teacher/administrator ed program since the late 1970s has DRILLED the “manadtory reporter” mantra into educators’ collective heads. Hastert’s not reporting is a GROSS violation of professional ethics.
Hastert and the GOP OBVIOUSLY care not a whit for the welfare of children. Period.
brat at 24 — we talked about that quite a bit in the comments of the last post, actually. You are correct that Hastert would have been a mandatory reporter as a teacher and should have had some passing knowledge of the red flag signs to look for in terms of grooming and other, shall we say, more obvious sexual harassment behaviors (such as discussing masturbation with one young man in IMs, which they seemingly never uncovered because they failed to do any investigation beyond a very superficial one, if that much). And if Hastert hadn’t been paying attention on that during teacher awareness training, any number of the former US attorneys that serve in Congress or work for the committees as counsel should have been able to tell him. Pathetic.
Mahoney, a Democrat running his first political campaign, earlier this month filed a defamation lawsuit against the Foley campaign for what he described as misleading television ads. A week later, Mahoney hosted a news conference in West Palm Beach to accuse Foley of improperly receiving homestead exemptions in both Florida and Washington, D.C. Foley denied the claim.
http://thefloridamasochist.blo…..foley.html
In the rush to make a mountain out of every mole hill that favors our side, I’ll simply point out that the following objective look at this issue by Talking Points Memo:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c…..010096.php
So in essense, the donation was political business-as-usual rather than an ostensible payoff on this matter.
The latter, while possibly true, is purely conjecture.
Simon
There’s all those ‘newscasters’ or ‘news anchors’, what ever you call them, like Nancy Grace and the talking heads of Court TV, many newspapers, tv stations, radio talk shows that we should writing/calling this week asking for coverage of this scandal. Grace and her ilk are always hot to discuss the latest missing white woman, celebrity scandals up to and including murder. Several of these people got their big break covering OJ, or Jon Benet or Monica, surely this kind of scandal, powerful men covering up the actions of a child stalker member of their party, merely to avoid scandal and try to hold onto their power in the House should be perfect topics that could remain ‘hot’ for weeks on the talk circuits.
my thoughts exactly. Here’s old Greta’s email:
For Nancy Grace you have to go through a web interface:
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5c.html?24
Ironic that ‘America’s Most Wanted’ may have to hunt down Foley.
Please notice the date of this story:
Thursday, December 8, 2005, 6:30 pm
Foley gets challenger
http://www.heraldtribune.com/a…..mp;start=1
Mahoney filed his candidacy papers with the Federal Elections Commission about 8 weeks ago. His first campaign fund raising disclosure report comes out in January.
One year ago, Tim Mahoney changes parties from Republican to Democrat. What in the world made him change parties? Did he think it would be easy to beat Foley? Are they blaming Mahoney with the leak to give him a good cover posing as a Dem, or is Mahoney really a Dem?
The article says he lives in Highlands County but records indicate he lives in a golf community in Palm Beach? I know he has a lot of acreage in Venice, right by the Sugar Cane Fields.
Making me nuts.
GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001
That’s ABC News, which has done the best investigative reporting on this.
I think Aravosis has something up about this, and it may or may not be of any significance, but there is another Foley/Reynolds connection, and that is former Foley chief-of-staff/campaign manager Kirk Fordham, who just happened to have gone to work for Reynolds as his chief-of-staff around the time Alexander notified Reynolds of the emails to the page from Louisiana. Wonder what Fordham knows. Also as an aside, the Washington Blade reports that Fordham is gay.
We now know the going rate for hush money for Reynolds if you’re a well-connected Republican friend with some unsavory habits. But what if you’re not so well-connected? What’s the rate then? Is there a menu somewhere on his website that lists rates for particular sins?
Just askin’
Kelven @ 93
You’ve just got to love their being “hoisted by their own petard.” One of the scripts on their recent push-polling has been about “Nancy Pelosi and the San Francisco liberals taking over Congress.” They have fueled the fire on this homophobia and will now pay the price with the “blowback” on Foley.
Kelven @ 93
Thank you ABC, thank you! They may not have fully made up for Path to 9/11, but they are on the way to redeeming themselves. (You also have to wonder if they didn’t choose to launch this so aggressively due to their being on the defensive with Democrats.)
You’ve just got to love their being “hoisted by their own petard.” One of the scripts on their recent push-polling has been about “Nancy Pelosi and the San Francisco liberals taking over Congress.” They have fueled the fire on this homophobia and will now pay the price with the “blowback” on Foley.Prof @ 120
Has this been quoted enough? From 17th century earl John Wilmot
Then give me health, wealth, mirth, and wine
And if busie Love intrenches,
There’s a sweet soft page, of mine,
Does the trick worth forty wenches.
Howard Dean was right – challenge everywhere.
WHICH REPUBLICANS PROTECTED A CHILD PREDATOR?
1. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La, NO Democratic challenger.
2. John Shimkus, R- Illinois’s 19th, oversight for the House Page Program has a challenger ,
*Dan Stover
http://www.stoverforcongress.us/
3. Majority LeaderJohn Boehner (R-Ohio, 8th) challenger:
*Morton Meier
http://www.victimsofjohnboehner.org/
4. Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) challenger:
* John Leasch
http://www.john06.com/home
5. National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y. 26th) challenger:
*Jack Davis
http://www.jackdavis.org/new/