When there is a big story it’s always interesting to see what the various editorial pages around the country are saying. And not surprisingly, this offering will be about editorials that are weighing in on Foleygate and the calls for the resignation of Dennis Hastert. And I feel compelled to say, when I’ve done this in the past, I chose newspapers at random but always made it a point to include one conservative publication. Normally that is the Washington Times…who would have thought that in this case they would be the one to lead the charge? But by now, everyone is familiar with their editorial page shocker, so let’s start with the Dallas Morning News:
The House Republican leadership has known for some time that Rep. Mark Foley was bad news. So why did it take a news report about the now-resigned congressman’s lecherous electronic messages to teenage pages to rile them up?
It gets better…
It continues by stating the obvious:
Common sense, to say nothing of common decency, was not enough for the party bosses. They not only left Mr. Foley alone, they let him remain in charge of – wait for it – the House caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
An important reminder for anyone who has been in a cave for the past five days. And they positively nail the real reason the GOP leadership sought to keep Foley’s predilictions under wraps, saying:
…when an institution’s managerial class comes to identify maintaining itself as its primary reason for being, it loses touch with basic ethical responsibilities.
And what about a homestate newspaper of Mr. Hastert, the Chicago Tribune?
The sexually explicit communiques from former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley to former congressional pages are disgusting and infuriating.
And while we’re invoking those two adjectives, let’s attach them to something else: the fact that some Republican leaders in Congress knew about Foley’s improper contact with at least one congressional page, yet let him continue to chair the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. Washington is a hypocritical town, but projecting Foley as a protector of America’s youth is as galling as it gets.
Ouch. That’s a lot of contempt wrapped up in two short paragraphs. After following with a general outline of the story, they go on to say:
If all of that is correct, House leaders are guilty of incredibly gross negligence. People in authority have extraordinary responsibility to protect any young person in their realm of influence, especially when they have evidence that one of their colleagues has taken advantage of that young person’s immaturity and vulnerability.
Amen. They conclude with:
But this scandal now rests where it should: at the door of the speaker of the House. Mr. Hastert, you don’t need a squad of FBI agents to tell you how you and your colleagues in the House reacted when they first learned that Mark Foley had crossed a line that ought never be broached. You need to tell us.
They aren’t calling for Hastert’s head…yet.
And how is it playing down south? From the Charlotte Observer:
Imagine that you sent your teenager to Washington to serve as a congressional page and he or she was subjected to sexual overtures from a member of Congress. You’d probably want to go up there with a gun. If so, you’re probably disgusted by how congressional leaders reacted when that happened. They should be ashamed.
After doing virtually nothing when he first learned of the situation, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert now has called for a Justice Department investigation…
Not only did Speaker Hastert’s actions Saturday come about a year too late. They also reinforced the widely held perception that congressional leaders have no clue how to act responsibly when members behave outrageously.
And they too state the obvious:
House leaders only directed Rep. Foley to stay away from the 16-year-old boy. They justified this weak response by describing the e-mail as merely “over friendly.” Yet such an e-mail between a young boy and a 50-something congressman surely provided enough smoke to make a prudent person wonder whether there also was fire.
Apparently the Charlotte Observer, like any sane person, isn’t buying the, “they were only overly friendly e-mails” line. And while not calling for Hastert’s resignation, they seem ready to throw him under the bus:
But others who knew of these e-mails and did little bear responsibility, too. […]
House leaders had reason to suspect something was wrong and did not act — leaving these young pages in a vulnerable place. That was a breach of trust that should never happen again.
And let’s wrap up with my favorite…from the, Bradenton Herald:
It is bad enough that a sitting member of Congress allegedly felt comfortable propositioning under-age youths whose parents had entrusted them to the country’s leaders while serving as pages to these lawmakers. That shame is taken to a far higher level by the indications that Republican leaders knew of the alleged sexual overtures to teen pages but covered them up for political reasons – to avoid a scandal that could both cost their party Foley’s seat in the November elections and that could further damage a party image already tarnished by lobbyist scandals that have forced three members to resign.
Yes! Finally one that acknowledges that this is by no means the only scandal tarnishing the Republican Party. And what about Hastert’s calls for an investigation?
But experience has shown that Justice Department investigations can be manipulated to serve political purposes; in the partisan climate that exists in Washington today, an objective probe involving the nation’s most powerful lawmakers is far from a slam-dunk even for so grave a matter as this.
Again, they nail it. Not only about any sham investigations, but:
What could the House leaders, let alone Foley, have been thinking? Aren’t they aware of the laws that require them to notify authorities of suspected child abuse? Didn’t the suggestion of a congressman cozying up to young boys that was implicit in the “over-friendly” e-mails ring any bells about predators?
A question that every parent…hell, any thinking adult, has asked. And they even call the GOP conservative base out on their hypocrisy:
And where, in the wake of this scandal, is the chorus of outrage from the GOP’s conservative wing that was so scandalized by Bill Clinton’s indiscretions with a female intern eight years ago – a relationship that, inappropriate though it was, was consensual and involved adults?
…But the Christian right is strangely silent; we’ve seen no groundswell of outrage over Foley’s apparent obsession with teen boys. If conservatives remain silent only because the perpetrator is a Republican, this is a particularly acute case of hypocrisy from the righteously indignant right wing that has virtually claimed a monopoly on “family values” over the past 15-20 years. If conservatives truly believe their own rhetoric, they should be appalled by the conduct of Foley and others who may have tried to sweep it under the rug.
And they finish with a slam at the apologists on the right:
But never, to our knowledge, has mainstream society embraced adult-child sex. That is, at its core, what this scandal is about. Pretending otherwise makes it all the more outrageous.
An ass-kicking editorial from Florida.
It seems that the GOP spin machine isn’t working this time.
