Just as they lock-stepped their way to 12 years as the majority party, now they are splitting up and tearing each other down. An awesome sight. This is the democrats "swift-boat"...paint the entire GOP as corrupt, war-mongering pedophiles...it'll stick. Bye Bye Hastert!! No Minority Leader for you...nor Boehner either!

And you ought to think long and hard about making a federal case out of this mess, before the smoke clears, other than seeing to HIS firing and waiting for facts to be revealed as you are already accusing into dark, unknown waters, making bold statements pro and con.. you can't take back as well, that involve a lot of people's personal feelings, and lifestyles.. both public and private.

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Paging Mr. Hastert
Could a gay Congressman be quarantined?

Tuesday, October 3, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

Florida Republican Mark Foley's sexually explicit emails to a Congressional page certainly warranted his resignation from the House, and they may well merit prosecution. But this being five weeks from an election, the GOP House leadership is also being assailed for not having come down more strongly on a gay Congressman for showing a more than friendly interest in underage boys. That's a different issue altogether.

At least this seems to be the essence of the Democratic and media charge against Speaker Dennis Hastert, who admits his office was told months ago about a friendly, non-explicit 2005 email exchange between Mr. Foley and another page. In that exchange, Mr. Foley had asked the teenager "how old are you now" and requested "an email pic."

In our admittedly traditional view, this was odd and suspect behavior, especially because Mr. Foley was well known as a homosexual even if he declined to publicly acknowledge it. And Mr. Hastert was informed that fellow Illinois Republican John Shimkus--who oversees the page program as part of a six-member board--spoke privately with Mr. Foley, who explained that the email was innocent.

What next was Mr. Hastert supposed to do with an elected Congressman? Assume that Mr. Foley was a potential sexual predator and bar him from having any private communication with pages? Refer him to the Ethics Committee? In retrospect, barring contact with pages would have been wise.

But in today's politically correct culture, it's easy to understand how senior Republicans might well have decided they had no grounds to doubt Mr. Foley merely because he was gay and a little too friendly in emails. Some of those liberals now shouting the loudest for Mr. Hastert's head are the same voices who tell us that the larger society must be tolerant of private lifestyle choices, and certainly must never leap to conclusions about gay men and young boys. Are these Democratic critics of Mr. Hastert saying that they now have more sympathy for the Boy Scouts' decision to ban gay scoutmasters? Where's Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on that one?

more of this story at ;

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009033

A cover up involving male on male sexual harassment! Anyone in power who could have done something to prevent it should resign forthwith before the subpoenas are issued, and the answers are taken under oath. No offense, Congressman Boehner, but your excuse is lame, not to mention that you can't seem to get your story straight!

On Fox this morning, E D Hill referred to the Foley e mails as, "questionable" during an interview with a Democratic Rep. Of course, had Foley being a Democratic Rep. she would have asked, "why is Foley not in jail".

The Republicans were covering up. Now they are pointing fingers at each other. Don't Blame the Liberals

For all of those of you who like me are sick of this crap there is one sure way to rid ourselves of the people responsible. In November vote out ALL incumbents and clean the "house". Remember Hastert is not the only Speaker of the House, we the U.S. citizens are the true speakers and in November let Congress hear us loud and clear. As well you need to continue in the next election to vote out those incumbents because not all seats are up for re-election this year. If we do this then the next group we send to Washington will know that we mean what we say and say what we mean.

Could it be Dennis Hastert himself is a part of the perverted group?

when all of this is investigated, i'm quite sure that congressman bohner wil be right at the top of the list.bohner, blunt, and hasert are all a bunch of corrupted "SLUGS"

as this mess unfolds PLEASE remember that this is the same gang of creeps and crooks that have just voted themselves the right to monitor your emails and phone without a warrant, and imprison, detain and torture without evidence. you trusted them to do it because they are the people with morals and values you share.
Righteous types
Abramoff
Cunningham
Delay
Foley
Libby
Ney
Safavian
more to come.....
you've done a heck of a job!

If they hope for a successful cover-up, the GOP congressional leadership needs to take a few minutes and work out a series of lies they can all agree on.

I say let's use the rough interrogation techniques and send Hastert to Bush's secret prisons and see if he confesses After all it's legal now and as they said, it's not torture.

If Bush were to designate people involved as "supporting terrorism" then he could have Hastert hauled off and questioned. Since hastert voted for this kind of power then he shouldn't object.

Does anyone else think that making the COMPARISON between being a gay male and pedophelia, and saying that the reason HastertCo. did nothing is that they "didn't want to be accused of 'gay bashing' is a form of gay bashing in and of itself. Republicans are truly scrambling now. What with the ban on gay civil rights, uh, I mean the 'Protection of Marriage Act', as well as several other anti-gay initiatives running rampant throughout the Republican party, does anyone think they are NOT anti-gay already??

So the lock-step Dems are coming out against the lock-step Republicans: You are both mentally ill. The best you can hope for is the other side looking bad? Why? Your party has nothing to offer and neither do the Republicans. The Pages are the same victims that the general populace is: We are both held hostage by a corrupt two-party system. Lock-steppers prepare to be dismantled in lock-step.

I am laughing.

Okay Anthony F...

What do you suggest?

Boehner asked Hastert if it was being taken care of and then forgot all about it after that? We are supposed to be dumb enough to believe that? A scandal that could erupt into the kind of mess that we are seeing now? If he never bothered to visit the subject again he is as big an idiot as I always thought he was.

Boehner is as guilty as Hassert and Foley - He know dam well this was not handled properly - Exposed which would have required Media coverage - I know ABC would not have skipped over it so if Mr Boehner did not see it in the press it could not have been handled properly after all what Foley did is a crime. Now that said - Mr Boehner msot likely meant by handling it was get it swept under the carpet which means he was over looking a crime on our young children - It really is clear at least to this guy.

Straight or gay, at the end of the day, its all political hay. (no matter what they say!)

Had this involved a Democratic congressman, do you think Speaker Hastert would have been so laid-back in his response? Clearly, the Speaker has failed his Republican majority members and the American people. Honesty is always the best policy, not waiting around to see what hits the newspapers. Hastert needs to step aside - today.

Agreed Ryan - we are being held hostage by a corrupt 2 party system when we don't have to be. We are also being held by who has the most money to send to DC for their own interests, not the interests of the PEOPLE (regardless of political affiliation).

Foley was wrong, period, no ifs ands or buts about it, plain wrong and running to rehab won't help or make us sympathetic to his actions, after all if alcohol could turn someone into a pedophile, then it would be illegal. Boehner is either an idiot himself or thinks that the American public are a bunch of idiots. This is a disgrace and I hope the rest of you are as fed up as I am - change is necessary (not just Rep or Dem but on a much larger scale than that). Insist on change, abolish 2 party system and implement drug/alcohol testing in our elected officials as welll as background checks and psych profiles (hey if it works for corporate America, then why not our elected officials). Change is good people, vote for people not parties and scrutinize them, get involved and find the truth!!!

Hope ABC will not quit until they uncover the COVERUP on child molesting in Congress,starting with Hasert on down.America is waiting for you to get to the bottom of this corruption,don't let us down.

If this was a democrat congressman this would not even be a news story. Democrats, for whatever reason, get a pass on this stuff. Look at Clinton, Barney Frank, Stubbs, Murtha, Byrd, and the list goes on and on.

I'm glad Foley is gone. But, Barney Frank should be gone too. What's good for the Goose is good for the Gander.

A 52 year old ADULT MALE should know better than to solicit sexual dialogue from a minor regardless of hetero/homo-sexuality.

For a political party to try and cover this up should result in tens of millions of dollars in tax payer's money. Shouldn't it? I mean, that's what Ken Starr did while investigating a consensual affair between two ADULTS.

Hypochrisy at it's finest folks. The apologists are arguing that the kids just wanted it...were asking for it. They also are saying that because of our society accepting homosexualtiy this is what we deserve. No, we deserve to have representatives with MORALS. And with the Jack Abramoff scandal, the legalization of torture, the Iraq War lies, the outig of a CIA agent and the subsequent cover up, et. al., it's plain as day that the REPUBLICAN PARTY is the most MORALLY BANKRUPT group Washington has seen in quite some time....

Let the spin begin!

The Bible in John 8:7 says, "He without sin, cast the first stone." Many people are lost and do not know Christ. Unfortunately in instances like we have here, I would not be surprised if it crosses party lines.

I'm not making this up - this morning while listening to C-SPAN a caller blamed this whole Foley thing on ... you guessed it - CLINTON!

Seriously ... their claim was because Clinton's first action when he went into office was to approve of gays in the military and as such fostered this acceptance of the gay culture and allowed it to flourish(?)

My God! What are they putting in the Kool-Aid these days?

What if the press discovers democrats were engaged in this kind of behavior BEFORE the fall election...will they run the story? I'm disgusted by this Foley creep, and even more so by the idiots that covered it up, including the media. Apparently this story has been around for a long time...yet only now, before the election comes to the surface. I find it all very odd. Does no one care about the children?

On Fox this morning, E D Hill referred to the Foley e mails as, "questionable" during an interview with a Democratic Rep. Of course, had Foley being a Democratic Rep. she would have asked, "why is Foley not in jail".

She is talking about the emails that had no sexual comments. It is the Instant messages that are sexual. Get it straight!

Covering up for a sexual predator with a taste for underage boys...

...Moreover, appointing him Chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children!

Is there any act that is so corrupt and immoral that the GOP will not stoop to it in their lust for absolute power?

No. This is why we need checks and balances.

Can we please stop with the US vs THEM attitude! This is an adult caught soliciting sex from a CHILD! We should be as outraged regardless of who the adult is and whether the adult or child is or might be gay. Who really cares anyway what their sexual orientation is - molestation and pedophilia are wrong, we're not talking about consenting adults we're talking about a 52 year old and a 16 year old.

In-case you think this post is insensitive, think-again. It's from a victim of child-molestation. This perp from Florida needs to be put under house-arrest for the rest-of-his-life. More-galling is the FACT that GOP-leadership KNEW FOR YEARS (possibly 3-5!)that this degenerate was guilty of this--this is a criminal-act, or was before the year 2000. Apparently, it no-longer is if you're a Republican, a Bishop or priest, or simply powerful and connected. I've done social-work with children who have had their parents put-out their cigarettes on their bodies, beaten them, everything. The problem is far-more widespread than most Americans know (or do they know?), or would care to admit. It is certainly a 'conspiracy-of-silence', our dirty-secret as a nation. The emails/IMs released yesterday by ABC were transmitted by Foley in 2003. It is likely the teenager alerted the press to this, good-show.

Ever wonder why Dennis Hastert's wife stays in a hotel, rather than at Hastert's townhouse (which he shares with his two single, male chiefs of staff) when she visits Washington?

Does anyone else notice how all the so-called bible thumpers are actually praying that there are more pedophiles in the hopes that some of them will be dem?
Sick Sick Sick

The nonaction of the Republican leadership should come as no surprise... there's been no oversight or censure since their majority in Washington. And why is it that the 'moral majority' is mum? Hey Falwell, hey Dodson, hey Robertson, could we get a ruling here??

I have never seen anything as blown out of proportion as this has been!!! The 16 year old was over the age of consent, no matter what other stupid sex laws this country has passed to apease the religous right. The 16 year old could have told him to buzz off at anytime. What don't you asexual idiots get over it? This country is obsessed with everyones damn sex life. Get out Nothing criminal went on. And the damn Media can get over it too. They are making more tempests in teapots, as usual.......

Readers: If you love this country, for God's sake VOTE DEMOCRAT on November 7th. Clean up this mess by throwing the bums out! Had enough yet?

Dems get a free pass? Did Clinton not get impeached? Amazing to see in the light of this scandal who stands for the rule of law and America and who stands with a political party corrupted by power and greed.

It is quite odd that just a few years ago the Republicans were coming down so hard on Pres. Clinton for his misdeeds with the young lady who by the way was of legal age, and now we have a Republican Rep. from Florida emailing underage males, basically soliciting sex from them; and then we also have the Speaker of the House who claims he didn't know what was going on. Yeah, sure and I have 1000 miles of gulf coastline in Okla. for sale.

Two words: Waterboard Hastert!!

The hipocrisy is simply stunning.

Sexually harrassing several minors over a period of years and NO ONE in the GOP leadership saw this as anything more than a political issue?

This is a criminal issue! And now that the GOP leaders have been exposed for covering up Foley's crimes, it's a conspiracy issue!

Today Rush Limbaugh was surmising that the dems put the aides up to this knowing that Rep Foley may have a proclovity to thgis type of behaior. If his listeners follow this line they sure are sheep. Baaa Baaa

Straight or gay, at the end of the day, its all political hay. (no matter what they say!)
Posted by: Will Allen | Oct 3, 2006 12:55:09 PM

i guess if an old sick man sleeps with your son...you will say "Son get over it ..it is politics"...i think you should get yourself checked out mentally.

Pedophiles may be married, unmarried, heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. The adult is ALWAYS the responsible party in a relationship with a child. NEVER BLAME THE CHILD VICTIM. Pedophilia is not to be equated with a sexual relationship between consenting adults. Pedophilia is a form of child abuse and should not be viewed as a "life style."

STOP STOP STOP...this is not a gay issue you BRAINWASHED FAKE CONSERVATIVES...this is an older person taking adavantage or molesting a young boy..i don't care if foley is gay.....i care if he his solicitating sex from a minor...THAT IS A CRIME....HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF IT WAS YOUR KID?....YOU REPUBLICAN SUPPORTERS ARE SICK...

Only the Republicans could try to spin this story against the Democrats. They'll try. I wouldn't be surprised if Ann Coulter blames the whole thing on Bill Clinton.

kennah! i don't personally care if the congressman was gay, but to say that the republican leadership shouldn't have looked into the matter a little more (just because he was gay) is reprehensible! if the republicans actually cared about the pages and their safety, they would have asked congressman foley to resign and save the face of the party and protect the young men that are sent to washington to learn the legislative process. the republican leadership in the house knew about these emails and IM's because the young page would've been sure to mention it, they were more concerned with holding on to a congressional seat then anything else. now it will be won by the democrats, as will the house....kind of pointless, all their cover-ups, in the end wasn't it?

Today Rush Limbaugh was surmising that the dems put the aides up to this knowing that Rep Foley may have a proclovity to thgis type of behaior. If his listeners follow this line they sure are sheep. Baaa Baaa
Posted by: Tim | Oct 3, 2006 3:42:48 PM

Let me guess the Democrats planted the prescription drugs in Rush Limbaugh mouth because they knew he was a junkie...hmmm....startin to make sense.....FYI, dems had no clue this was goin on, if they did they would have brought it up....republican supporters are sick, sick, sick.....you all need JESUS, i bet the republican supporters would be ok if their kids were molested just so they could remain in power....sick, sick, sick people

This is what happens when money and power rule the world. Pay these jokers the average wage, hold them responsible for their jobs, and take away all their vacations, and let's see how much trouble they get in.

At the end of the day we as the American voters are responsible for the people we elect to represent us in our government

Isn’t it time for us to look and check carefully at the candidates that this 2 corrupt parties select and put in front us to vote for

The message must be that this is the time to brake up the hold of this corrupt parties by electing independent candidates

To congress to move toward a real multi choice democracy as being experienced in other parts of the world.

As an adult with responsibility or young people -and the age of consent has nothing to do with it - Rep. Foley crossed the line in attempting to develop a personal relationship with a page. As a former coach and teacher, Speaker Hastert knows full well that no one with responsibility for young people - be they male or female, gay or straight - is acting appropriately when he or she attempts to involve him or herself in the personal life of a young person under his or her charge. If Foley had been a teacher or coach, he'd have been fired - even before we get to the salacious e-mails or IMs. To argue that there ought to be a different standard for Congresspersons regarding pages is to slice it waay too fine. Parents send their children to be pages for the rich educational experience that opportunity provides. They assume, rightly, that all the adults with whom the pages interact will be professional. Foley was not; Hastert and the rest of the leadership, assuming they did little or nothing as it's been suggested, were not. Whatever their motives for not pursuing this further, they erred. Just as a principal of a school would be in error to take no steps to assure him or herself that a teacher did not repeat this behavior [again, just talking about the highly personal e-mails, not the salacious ones], so Speaker Hastert erred.

funny, hastert keeps saying he did not know of any other messages. however, if he simply investigated he would have found them. lucky for him he did not investigate or question or he probably would have known.

In few months when he is introduced in CNN/FOX as one of their analysthis title will be Mr. Foley was formerly elected to and erected in US congress

The rat lines are full as the Good Ship GOP sinks slowly into the Potomac.

-------------------------
"The 16 year old was over the age of consent, no matter what other stupid sex laws this country has passed to apease the religous right."
-------------------------
There is a law on the books, however, that an adult can not solicit sex from a minor. A minor is anyone under the age of 18. Oddly enough this was one of the laws Foley help formulate and pass.
( Foley Provisions in H.R. 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006). However, since the IMs and emails happened before Apr06 then it probably can't be used to prosecute.

Folks, people are screwed up on either side of the isle. Democrats are no more "holier than thou" than the Republicans. Or Independents for that matter. The man did wrong, and the timing of the release is suspect.
Does that mean all Republicans support his devient behavior? Absolutely not. All Democrats? No way. But both are in positions of great authority, and both are accountable.
I will vote with my mind and heart for PEOPLE I think will best represent me and not for a POLITICAL PARTY. People who vote per party are just sheep to the slaughter...

Have people forgotten that age-old adage, "what goes around, comes around"? I am practically bursting with glee that the Republicans are finally getting a taste of their own medicine. By saying this I am not condoning in any way, shape or form the abuse of minors, but if it had to happen to truly open the eyes of Americans to the moral bankruptcy of the GOP, it had to happen. I haven't had a case of schadenfreude this severe in quite some time.

Voters should see all of this as continued Republican arrogance. The "what they don't know won't hurt them" mindset of the Republican party. It is definitely time to change course in the executive and legislative branches. Unfortunately, those of you who thought Bush's "stay the course" rhetoric outnumbered those of us who voted for Kerry. Those of you who voted for Bush, should now be too ashamed and now cast the vote for real change. If that happens, you will see the Democrats take over the Senate and House ... God willing. If you haven't had enough of the Bush (Republican) way, I fear we will indeed "stay the course" at the ballot box.

If you can't lie your way out of complicity then blame someone else.His job was done?Not when they knew 5 years ago and warned pages about Foley.More like please don't ask for my resignation or vote me out office or have an independent investigation of all congressman with prior knowledge.They should all resign,complicity in attempted and possible actual child molestion and having some sense of knowledge of this for 5 years is as almost as heinous as a crime as Foleys. Cheney is main man in congress and he nor Bush knew with their close affilation to Hastert and Boenher? That does not add up.

If it's not corruption, it's massive deficits, or unprovoked invasions of sovereign nations, or "terrorists behind every corner" lame excuses to scrap the Constitution and our liberty! Now our leaders want sex with underage children! I say it's time for a change. There's got to be someone, somewhere who's got their head screwed on straight!

As a parent, if an adult were to ask my child for his picture and wanted to know if my child thought he was sexy; I would expect the authorities to ask hard pointed questions about the origin of the mails and the details that were inside of them.

How can that be missed in this discussion where the GOP thought it a minor issue? If it were their children would the reaction be the same?

One last point, how does one become part of the GOP if your GAY?

There is no excuse for a congress person to sent suggestive emails to a person in high school and working for nothing to learn how to govern the country.
I do not care if they are of age of consent, these boys are away from home and depend on the leadership to protect them from being harassed by anyone, especially those who they are working for.
Foley should be prosecuted, and the leadership of the house should be investigated to find out what they knew and when they knew it. If any information was known and they had time to investigate it and did not then they should be prosecuted for trying to cover up a scandal and save their control on congress.
It is unbelievable to me that would be so dumb to try to let this blow over.

Imagine what would happen if a 50 year old man made these kind of approaches to a 16 year old girl at work. Then the girl to;d her boss about it, and the boss chose to not do anything about it. The laws concerning sexual harassment are clear. If the boss failed to act, he would be guilty of harassment also. Hastert and Harassment. You can't just sit there and do nothing when one of your congressmen has approached young men in a sexual manner.

Silly, silly people. Your right to vote has been taken away by the RNC and Diebold, E S & S, Sequoia and the rest. "Vote them out" won't work... the malicious programs have all been written.
Watch how triumphant Fox News will be the day after election day when the Republicans maintain both houses.
Don't be surprised to see Jeb in '08 either... and '12 for that matter unless we wake from our stupor!

I remember when the Catholic priest child abuse story first broke. It was 'a few bad apples'. Later we found out it was endemic, hundreds of priests and the Vatican knew about if for years. They covered up, transferred and defended the offending priests. I can't wait until we find out the real reason why the Republican leadership didn't out him earlier...

Typical Republican hypocrisy: it's like when they accused Clinton of being a moral outrage yet their newly nominated Speaker of the House was forced to admit to an affair and most Republicans leading the charge against Clinton in the House all had questionable backgrounds.

To say that is the Republicans' version of "Swiftboat" is laughable. "Swiftboat" was a demolition job based on distortions of the truth and outright lies. Foleygate is not. Now, all the Dems have to do is rally its troops and disaffected GOP supporters back to its tent this November!

Those people at Fox News are trying to help cover up a pedophile by trying to down play the seriousness of it.

Do those people at Fox have children? Are they that morally bankrupt that they would work at a place like that?

Was has'nt the local Florida police arrested Foley yet, home much evidence do they need?

Was has'nt the FBI raided Foley's home and taken his computer equipment, if it was a dem the FBI would a been in there securing evidence by now?

I think its time to link the term conservative to child molesters , perverts and liers .The rightwing managed to make a disparaging term out of liberal even though most of the things we value in this country have come from liberals . I say make conservative the derogatory term it so richly deserves to be .

I am so glad that the GOP is getting a dose of there own medicine November 7th is going to be so nice to see all the red states go blue so to say. Here in IL even Hyde's old seat looks like it is going blue since Duckworth who lost both her legs in Iraq is coming out firing both barrels now. The GOP needs to run and find the tallest cliff they can right now and hope they can fly.

It is no wonder we are involved with war, lower income families are paying higher taxes than the top 1%, we have failing educational systems and a general lack of enthusiasm in our country because religious zealots like Foley, Hastert and DeLay who feel they are the right answer to this country.

Now the Republicans have been caught doing a very bad thing with one of our most precious resources - our children.

Enough already people. Let's just vote these idiots out and vote into effect term-limits so that guys like Foley cannot keep trying to expose our kids to his gruesome acts.

Maybe it's time to redo our government.

What we need is ZERO TOLERANCE for crooked public servants. Outlaw ALL FORMS OF LOBBYING!!! Drug and psyc. testing for ALL elected officials.

Oh,and cameras and microphones in all in thier offices, homes and cars. After all they do work for the public don't they?

What we need is ZERO TOLERANCE for crooked public servants. Outlaw ALL FORMS OF LOBBYING!!! Drug and psyc. testing for ALL elected officials.

Oh,and cameras and microphones in all in thier offices, homes and cars. After all they do work for the public don't they?

Even though I hate Clinton, this is a completely different event. He had a consensual hetro affair, and saying this is a gay issue is just an attempt to brush it aside . Its pedophilia that was covered up to hold political power. Children's live's are at stake!!
To choose to cover this up was disgusting.I've had enough!
Lying us into war
Tax breaks for the richest while cutting programs for the poor.
And the most corrupt do nothing rubber stamp congress I have ever seen!
Goldwater and my traditional consertives are rolling in their graves watching these neo-cons.

signed,
Ex- republican

All of you need to get a grip on the difference between a child and a minor. As a general rule

(1) To buy alcohol, one must be 21

(2) To buy cigarettes or enlist in the military or enter into binding contracts for goods and services, and (usually) marry, one must be 18

(3) To get a driver's license or CONSENT TO SEX, one must be 16.

In addition, the Federal statute on internet/communications being bandied about as prohibiting sexual comments to "children under 18", ONLY applies to communications to those under 18 about ILLEGAL sex.

If the page was 16 or up, they can consent to sex and it is not, per se, unlawful to solicit them for sexual conduct. Solciting them to cross states lines for sex may be a crime but that is going to be incredibly difficult to prove.

If you can't understand this, then for the name Foley, substitute "Susie" and make her 17 or 18 years old. Now what is the outcome, eh???

Basically, the possiblity of any criminal charges is extremely slim (as in the choice is between "slim" and "none", and "slim" just saddled up and rode out of town.)

Now, if the sexual overtures occurred all or in part, while the boys where employed at the US Congress, then that is a garden-variety EMPLOYMENT sexual harrassment CIVIL case - and not a crime. Even then there would be no damages since they did not get fired or anything else (and thus a no harm, no foul case) since there is no economic harm. If it occurred after their employment ended, then there is no claim at all.

Now the fact that there is probably no crime (and please stop calling 16 and 17 and 18 year olds "children") or that it all seems to have taken place immediately after they left their jobs at the Congress any less repulsive. A middle-aged Congressman using his position to solicit sexual communications, conversations and other activities with any older teenager/young adult is repulsive and morally bankrupt and down right sick.

Foley is a miserable pathetic, lying, self-loathing, deeply abherent hypocrite who is probably in a world of trouble at home with his adult male partner.

The Republican leadership needs to take full repsonsiblity, get the helpof the Democratis leadership, get some backbone and emulate Tip O'Neill (Dem and Speaker) and Robert Michel (Rep and Miinority Leader). When a similar thing came to light in the 80s, they joined forces and jointly ordered a huge investigation by an outside investigator; and when, the results came in, they jointly cleaned House with censures(Congressmen) and discharges (employees.)

Foley is revolting. Hastert and his gang of thugs are just as bad or worse with their whining and fingerpointing at each other, and the frantic efforts in 2005 to keep the other party from finding out about Foley's conduct. They are a disgrace to the traditions of the US House of Representatives.

It's immaterial if Mr. Foley is gay or straight, Republican or Democrat, previously an abuse victim or a drunk. It's immaterial if the page was a boy or girl. Bottom line is he was engaged in criminal behavior. The fact that he was on a committee designed to protect children makes it worse. As for Mr. Hassert, if he was still coaching in Illinois, he would have lost his job for not reporting a possible case of abuse. Why should a congressman not be held to the same standard as any teacher would be? Double standard?

It is interesting that Republican's are bringing up the old scandal of Clinton and how he abused his power with Monica. It may have been abuse, but at least she was of age. Where is the outrage of the Republican voters when it is one of your own?

As an independent voter, I thought the Republicans were a bit on the sanctimonious side, but at least somewhat genuine. Now I think, they are hypocrits. Funny to hear them condeming the Democrats for politicizing this. Are you seriously saying the Republicans wouldn't if the situation was reversed?

What is truly sad is that Mr. Foley was the only one who stood up and said he was wrong.

Mr. Hassert, etal. are you going to let a pedophile be more responsible for his behavior than you are? Say you dropped the ball. You will get more respect in the long run.

According to several congressmen and the chief of staff of Foley's and Tom Reynolds, Hastert was told about the emails.
The justice department should take testimony from those who have said they have warned Hastert and if the same story is repeated under oath, then Hastert should be brought in and ask if he was told and if he lies or tries to deny he investigated the matter and just asked a question of Foley about the emails is not an investigation.
An investigation is to check his computer, his colleagues, and the pages at least, but the matter should have been turned over to the ethics committee.

Why, in this great country of the people and for the people and by the people are there two sets of standards. One for the rich and connected and one for the rest of us. It's time to take our country back and prove to the rest of the world that we take our Democracy serious. Remember a fish rots from the head down. Foley should be prosecuted and Hastert and co. should resign. This is an outrage!!!! We are a country of laws and we need to ENFORCE them.

Burn baby Burn.

Foley is just the tip of the iceberg. Check out this documentary

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7394798266998491777&hl=en

Everyone needs to take a deep breath and, dare I say it, put their political view aside for just one moment. Focus: it's a man sending suggestive messages to 16 year old boys. The man's sexual orientation doesn't matter, and his position and influence don't matter. What does your instinct tell you is the right thing to do? What would you do if it were your own 16 year old boy involved? Those are the only questions the leaders of the page program should've been asking - they were guardians of others' boys and gilrs. The reality is that Hastert - nor any of the others who knew or should've known (that's a legal standard, by the way) - did not have the luxury of looking away. It was incumbent upon them, as moral and legal representatives of this country, to look further, to ask questions, to go to bed each night with certainty that nothing was going wrong. And laws regarding sexual harassment obligated them to do so. As far as I can tell, those pages were interns and owed the protection of this country's sexual harassment laws. Investigations are required when those in charge know or "should know" that there might be something to look into - they don't need to wait for proof of wrongdoing to fall in their lap