The Dog Died
Philip V. Brennan
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006
IF anybody had asked me over the last few days what was new with Republicans, I would have said, recalling an old story, "The dog died."
It seems like an appropriate response in these dark days for the Grand Old Party. A farmer who'd been visiting the city was met at the train station on his return by his hired hand, who replied to his question as to what was new at the old homestead by telling the farmer, "Nothin' much, except that the dog died."
"The dog died?" the farmer said. "What killed him?"
"Eating burnt horseflesh," the hired hand explained.
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"Burnt horseflesh? Where did he get that?"
"From the horses that died when the barn burned down."
"The barn burned down? How did that happen?"
"It caught fire from sparks from the house."
"Sparks from the house? Are you telling me my house burned down? How did that happen?"
"It started when one of the curtains caught fire from the candles around your wife's casket," the hired hand said.
When you look at the events of the past few days, it's true. It wasn't a dog, however, but the GOP elephant that may have kicked off when the House leadership burst into flames from sparks ignited by an e-mail sent by then Rep. Mark Foley.
This in turn set off a media firestorm and, as is usual in such conflagrations, the resulting smoke so blurred the facts that the public has been seriously misled about the truth of the matter.
At the center of the controversy is Speaker Dennis Hastert, who, it is alleged, made a strenuous effort to cover up L'affaire Foley in an attempt to keep the lid on the scandal and prevent it from damaging GOP chances to hold onto Foley's seat. It is further alleged that Hastert and others of the GOP leadership were aware of a series of instant messages Foley is said to have sent to former pages that were rife with explicit sexual references. As a result of these specious charges, the mob is demanding Hastert's head on a platter.
This is really a very simple story that has been so distorted by the media and the Democrats that it is now largely a work of fiction.
Here are the facts. Foley sent an e-mail to a former page that contained not a single sexual reference. The page, however, was bothered by it – after all, it was unseemly for a 57-year-old member of Congress to be writing palsy-walsy e-mails to a 17-year-old boy, even asking for his picture.
The ex-page complained to his parents, who notified the congressman who had sponsored their son, and asked that Foley be told to stop communicating with the youngster. (I refuse to call a 17-year-old a "child," as some have done. I was digging foxholes as a Marine when I was barely 17. I was no child, and neither is any other 17-year-old.)
The parents demanded, however, that the matter not be pursued beyond telling Foley to cease and desist. Hastert told Foley to knock it off, in accordance with the parents' wishes, and, for all intents and purposes, went no further.
Just imagine what would have happened had they publicly exposed Foley for sending an overly friendly e-mail to a former page. It was already widely rumored that Foley was a homosexual. Had Hastert and his fellow House leaders attacked Foley publicly on the grounds of suspicion that he was sexually harassing a former page, they would have been accused of gay-bashing. Can't you just hear what Barney Frank would have said? He'd have gone ballistic and the media would have eaten it up.
Keep in mind the fact that the e-mail in question – the only one Hastert knew about – was completely devoid of any sexual innuendo. Yet the GOP leadership is being charged with ignoring those sexually explicit instant messages (IMs) they knew nothing about.
But somebody knew about those 2003 IMs and failed to alert the House leadership, thereby in effect covering up for Foley until they could be used to damage the Republicans just before a key election where control of Congress hangs in the balance.
If there were crimes committed here, Foley is not the only accused criminal. The Democrats or their allies who kept mum about the IMs are crooked as corkscrews. After all, they permitted Foley to go unexposed and unpunished for a long, long time.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have been screeching about a full investigation of the matter. They'd better beware – when all the facts are out, they'll learn that it was their dog that died.
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Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. |
