Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : FREE AMERICA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (12415)	10/7/2006 11:16:59 PM
From: Mr. Palau	Respond to of 14758

the hits just keep on coming "Cleaning House The U.S. House of Representatives has been slow-to-supine at investigating the Bush administration's sins -- from misleading the public into war to mismanaging the conflict; from loading the regulatory system with industry types to cutting back on enforcement. But it is hurrying to contain the political damage inflicted by the Mark Foley congressional page scandal. Two of our local members, Ron Lewis and Mike Sodrel, suddenly found it inconvenient to walk around arm in arm with Speaker Dennis Hastert at a campaign fund-raiser or a Rotary Club appearance. At least they recognize that pedophilia and its enablers don't go over well anywhere, much less in respectable parts of Middle America like Elizabethtown and Jeffersonville. One young man whom Mr. Lewis sponsored as a page has been drawn into the FBI probe. Now a soldier in Iraq, he has been subpoenaed to talk about messages that Mr. Foley, a Florida Republican, sent him. Mr. Hastert is not a candidate for the House Quick Recall Team. He's had a tough time remembering the alarms others say they rang for him and his staff about Mr. Foley's apparent flirtations with pages. He does remember the page in the crisis management book that says, "Insist you have done nothing wrong. Claim you are the victim." The House ethics committee promises a thorough investigation. Of course, if thorough means slow, that will be good for a party that wants to seem diligent while actually keeping the lid on until after election day. It won't be so good for voters, who want to know whom to hold accountable for the apparent negligence. The ultimate danger for House leadership is that the FBI and Florida officials are on the case. That makes outcomes difficult to control. Good. It's already clear that Mr. Hastert, at least on this issue, is a fumbler and double-talker. He has been the epitome of ineptitude. And his effort at partisan deflection, in a Chicago Tribune interview, was pathetic. He said, "The people who want to see this thing blow up are ABC News and a lot of Democratic operatives, people funded by George Soros." There you have it. The real problem is bad publicity, and the media and Mr. Soros, the billionaire Democratic contributor, should be blamed. Somehow. Maybe. Whatever. It's worked before. What's needed is a credible independent investigation. This one's too serious for spin. Print this article \| Go back