This scandal with Foley is unbelievable!

[TayTay]

In a way, I don't want to talk about it. I mean, I am a Mom, this involves a person in authority using that authority to take advantage of kids. (The other Mom part of me would kill someone who did that to my son. Seriously.) I can't forget that at the heart of this, it's about kids. I was very happy when Sen. Kerry introduced legislation to crack down on internet porn, I mean, geez, I thought that was common sense legislation. I also felt bad that the girl's face was on TV because I just felt she had suffered enough. (But she had to do this to make the story real to people, I understand that, but still.)

But, OMG, this could take out Denny Hastert, John Boehner and a host of other top Republican leaders in the US House! I am at a loss of what to say about this. I think another poster was right, how can we trust these people to protect the country when we can't even trust them to be around our kids.

This is just disgusting and awful. I wonder how many other Moms are out there shaking their heads in pure disgust right now.

[ProSense]

1. Foley is a

pervert! Hastert, Boehner and the Republican leadership are despicable!

[TayTay]

2. How can they not resign?

This story is moving at lightning speed. It turns out that Rep Shimkus (IL - 19, do we have anyone in that district here?) helped Foley meet pages. (Just read this on AMERICAblog. Have a bucket nearby cuz this is an unbelievable outrage that will sicken you. And it was part of a ceremony filmed and held in the C-Span archives.)

OMFG! These people have to go. Now. This is the worst of the worst.

[beachmom]

4. Oh, I didn't know that stuff. Lightening speed is right. You go

off line for a few hours, and come back and there are MORE revelations. God this is bad. Congress of Shame.

[Inuca]

9. I am

blessed to be in Shimkus' district that is. There is a nice & underfunded guy running against him. Hope this dirt will give him a chance. Keep your fingers crossed. Seems he would not have a chance otherwise.

[whometense]

10. From what I'm hearing this morning,

republican pages were warned to steer clear of Foley, but not the democratic pages. Family values, folks, family values.

[fedupinBushcountry]

11. "warned"

that is the word to remember. The bastards knew and they did nothing. They all need to go.

[beachmom]

3. Did you manage to get through those IMs?

You could practically hear the nervousness and fear in the boy's responses. Really disgusting.

I just can't believe after the scandals that rocked the Catholic Church that those idiots didn't think to do something about it. From what I understand Tom Delay was still Majority Leader. Since lust for power was all he was about, I could see him looking the other way to protect a seat. One report I saw was that everyone KNEW since 2001.

Obviously, the Democrats need to go after these people full throttle. But I couldn't help notice a little too much exuberance on the blogs. Yes, this is a scandal that may mean the House will change hands, but these boys were preyed on, and it is just so wrong to be glad that their suffering may bring us to our goal. Just think. Now in addition to altar boys, we have to add pages in the Congress as a risky job for kids who may be subject to predators.

Having given my moral misgivings about grasping this story, the Democrats should demand accountability for these crimes and not protecting our children. What the hell is WRONG with them? Not a good few days, if you're a Republican.

[TayTay]

5. I am so relieved to hear you say that.

I think these people should go because they have abused a basic public trust. This is disgusting. I read a partial transcript of an IM on Friday and that was enough for me. (I don't want to read anymore. I mean, these were kids. I'm a Mom for God's sake. I don't want to read that stuff. It sickens me.)

These people have to go. How dare these people smear decent human beings and then turn around and protect child predators that they knew shouldn't be allowed to communicate with kids. Didn't anyone ever explain in loco parentis to them?

I can't say that I blame the parents who didn't want to press this case. (I would also do anything to protect my kids and I understand that impulse, but the only way to get these perverts is to confront them and bring their activities to light. It's a heartbreaking decision.)

Every time I think these bastards have debased themselves as much as they possibly can, they go and do something even worse. It's just so awful.

[fedupinBushcountry]

6. It is awful

Cover up after cover up after cover up, what else is going on behind that curtain that Republicans are allowing to go on. They knew about it and they let it continue, that is shameful, they need to go.

They only care about power, and care nothing about the American people and even worse American children. They can take their pro-life rhetoric and stick it, when they don't respect that life and abuse it. This just makes me sick.

[karynnj]

7. My reaction is the same

I also can't believe that upon hearing it, the leadership didn't do 2 things, notify the police and 2) tell him to resign in no uncertain terms.

The strangest thing to me is that this stayed quiet for this long. That means the Representative who sent it in, his staff, other pages who likely knew stayed quiet. It also likely means they didn't tell the parents, even though the boy may well have benefited from counseling. There are no parents who would have stayed quiet knowing this. (Seriously, imagine your young son or daughter was the child, no matter who the official was, wouldn't you want him held accountable?)

This is like when the first stories of the churches abuses came out. The congressmen and religious leaders are authority figures. This is just so wrong. It is appalling how far this has gone already.

[Blaukraut]

8. It's sickening, even if it weren't illegal

Even if the kids had not been underage, it would still have been unethical for Foley to abuse his position of power as a means of coercion. He is a sick man, and he needs psychiatric help.
While his behavior makes me ill, the other republican leaders who knew and did nothing make me furious. Reynolds took a $100k donation/bribe from Foley, Hastert and Boehner knew and turned the other way, deciding that keeping the Foley's seat was more important than the lives and health of underage boys. This just proves once and for all that they have no right to claim moral superiority over the Democrats.
Another group of offenders now is the media. They are bending over backwards, being apologists for the republican leadership and even Foley, saying that he got 'overly friendly'. Excuse me, but after reading the chat transcript, 'overly friendly' doesn't quite fit the description.

Latest body count of who knew is twelve. Imagine; twelve people in a position to put a stop to Foley and they chose not to.

http://rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/15263-1.html

Resignation is the least we ought to demand.

[sandnsea]

12. I'm disgusted

I'm equally disgusted by the people who think that because teen-agers have their little puppy love relationships they're able to fend off the advances of adult sexual predators. I don't know what's so hard to understand about keeping their grubby hands off of our kids.

[jillan]

13. What makes me more disgusted about this than anything

Is how they supposedly won in 2004 as the party of family values. The churches that said Kerry would burn their bibles if he won. The churches that preached * was a good Christian man with high morals. AND THE SHEEPLE THAT STILL BELIEVE THAT.

It makes me sick!
Just like the guy in Homeland Security that was spending his time on porn.
Their divorces, drug use, stealing money, lies, cover-ups, on and on. And people will vote for them because they are putting up a fence. I say we should put them behind a 7 foot fence; or better yet, steel bars.

This Republican party is the slime of the world.

[beachmom]

14. A Kossak tells his own story of sexual abuse from a Catholic priest

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/2/1486/24115

This part was apt:

Anyway, some of the discussion on dkos on this matter seemed to be missing the point that the victims are the ones to worry about. And they need justice. Even if these guys seem fine with this stuff now, I know they will be angry as they get older, particularly if Foley skates and his enablers remain untouched.



He is saying justice must be served, before one can forgive.

We, the American people, need to make sure that justice is done. I hope that the press will do its job, and stop concentrating so much on the politics. These boys deserved protection from adults and they didn't get it. Now the least we can do is help bring them justice so that they can find peace.