Than It Did on Investigating "W keys" Allegedly Violated By Those Evil Clinton People?
Posted by olvlzl
So Hastert was aware of Foley's activities with at least one teenaged congressional page quite a while ago but didn't do anything to curb him. And Boehner seems to have been the one to have told him, or so he told the Washington Post, but then he didn't, or at least he wanted them to stop saying he did. And then there was Rep. John Shimkus, chairman of the Page Board who took note of Foley's clearly deep interest in at least one boy but who misinterpreted it as "mentoring" and Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds whose inconvenient statement made Hastert stop lying about having known. Unlike some of the journalists who knew, these guys were in a position to do a real investigation and to keep a lecherous old goat with a taste for teenagers at least from heading a committee to keep lecherous old goats from exercising their taste for minor children.
If there weren't minors being hit on by old goats we might be able to enjoy this as a farce, but that part of it isn't very funny. The Keystone Kongress might make you laugh at their incompetence but since what they do means life or death for millions it's no laughing matter.
I hope that in the course of this scandal that someone with the skills, resources and time monitors how much coverage this gets as compared to some of the great Clinton era “scandals”. “Travelgate” in which Clinton was accused for years of having fired holdover Republican political appointees, who he was entitled to replace without cause, when he finally got tired of their efforts to sandbag him. That was always my favorite “scandal”, one in which not only no crime was ever alleged or could have existed but which Clinton should have done as soon as he took office. Even when the Clintons were following the law and defending themselves it was a “scandal”. *
If the excuse for the DC area press is that it's a "congressional scandal" and so not as newsworthy, go back to the House Banking Scandal or Jim Wright's career ending scandal, a book deal. The Wright deal was so penny ante when compared to the one made by his successor and chief accuser, the newly back-in-fashion with the DC smart crowd, Newt Gingrich. Compared to Gingrich Wright's was the equivalent to selling "The Grit" from his congressional office.
The question about how much time the DC area media spends on this as compared to the entirely false story about “Transitiongate” would tell us everything we need to know about how deeply into Republican pockets they really are. And they can start with Brian Lamb’s Washington Journal which did so much to push that bogus story.
* Why they didn't use this as example of the inefficiency of the Clinton administration is unclear. My advice to the next Democrat who manages to assume the office after they win it is to fire them all the first day.
The only "victim" of "Travelgate" was Brit Hume who whined that the replacements didn't get him as good accomodations. Why we should have paid to arrange bookings for the DC media is something I've never been able to find out. Now that's a scandal. The travel office should be closed down to save the taxpayers its expense. Let them do their own booking.