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Prometheus 6

All respect and no restraint

Sorry Kevin, you're not my type

You gotta see the title of his post to understand the joke.  But the meat of it is :

Let’s pause for a bit of Congress interruptus

The actual ethical matter before us is much simpler than that. The rights and wrongs that we should be addressing are these:

1) It is wrong for adults to express their sexual desires to minors, to titillate or chase them, verbally or physically.

2) In addition to being ethically wrong, such behaviors are illegal.

3) Illegal actions warrant prosecution.

4) In any workplace, including government offices, personnel supervision systems exist to rein in illegal and inappropriate actions. If the people providing that oversight become aware of such actions by any person in that workplace, it is essential that they respond with disciplinary actions and extra oversight of the offender, to be certain that all others in that workplace remain protected.

That’s the gist of it. That’s all that’s necessary to be explored. And at first glance, it appears that Mark Foley engaged in illegal behavior that likely warrants prosecution, and that the House leaders long aware of Foley’s prior inappropriate behavior failed to act responsibly to assure that Foley’s pool of possible victims - underage Congressional pages - were protected from Foley’s further advances.

If you believe Congress is capable of confining itself to the key particulars in this matter, then hand me a dollar and I’ll sell you three chances to win a stuffed elephant for your sweetie. You look like a winner, so step right up!

Given that we're talkingabout Foley, the meat reference may not be safe for work...

Kevin is of the opinion that Republicans will try to find a way to blame this on Clinton. I figure they just had to do him one better.

Oops. "Do him" may not be work-safe in this context either... 

 

We Are All Equal But Some Are More Equal...

Members of Congress have specifically exempted themselves from the laws and regulations they have passed over the years covering the workplace behavior of employers. Since Foley, for example, committed his acts while sitting in his office the laws regarding sexual harassment etc. don't apply to him. We have an imperial president and an imperial Congress.

I have just visited Glenn Greenwald's blog and it appears that Foley may not be above the law. See: GOP House leaders speak out against Internet predators

RE: Br. Clinton - I actually heard a caller on C-SPAN this morning say that there was no difference between Clinton's and Foley's behavior and that at least Foley had done the right thing by resigning. I am not an advocate of extra-marital affairs (way, way too much drama for me) but Monica Lewinsky was 22 years old when she and Br. Clinton started doing the wild thing in the Oval Office. Not cool, perhaps, but Lewinsky was well past the age of consent. She was immature but she was an adult in the eyes of the law.

Foley would, unfortunately, still be in hot water even if the intended targets of his smash notes were 22 years of age or older. They were males and Foley has been relentless in denying his homosexuality. This is the two rinse cycle.

 

I love it

I had to update that link with the direct URL. I don't ever want to lose track of that sucker. The updates are priceless. And this post is deep.

UPDATE IV: Whatever else might be true, it seems clear that Foley's predatory pursuit of pages has been known by some Republicans for at least several weeks in Washington. Here is a comment to a Daily Kos diary about Mark Foley, left on September 5 -- more than three weeks ago (emphasis added):

The Real Problem With Foley (0 / 0)

It's not that he's gay. It's that he constantly hits on underage interns on The Hill. You guys talk about an "open secret" well Foley's eye for the young boys in the White House and around the Capitol is what has the Republican bosses scared to death. It's just wrong that this guy can hit on young boys and still be in the leadership.

by WHInternNow on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 05:48:09 PM PDT

The person leaving this comment claims in his profile to be a White House intern, which I highly doubt. Still, someone did leave this comment on September 5.

Sounds more like a House page than a White House intern. 

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