The Washington Post outlines why House Speaker Dennis Hastert spent the day yesterday telling anyone that would listen that he’s not stepping down — unless of course he thought it would be “helpful” to the Republican party. Not surprisingly, he just doesn’t think so right now. Perhaps AFTER the elections in November, but for heaven’s sake, not now.
Let’s make one thing clear — Mark Foley deserves all the heat that the public and law enforcement can give him. His pitiful excuses of alcoholism, and being gay and abused as a child are just that — excuses. Nothing justifies the unseemly and disgusting emails he sent to pages while in office.
That being said, Hastert can’t escape some responsibility too. After all, he’s the person most responsible for the page program. He was informed in August of 2005 about Foley’s “overly friendly” emails to a page. He chose to have Rep. John Shimkus handle it discreetly by not informing the FBI, the Democrats or even some members of the House Page Board. Instead, Shimkus simply went to Foley and told him to stop.
Is this protecting the pages? Especially after knowing — as apparently everyone in Congress did — that Foley was gay (but not open about it) and was suspiciously friendly with pages?
Finally, Hastert went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show yesterday and tried to shift the blame to Democrats — without apparently any facts to back it up — by saying Democrats orchestrated the leaks of Foley’s messages just before the election.
Shame on you Mr. Hastert!
This isn’t politics as usual. Foley’s conduct is vile and occurred during your watch. You bear some responsibility and should accept it. Don’t say you did enough when informed about this a year ago — you didn’t. Don’t say you’d step down if it were good for the Republican party — this is about children, not politics. Don’t blame the Democrats — you were in charge.
Shame. Shame. Shame.