"The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats."

You mean... his parents? - LOL!!!!

Call me skeptical (because I can't spell suspicious), but what if the people who are to blame created this scenario just in case it started to blow up in their face?

Now there's a revelation. A young man from Oklahoma who is unwillingly outed for being gay (by a Republican blogger, no less) adamantly denies that he's gay. Well, I guess that settles it, then. I mean, why would anyone in Oklahoma ever deny being gay? "I was just kidding" is always a believable excuse. What a blockbuster. Keep trying.

I don't have a clue whether or not the Drudge story is true, it was just amazing to me how close it was to what Betsy suggested.

What I have not really heard anyone but Betsy talk much about is what that page was doing engaging in the IM discussion. The next thing you know we will be hearing that the page only made up the prank story because his name was public and he didn't want to own up to the comments made, especially considering the fact that they were made to a man. Who knows? That is why the calls for Hastert's head were, in my opinion, entirely too fast and furious. With stories like these, the facts are often not known until days or weeks later, after all the gossip and false stories have been sorted through. It will be interesting to watch, however it turns out. Most disturbing to me though is how quickly the Democrats jumped on it to try to smear Republicans as child molesters or those that would aid and cover up for child molesters. That ad that has already come out included flat out lies that are almost sure to backfire if the GOP candidate can get the facts out quick enough. This was not a godsend for Dems so much because it allowed them to paint the GOP as perverts, but because it broke the GOP momentum that had been building the past few weeks and pushed the Dow all time high, dropping gas prices and other stories positive to the GOP out of the news.

I agree with Chris. There is just no way to get at the back-ground truth here, and its kind of a distraction anyway.

Foley is a schmuck, and deserves to be out of office. The rest is all political bullshit, from both parties.

What pisses me off is that the conservative base should be commended for this by everyone, because they are the only reason that this behavior is a firing offense.

Even though most Dems disapprove of the action also, they have not held their party accoutable to it.

Ha! I posted my comment before reading Chris's comment. It didn't take long for my "prediction" to come true. Predictions are easy when dealing with the predictable.

...because it broke the GOP momentum that had been building the past few weeks and pushed the Dow all time high, dropping gas prices and other stories positive to the GOP out of the news.

I think you nailed it, Lorie. That's the only reason this story has legs.

Lorie

I really don't know what you're talking about. You posted the news of the "blockbuster" with no mention of the reasons why it may not be credible. I pointed out why it certainly doesn't make sense to simply take him at his word. How is that declaring that Repoublicans cover up for child molesters? Did you actually even read my comment before responding, or are you so deep into reflexive obfuscation that you're past that?

Your spinning on this is particularly ridiculous. You have members of the Republican leadership throwing each other under the bus, not standing together to declare that they did the right thing. You can always say all the facts aren't in yet on any scandal. That's no excuse for denying the facts as they are known.

The original e-mail in question was unquestionably creepy, and any parent of a 16 year old who saw e-mails from a 55 year old man asking their kid for pictures would take action. Forget the IMs, forget the other pages, the fact remains that the Republican leadership, knowing Foley's issues with pagers, saw that e-mail and took no action, because they put reelection over protecting the young men and women in their charge. Spin it any way you want, that's disgusting. And the rush to try and make this all about the timing of the disclosure, of which you were an early practitioner, would also be disgusting if it wasn't so laughable. Trying to tell every parent in America that the reasonable reaction to this is 180 degrees different than what their gut reaction would be is a non-starter. Your continuing parsing of this situation is the worst kind of partisan CYA.

Lorie:

Yes lets do talk about other news positive to the GOP. How about the news that since monday 13 soldiers have been killed in Iraq. A new 3 day record total. Iraq is really what Americans care about in this election so talk about it.

Yes, it's all a nefarious plot by dems to change the subject...good grief.

Lorie...

Wow! Hugh, Chris and Lee are all teaming up on you...you must have hit a nerve. Chris is the funniest. I just laugh reading his posts.

"..those in charge of it might want to hire Betsy Newmark as a consultant."

Hmmm. A teacher and a "journalist".
= Not very good at either.

She should be hired. If someone with no experience in disaster management can be hired to run FEMA, then why not?

Oh look, the Dow is up, nevermind.

Aahh.. I see everyone is dancing to the tune in perfect step. However, when the credits roll, I'm afraid we won't see the name of the choreographer listed. Let's see what has been accomplished here. The party has purged an embarrassment, which will please the Christian right. An unco-operative house speaker is threatened and may yet be eliminated. The Democrats have abandoned and alienated the gay voting block.

Rove!! You evil genius bastard!!

"Oh look, the Dow is up, nevermind."

Now THAT's funny!

1. Democratic operatives? What does that mean?

2. If these emails hadn't been leaked, Rep. Foley would still be trying to meet underage pages.

3. There are plenty of other emails, IM's and texts from other underage pages.

4. At its WORST, these kids just nailed him. So what? It's entrapment - and I don't remember hearing any Republicans defending Marion Berry when he was entraped...

keep reaching to grasp that straw...
keep blaming Clinton
Keep blaming the Dems
keep avoiding responsibility..
Keep doing all of the above until November..
Please...keep doing it...

(Do swiftboats run in both directions? hmmm)

Why does Peloshi want the republicans to make a statement under oath but refuse to do the same? There is still a rotten jackass in the room. The FBI will find who placed the jackass there. They're hard at word already, hope they don't send a liberal to interview the 16 year old page's, they will outsmart the agent.

"Chris is the funniest. I just laugh reading his posts."

Good work, Vagabond. Your point by point rebuttal has totally won the day. Great job!

What an idiot. Peloshi just announced they will change the direction of the economy. With unemployment at record lows, stock markets at record highs, home ownership at record highs and tax rates at historic lows for the working class. She is going to drive up unemployment, crash the stock market, force homeowners to lose their homes, and raise our taxes.

That is the only change in direction the economy can take from the current roaring economy. Yep, she stated flat out in front of God, and everyone that is the democrats plan for the future.

Since when did Wizbang become a liberal blog? I come here for my conservative echo chamber and all I find is lib trolls (not you Scrap).

hummmm .... And speaking of class --- if you can't address the issue, attack the blogger? AND her profession?

Rutrohhhh.

Sounds like a drop-out to me. Waaaayyyyy out.

Hugh, do you ever watch SNL? You remind me of that character they have on there occasionally called "Debbie Downer". You can always count on her to take the ultra pessimist view of the world and irritate people around her to the point of not want anything to do with the her. You fit that character perfectly.

Here's my thoughts on all this (for what it's worth): This story is no longer about Foley only. It's grown to be about the Democrats attempt to smear hastert and the entire GOP because they have no ideas of their own. This is what they always fall back on. And I am so angered by this that I'm chomping at the bit to vote in November. I hope there's no one on the road between my house and the polling place that morning because I might just run them over.

I actually hope that the Dem's start circulating these names of gay Republicans. That will be the icing on the cake to completely engerize the GOP base. Peple like nogo postal, Lee, and Hugh have no earthly idea what thing like this is doing to the conservativee. It will have the OPPOSITE effect of supressing the voters.

The best strategy would have been for the Dem's to just shut up and not say anything. That's too late now and most liberals are going to be shocked out of their minds after this election and they are still in the minority.

I am damn tired of being condescended to by elitist liberals who think that people like me are southern hicks who hate gay and black people, worship the Confederate flag, are kooky because we believe in the Bible and creation, and are PATRIOTIC (i.e WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY !!!!!

We need to make sure these people stay in the wilderness when it comes to government control.

Hugh,
Believe it or not I would welcome a debate over Iraq -- a real one that includes all the reasons we went in (Putin's warning that Saddam was planning a terrorist attack on US interests, all the Clinton admin. claims that Saddam had WMD ,etc.), as well as the good things our troops have done there and the intelligence collected from terrorists captured there. If you doubt that I want to talk about Iraq, see my column at Townhall tomorrow. It is about...Iraq.

Idiots, and you know who I mean, don't you Lee, Hugh. Have you learned nothing from the Plame incident? I guess not. How do you want your crow served. Hot or cold, because you are soon going to be eating crow. You are too stupid to smell shit in an outhouse. If you look at a calender, notice that the IM's were from 3 years agoand that ABC what the news source, the smell was all over this. It did point out to must of use who had forgotten just how hypocritical you on the wrong (left) side of this issue are. Notice, Foley is no longer in Congress. That's it and that's all.

Pardon the typos as when I see so many lefties gathered in one location, the rush to point out who the are gets very exciting.

Meanwhile, come to find out Condi was lying to the 911 Commission.

Shocking, shocking, I say!!

Do you think this MIGHT have been why Bush was against the 911 Commission (before he wa for it), that he stonewalled the commission, that he underfunded the commission, etc???

The MSM should be ashamed of themselves for spending all their time on another sex scandal and dropping the real news (again)?

"Nobody could have foreseen that the Bush Administration dropped the ball on Osama".

lol.

No, I think the real question is why Jamie Gorelick and Ben Veniste, both from the Clinton administration (which was also being investigated) were on the panel.

And once we found out about the Gorelick Wall, Ms. Gorelick should have been a witness. Immediately.

Bush knew it would turn into a political joke and it did with Gorelick and Ben Veniste there to carry water for their boy Clinton.

The Democrats overreacted pure and simple. This will be their WMD's. Man, they got sooooooo hungry for power that they never saw Carl Rove comin! Foley is scum, good riddance, but the democrats trippin over each other to get to the MSM is Priceless!!.
I can almost see the ghost of Dan Rather in my trucks headlights.

Chris,
I didn't read your comment first. That is why I wrote "I posted my comment before reading Chris's comment."

I don't know why you are trying to make out like anyone that thinks it is sick to play politics with this story by holding the messages and then using them for political advantage, and running campaign ads full of lies, can't be outraged at Foley at the same time.

I have two girls and I had a pervert living across the street from me. I have blogged about it before in case you are not familiar with my past blogging. Anyway, I sat in the audience in the courtroom to make sure the guy went to jail and if he hadn't already decided to move out of our neighborhood my husband and I had already decided that we would convince him that he needed to move.

I have no use for perverts, especially the kind that get off on kids. And yes, I think a 16 year old is a kid. I have denounced Foley, said that he was lower than low, that no one should be making any excuses for his behavior and that he did right to resign because he was not fit to serve and that he should be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

No "put a little ice on that" and it will be fine, or any saying it is reprehensible and then later defending it as a consentual relationship, no saying it is reprehensible but doesn't "rise to the level"... He is a disgusting sleaze, like Studds and Frank, but he won't be sitting in Congress like they did, thank God. Trying to say that because I also denounce those wanting to slime all Republicans with this, running ads full of lies in an effort to deceive voters, means that I don't think Foley should be punished to the full extent is just silly.

Here is the deal. We both say we denounce the behavior of Foley. I am backing it up with my desire to see him pay for it to the full extent of the law, and by losing his seat, and by suffering intense personal and professional shame and shunning. Do you denounce the behavior of Foley or just Republicans who behave in such a way? If you denounce the behavior then you need to denouce the Democrats who have behaved similarly and Democrats who have re-elected them and treated them as if they are deserving of respect.

If the Democrats are not doing anything wrong in their treatment of this scandal, then why are so many liberals here freaking out and trying to say that anyone pointing out their behavior is excusing Foley?

Those who denounced Clinton's bimbo eruptions mouthed some words but did not want him punished in any way. Republicans denouncing Foley want him punished severely. That is the record. I am not surprised those on the left squeal like pigs when inconvenient facts like that are pointed out.

If the IMs are true, Jordan has a condition called TMS that can lead to sexual dysfunction. See this website here: http://www.healthystrokes.com

Oustanding post and brilliant counterpunching Lorie. If Drudge has got it right and this begins to blowback on the Democrats, look for the MSM to drop it like a hot potato, by hyping the most damaging, unsubtantiated accusations
right before going AWOL and either failing to give the new details equal coverage or ignoring them all together. This has already served its first purpose, which was to halt the GOP momentum. However, they've thrown so much kukai on the wall that they'll view it as a plus if any of it sticks.

Ken

He was 18!
It was prank!
The kid hired a lawyer!
A dem blogger had copies of the email!
A Democrat did worst

It sure does sound like the republicans are trying to excuse Foley's behavior.

"He was 18!
It was prank!
The kid hired a lawyer!
A dem blogger had copies of the email!
A Democrat did worst

It sure does sound like the republicans are trying to excuse Foley's behavior."

Posted by: BarneyG2000

Barney hasn't learned how to read!

Barney,
It is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. They are two separate issues. Why is that so hard for you guys to understand? Foley is a sleazy predator. Republicans are shunning him and urging for investigations and he is no longer sitting in Congress. Even though the one intern's IMs may have been a prank, others were not. The guy is a pervert who likes young boys, like Gerry Studds, but Republicans are not defending him.

Okay now for the other issue. The first was the walking, now we are going to chew gum. Republicans have washed the guy out of their hair and are pushing for the harshest punishment possible for him. Democrats are playing the vilest form of politics, especially Patty Wetterling who has aired an ad full of lies. Excuse me for daring to point that out.

Democrats who defended and excused Clinton's creepy groping and his attempts to paint women telling the truth about him as lying psycho stalkers are now trying to tar all Republicans as defenders of child molesters when no Republicans are defending Foley's behavior. Those are the inconvenient facts.

"Democrats are playing the vilest form of politics... "

Admit that the Republicans would do exactly the same thing in this circumstance if the tables were turned, Lorie.

Come on now -- don''t lie...

Lee,

Congratulations for showing yourself to be the most obtuse, blithering idiot I have ever come across. Your projection of your way of thinking onto others is most telling. You are neither tolerant nor intelligent, just a buzzing fly, flitting from one place to the next. I will not hold my breath to see a substantive point made by you.

Lee,
The stupid ones would. When the Lewinsky thing first broke, Republicans said almost nothing. It was eerie. They kept that up for a while, too, until Clinton started attacking Starr and the evil Republicans. It was one of the only times Republicans played it smart. They knew there was nothing they had to say. A president getting a BJ in the Oval Office from an intern -- what could be added to that?

If you look back at those first days after the Drudge Monica story broke you will find that Dems were being more tough on Clinton than Republicans were. Then Clinton decided to attack Starr so they joined in and all their talk of "reprehensible" turned into "consenting adults."

So no, Republicans didn't do it when the Monica story broke. It was not because they were virtuous. They were just smart for once and knew that it was unnecessary. It is entirely unnecessary for Dems to be attacking the entire party for the actions of one pervert. They may score some big points now, but they risk some serious backlash if they overplay it, especially over the gay outing aspect.

Rep. Patrick McHenry is going after the Dems

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/100506/news3.html

"Is the American public to believe that neither of you nor your staffs nor anyone associated with your staffs had prior knowledge or involvement with the release of Foley's e-mails and/or explicit instant messages? Is the American public to believe that ABC News stumbled haphazardly on this story without Democratic assistance?" wrote McHenry, a freshman Republican who has emerged as an attack dog for the GOP.

Awww, it's a CONSPIRACY!!! That explains it! Thanks for clearing that up, guys. It's so hard to seperate the truth from the spin these days, what with all the hacks, kooks, and fringe lunatics telling all these awful lies for no reason other than political partisanship. Why, you'd almost get the impression that groping a 16 year old boy was WORSE than consentual sex with a 24 year old girl. Good to know where you guys stand on this issue, and as always, if I ever commit rape, I'll know who to count on to hurl accusations at my victim.

Geez, Jonas. Who said Foley was anything less than a creepy, disgusting child molester who should be punished severely?

You guys are the ones who defended the perpetual groper who tried to destroy a 24 year old girl by painting her as a lying psycho stalker, when he knew she was telling the truth. You guys defended that. We are not defending Foley. We are just pointing out the dispicable political opportunism in the Dem reaction to the Foley story. Sorry, but as much lipstick as you want to put on it, it is not a pretty sight. No one is trying to pretty up Foley. He is a sleazy creepy predator. No one I know has said otherwise.

Seems we are now back to the page class of 1998. Ain't that a hoot since Hastert didn't become speaker of the house until 1999. It looks like the barn door was left open and has been open a long time. Had any democrats served in the house since 1998? Or are they a new addition?

Hang Foley and get on with All of the people involved in the coverup and release of the information. Still most important is who held the information until a 'specific' date to release it. We could have had a murder during that time and don't know who's responsible.

Next up, Democrats 'out' all homosexuals in the government and then ban homosexuals from any supervisory position involving babies under the age of 18 or 21 or 30, whatever.

Everyday Democrats lied , soldiers died. Like they have the mental capacity to differentiate their lying to empower their criminal incompetant frauds and the deaths of our brave Soldiers as a direct result of it.

Why don't the Majority of Americans believe that democrats give a Rats ass about 2700 of our Brave Soldiers giving their life for the Country they love and believe in?

Simple , because Democrats "DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT OUR SOLDIERS , OUR COUNTRY OR EVEN THE CHILDREN"

Democrats like the Minority Losers who make fools of themselves here are only interested in lying to us and themselves just to get through the day(it makes them feel good). For the sole purpose of putting into power their despicable party of cowards(who haven't done anything for them to feel good about).

They are without a doubt the shameless and grotesque party of perpetual fraud. They prove it every time they open their mouths. Lets hear it losers , ready ....begin.

ABC and their 3 new sources is suspect.......do they have copies of the IM's? I suppose if they didn't they could make them up.

I find it hard to beleive from everything I read that Foley was going out on a limb and risking everything(career) by going after pages left and right. I think he was very nice to them because he's a perv and would, but didn't go any farther until provoked(which would make the prank aspect of the IM they published make more sense)?

I find it hard to beleive Foley was using Instant Messanger in 98 or 97 as one accusser is now claiming.......this whole thing stinks to high heaven.

more attention needs to be paid to the Dem blog that broke this and was just created for this purupose

You mean... his parents? - LOL!!!!

So George Soros has gotten to them, too?

Quick, someone tell Hugh! The people have a right to know!

Republicans are shunning him and urging for investigations

Impressive that they manage to do the right thing when everyone is watching. Damned impressive.

More attention needs to paid to the lying malicious democrats but I forgot , one Party is busy running the Country the other trying to ruin it. Is their even a difference between the criminal democrats , terrorists and leftist blowhard dictators these days? They all sound exactly the same. Perhaps it's because they say exactly the same assinine words and share the same goals. Not even bed wetters like Lee and friends can lie and spin their turd polishing behinds out of these facts.

"Impressive that they manage to do the right thing when everyone is watching. Damned impressive."

No , it's just the "NORM" unlike the immoral fraudulent democrats who reward criminal behavior especially when their caught trying to smear their betters. Have a cigar , it's on the House.

"Impressive that they manage to do the right thing when everyone is watching. Damned impressive."

No , it's just the "NORM" unlike the immoral fraudulent democrats who reward criminal behavior especially when their caught trying to smear their betters. Have a cigar , it's on the House.

"Why, you'd almost get the impression that groping a 16 year old boy was WORSE than consentual sex with a 24 year old girl."

Posted by: Jonas Planck

Wait a minute, all we have are creepy emails and disgusting IM's, and you are accusing Foley of groping a 16 year old? I guess I missed the groping charge. But at least you are admitting to the groper-in-chief to having sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. Even Bubba wouldn't admit to that. Is..is...is...

Rob, why is it the "NORM" and not the norm? Are you making some weird Cheers reference?

FYI: Soros is behind that, too.

Dear Lord I am so tired of this story. It's a frickin tempest in a teapot, a la the "Plame Affair."

Faux issues for a faux world.

I wonder if anyone would notice if N. Korea blew a nuke, or Iran declared it's first nuke had cleared production.

So much time wasted that could be better spent on more important, and worthy, things. Sheesh.

Did it ever occur to you that Foley may have been a covert CIA operative. Maybe you blew his cover.

Oh, sorry. Wrong Faux Scandal.

The grasping was in Florida, no that is an employee (not Foley) of the democratic party of Florida and the girls were 14 and 15 and the teacher was a male. Fired, now employeed by the rightous democrats. I guess it's different with a teen female, the season is always open on them for the voltures even if the actions are almost exactly like Foleys. Story and links at Michele Malkin's blog. When you open a can of worms expect to get some dirt on you. Expect dozens of democrats to be outed before the weekend is over. Tit for Tat and the old folks say. Hang Foley and then get after the rest.

Lorie:

I completely agree with you about predators and children. In my view I think 18 is too young even. Democrat, Republican, whatever. Anyone who crosses that line should be condemned.

As far as the Foley issue and politicians are concerned. Anyone, Democrat or Republican, who withheld information or waited or tried to cover up should be condemned and thrown out on his or her ass.

Clinton had consequences and should have for the lie. The sex was with a 22 yo adult. I defended him against impeachment but he lost his law license which he should have and was subject to incredible public scorn, humiliation and embarrassment. Some on the right think that wasn't enough. That's OK, that's their opinion. But if anyone thinks there were no consequences to him you're denying reality.

Lori

You can wrap yourself in the mantle of virtue all you want. The fact remains that the House Republican leadership is busy pointing fingers at each other, because they know they screwed up. The goal of the Republicans, just as with the Abramoff scandal, is to make the public think "everyone does it," to deflect from the fact that this scandal is all about the Republican leadership. Foley was a member of the Republican caucus. The Republicans run the House. Trying to claim that the Democrats had equal responsibility to deal with him is a smokescreen, especially since we have Republican leaders stating definitively that other leaders were informed (and Democrats were intentionally kept out of the loop), as opposed to blogger speculation about which Democrats knew. Yet you choose to focusd on the speculation rather than the facts, approaching this as though it's more important to talk about what the Democrats knew. Lost in the repeated mentions of Pelosi's name is any factual evidence that she knew anything. Your whole attack is based on zero evidence. "She must have known" is hardly a convincing argument.

And please stop patting yourselves on the back about Foley. I don't doubt that you condemn him, as do most Republicans. It's hardly a daring stance. I'm sure you're brave enough to condemn Osama bin Laden, while you're at it. You go girl!

The fact remains that the Republicans did nothing about Foley until the press came knocking. As soon as this scandal broke, the Republican response was "We think the most important thing is to go back and talk about 1983." Yeah, real responsible. I hear from the Republicans that they step up and take responsibility, but I see them trying to deflect the blame onto Democrats, lower level staffers and everyone but the people in charge. That may be taking repsonsibility in your little echo chamber, but the American people know better, and the polls are reflecting that.

Here's a perfect example of the approach the Republicans are taking: Kirktoe said "I actually hope that the Dem's start circulating these names of gay Republicans." He conveniently ignores the fact that it is Republicans who have drawn up and are circulating such a list, in order to place blame for the whole thing on a cabal of gay staffers. Very admirable. Yet kirktoe's reflexive response is to yell "Democrats."

Face it, there is no credible evidence linking Democrats to any of this. Demanding that Pelosi take a lie detector test is just more obfuscation. And crying about the timing of these revelations is really pathetic. I supose the press should just declare a moratorium on doing any reporting after September 1st, so as not to confuse the voters with actual facts. George Bush shamefully politicized the 9/11 memorial services, and Democrats were outraged. But complaining about it has no effect, because the public doesn't want to hear about it. And just like in that situation, when you are reduced to complaining about the timing of the story, rather than the facts of the story, stick a fork in it. You're done.

And by the way, I know you're used to preaching to the choir, but perhaps you could state what the lies are in Wetterling's ad, rather than just throwing out the accusation.

"the Republicans did nothing about Foley until the press came knocking"

Right, Chris...all the Rethuglicans knew all about it, but none of the Dems did...

If anyone, from either party, knew half of what has been revealed and subsequently did nothing, they're as sleazy as Foley.

Not that I particularly give a tinker's damn about drawing Clinton's escapades into the fray, but both his indiscretions and Foley's perversions do have a common thread--abuse of power and position. To deny that similarity is disingenuous at best.

The fact, undeniably supported through the past few decades of history, remains that when a Republican is involved in a scandal, he typically resignes his post promptly, if not vacating his Congressional seat as well. When a Democrat gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar (or anywhere else, for that matter), the Party supports his decision to "ride out" the investigation.

The other salient difference is within the way that the two parties deal with scandal in the opposition's camp. The Republicans typically are silent for the most part, calling for resignation of the guilty party and an investigation at most. Democrats start calling for the resignation of every elected Republican official, lacking regard as to whether the official is connected to the scandal.

While there may be an exception or two you may cite that doesn't align with the above assertations, there are precious few aberrations from either party's "standard operating procedure" when a member of Congress is disgraced.

according to hastert(via Newsmax interview) the DCCC waited till the last day after Foley could get his name removed from ballot to drop this hitjob...