The cover-up that kills
A sex scandal in the US Congress has Republicans pointing fingers as mid-term elections near
Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday October 5, 2006
The Guardian
Maf54 (7:37:27 PM): how my favourite young stud doing
Maf54 is Mark Foley, the Florida congressman and chairman of the missing and exploited children's caucus of the House of Representatives, writing an email in 2003 to a former teenage House page, one of the young interns who run errands within Congress. With the exposure last week of a series of emails to pages, Foley resigned. One of the pages had told his parents, who told their Republican congressman, who told the House Republican leadership, who kept the sexual predator in their midst a secret.
As Republican control of Congress in the mid-term elections teeters on the precipice, party leaders suddenly find themselves rediscovering the harsh reality of Richard Nixon's commentary on the Watergate scandal - that it's not the crime that kills you, but the cover-up.
..................
Republican leaders knew about Foley's preying on pages since at least 2001. As soon as hints of their cover-up were revealed, they began falling over each other offering conflicting stories. Rodney Alexander, the congressman contacted by the parents of one page, said he first informed Thomas Reynolds, the chairman of the Republican congressional election committee.
Shortly after Reynolds learned about Foley, Foley gave the Republican committee $100,000. Dennis Hastert, the current House speaker, at first claimed he learned only last week but then admitted he had known for almost a year. John Boehner, the majority leader, said he had learned nearly a year ago, and passed on the information to Hastert, who told him: "We're taking care of it."
more at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1887756,00.html
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