You Decide: Were the First Foley E-Mails Worthy of Investigation? POLL

[helderheid]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/you_decide_were.html
You Decide: Were the First Foley E-Mails Worthy of Investigation?

October 06, 2006 4:04 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

Rt_foley_061003_nr_1The debate over whether Congress should have taken more decisive action against Congressman Foley centers on the e-mails he sent to a 16-year-old page from Lousiana.

Two newspapers, the FBI and congressional leaders deemed them not serious enough for publication or further investigation.

Others are now criticizing those decisions. What do you think?

Read the exchange of e-mails between the page and a member of Congressman Alexander's staff Danielle Savoy. She declined to comment to ABC News about the e-mails.
http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/foley_emails_red_group1.pdf

vote here http://abcnews.go.com/US/popup?id=2536268

[Oceansaway]

1. .

Should the e-mails sent by ex-Rep. Foley to a former congressional page have prompted more action from Congress and the FBI?

Yes. They were provocative. Congress and the DOJ should have launched investigations immediately.
33

Not sure. It's a matter of opinion.5

No. The e-mails weren't alarming enough to have warranted an investigation.3



Total Vote: 41

[helderheid]

4. where do I vote? I didn't see a poll

[Oceansaway]

8. right below the face pic. of Foley...

[helderheid]

9. thanks!

[wakeme2008]

2. no the emails by themselves where not that bad

and the St. Pete Times did check with the parents and they did not want to press the issue.

[BOSSHOG]

3. If there were no substance to those emails

and they had been investigated earlier, Representative Foley would now still be in congress and this would not be an issue for the party of responsibility.

[Goblinmonger]

5. As a mandatory reporting

if one of my high school students gave me that exchange about a high school teacher and a student, I would go to the authorities without question. That is inappropriate contact between an adult in a power position over an underage child.

[Missy M]

6. Absolutely.....

anyone would have to question why this man was sending emails to former pages. As a parent I would certainly be questioning something like that. If they had investigated earlier on they would have found out about the IM's.

[Igel]

7. Without seeing what the (ex?) page wrote back

there's a bit of context missing. Also, not knowing what kind of footing they were on when both were in DC at the same time, or the general relation between Congressfolk and the pages. I've known college administrators that were no less friendly to undergrads, and there was nothing suspicious. Some kids found it ok; those that expected the administrators to be aloof were a bit creeped out by it, until they got used to it or told them to back off.

Friendly. Possibly overly friendly. But if I got about some fellow elected official, and only them, I wouldn't have investigated further. I'd have read them and thought nothing more about them. Unless, of course, I had background information that he was at or slightly over the line--but that's the context necessary to judge Hastert's inaction, and it's also lacking.

The IMs ... now there's a bit of a problem.

I can't help but wonder if the people responding in the poll that Oceansaway cites aren't confused by the general media muddling of e-mail and IMs.

[riderinthestorm]

10. Context is everything. Foley was KNOWN by the Rep leadership as a predator

or at least a Congressman with an unwholesome interest in the pages from long before this.

Any hint of impropriety would have sent my alarm bells jingling in that situation.

Beyond that, frankly, any adult asking for my child's birthdate, asking what they might want as a gift, and especially asking for a picture of my child would have been a big ding a ling.

I also want to make a point about impropriety beyond the whole age/power differential. If you were an employee, Foley's emails would have certainly been a problem - his transgressions are even a problem seen through this level.

[helderheid]

11. kick for new link

[helderheid]

12. ,