Democracy Has Prevailed.

September 30, 2006

The Foley Affair: Where does Melissa Hart Fit In?

Now that the Other Political Junkie has covered this yet-another outstanding example of Republican morality, I want to follow up with a more local angle.

CNN is reporting that:
The House voted unanimously to launch an investigation into messages allegedly sent by former Rep. Mark Foley to a male teenage page.
And
The House vote came after the congressman who oversees the page program revealed he had learned about the exchange late last year and subsequently warned Foley to be "mindful" of his behavior.

Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, learned about the matter during the spring, but "there wasn't a level of alarm because there was no specificity about the contact," an aide to Boehner told CNN.
But
Boehner blocked a vote on a resolution offered by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that asked the House Ethics Committee to begin a preliminary investigation into Foley's conduct and the GOP leadership's "response" to it.

The California Democrat's resolution would have called for an investigation of "when the Republican leadership was notified and what corrective action was taken."

Instead, Boehner made a motion that the Foley matter be sent to the House Ethics Committee, which passed 409-0.
I guess it's a good thing for Boehner that Pelosi's resolution wasn't voted on.  In it we find this:
Whereas these charges demand immediate investigation, including a determination of when the emails were sent, who knew of the emails, whether there was a pattern of inappropriate activity by Mr. Foley involving email or other contacts with pages or former pages, when the Republican leadership was notified, and what corrective action was taken once officials learned of any improper activity;
We all know that Rep Boehner knew about the allegations last spring though now he says he can not remember whether he told the House Speaker.
The resignation rocked the Capitol, and especially Foley's GOP colleagues, as lawmakers were rushing to adjourn for at least six weeks. House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.
An interesting side note is that our own Missy Hart was both a supporter of John Boehner in his race for a House leadership position AND is now a member of the "House Ethics Committee (a.k.a Committee of Standards of Official Conduct).

I'm curious to see how this all plays out.  I mean, what questions (if any) will Hart face about this as she continues to campaign?

I'll try to keep you posted.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering if there would be interest among visitors to this blog of making daily calls to Hart's office to ask about this: when did she know and what did she know? I'd also like to know when she's going to actually debate Jason Altmire. The elections getting closer there, Missy. Can we see you talk about the issues just once?

Anonymous said...

Question for the family values bunch: What the hell kind of family are you talking about?

The heap o’ hypocrites is getting dangerously high. I keep having to re-check my dictionary to remind myself of what “family” and “values” used to mean.

Foley, Schmoley! PA has it’s own peccadillo-prone Republican Congressman to pick on: Don Sherwood, of PA’s 10th District, (up in northeastern PA).

Sherwood’s been married for 33 years and has 3 adult daughters. He’s a graduate of Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School. Don’s consistently received high ratings on his voting record from the Christian Coalition, the American Conservative Union , National Right to Life Committee , the National Rifle Association & Concerned Women for America.

He defines himself as a strong “defender of marriage”.

But, oh no! Don’s wholesome picture has been smudged.

Sherwood, himself, smudged it up last year when he admitted to the world that, for the last 5 years he’d been having an affair with 29 year old Cynthia Ore. The “defender of marriage” had an affair with a woman who was BORN 5 years after he got married - a woman who’s in his daughters’ age group.

Why’d Don come clean? Because in September 2004, Ore called 911 and told the cops Don was trying to choke her. (No wonder he tried choking her, she probably made him mad by asking him to get a divorce. Ore said he explained his refusal to get a divorce with simple math: Divorce ≠ Successful Re-election Bid.)

That’s right, only when the police report was broadcast in the press, did the brave and righteous 64 year old Congressman own up in public.

I’m sure he made it all better by apologizing to his loved ones for the “pain & embarrassment” he’d caused them.

I’m sure that the undisclosed payment he made to Ore, to settle the $5.5 million federal lawsuit she was going to bring against him, made it all better for her too.

I’m just not sure if he made it all better for the voters in his district, we’ll see in November.

Gort said...

Good point Gloria. Sherwood has Hastert and Boehner coming to town for funraisers along with Mr. Family values himself. We're used to them being crooks but sexual predators just turn my stomach.

Anonymous said...

I am going to say this on every blog that will let me:

Take a neighbor to vote. First make sure that neighbor will vote the same way you do, then take that person to vote. There are too many people who are registered to vote who don't vote. Take them to vote.

Anonymous said...

Do you think that Melissa Hart has not been heard from, about the Foley deal, because she is Gay.?