Josh Marshall says:
In my post a short while ago, I wrote: "And what happens when Joe Sestak asks Curt Weldon whether he's lost confidence in Denny Hastert? How does that conversation go?"Let's make this more than hypothetical. What does your member of Congress think? It's no mystery what Dems think. But what about Republicans? Does the Republican candidate in your district believe that Denny Hastert should remain as Speaker? If they're elected on November 7th and the Republican retain their majority, will they vote for him for Speaker?
It seems like a pretty fair and germane question.
Ring up your Rep. Let us know what you hear. We'll share your results with the rest of our readers.
Ted Poe - (202) 225-6565
Joe Barton - (202) 225-2002
John Culberson - (202) 225-2571
Mike McCaul - (202) 225-2401
Ron Paul - (202) 225-2831
Lamar Smith - (202) 225-4236
Henry Bonilla - (202) 225-4511
John Carter - (202) 225-3864
Pete Sessions - (202) 225-2231
Others not listed here can be found via this link. And we shouldn't give candidates a pass, either:
Van Taylor - (254) 759-2006
Shelley Sekula Gibbs - (713) 247-2005 (City Council office), or (281) 480-5633 (campaign office)
By all means, if you speak to someone about this, let me know what they say. Let's get these people on the record.
A couple of press releases of interest, one from CD23 candidate Lukin Gilliland and one from Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), the Democratic Member of the House Page Board, are beneath the fold.
Gilliland statement:
One day before embattled Vice President Dick Cheney stumps for his opponent in San Antonio, challenger Lukin Gilliland today called on Henry Bonilla to give back at least $40,000 in campaign cash he took from political action committees linked to Florida Congressman Mark Foley, who abruptly resigned his office last Friday in the midst of the latest Republican ethics scandal in Washington."Give the money back," Gilliland demanded. "Your poor judgment and questionable associations have polluted South Texas politics long enough. It's time for you to come clean."
Bonilla, already damaged by his close ties to disgraced former Congressman Tom DeLay, is scheduled to host a fundraising luncheon for himself on Tuesday with Cheney, whose standing in national polls is at an all-time low due to his botched handling of the war in Iraq and single-minded focus on pushing more tax cuts for the wealthy through Congress.
A reliable vote to rubber stamp Cheney's proposals, Bonilla took $10,000 from Freedom Project PAC, run by Republican Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who replaced indicted former Congressman Tom DeLay earlier this year. Boehner and other GOP leaders in Washington have admitted they knew for at least a year about improper emails sent by Foley to young male pages, including a 16-year-old.
Bonilla also took $10,000 from Keep Our Majority PAC, the funding vehicle used by Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert of Ohio. After denying that he had known of the Foley scandal until last week, Hastert was forced to acknowledge that he harbored the predator for more than a year before it became public.
In addition, Bonilla pocketed more than $20,000 from Americans for a Republican Majority, or ARMPAC, the political action committee of indicted former Majority Leader DeLay, who resigned his office earlier this year amid swirling corruption scandals and legal controversies.
"Congress is out-of-control," Gilliland said. "As a matter of principle, the very least my opponent can do is signal his disgust at the spectacle of grown men violating the public trust in this way. Bonilla should give back the money - now."
Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 02, 2006 to Scandalized! | TrackBack
"In my 21 years as a Member of the House Page Board, every decision has been made on not just a bi-partisan basis but on a non-partisan basis, with our main concern always being the safety and wellbeing of the young teenagers who serve the U.S. House as pages."I was outraged to learn that the House Republican leadership kept to itself the knowledge of Mr. Foley's despicable behavior toward the House Pages.
"I am now equally outraged to learn that Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced today that there will be changes in the policies of the House Page program. Once again, I was not informed of the meeting today, nor was I consulted in any way about any proposed changes.
"And once again, the House Republican leadership is following the same pattern of unilateral decision-making that caused this problem in the first place in the Mark Foley issue. Speaker Hastert's announcement this afternoon is yet another example of the House Republican leadership being more concerned with finding political cover for themselves than with the safety and wellbeing of the House pages."
I'll see your Mark Foley and raise you one Mel Reynolds.
Surely you remember him. He was the Democrat who was busted a few years back for having sex with a 16-year-old volunteer -- not just some risque e-mails and IMs.
And here is an excerpt of what Reynolds said to one of these volunteers, 16-year-old Beverly Heard, in 1994. As you know "sfgate.com" is not exactly foxnews.com.
By the way, President Clinton commuted the jail time on the charges he was convicted for.
I say that NOT as a defense for Foley OR the GOP. That all sounds likely despicable and he deserves what he has coming to them if it's as it seems. I just post this as a reminder that the Democrats can be "Scandalized!" too, which you wouldn't ever guess by reading this blog.
Posted by: Tim on October 2, 2006 8:30 PMI'll stipulate that Reynolds was a dirtbag. When I extend my blog archives back to 1994, I'll be sure to include a condemnation of him.
The reason my Scandalized category is mostly about Republicans is because, as the party in power statewide and nationally, they're the ones who are abusing that power. As I said before, it's no coincidence that the Abramoff scandal involves Republicans. He didn't make 485 visits to Howard Dean or Nancy Pelosi, after all.
There are certainly bad apples on the Democratic side of the house. Beyond DeLay lists four Dems among the 25 worst offenders. They tend to be individual actors, whereas many of the Republicans in that group (in particular Burns, Blunt, Doolittle, Lewis, Pombo, and Sessions) have extensive ties to DeLay, Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, or some combination. It's systemic, and that magnifies the problem greatly.
Getting back to Foley, the issue here isn't even so much his own behavior, which while certainly reprehensible wasn't the worst thing I've ever heard of. It was the organized coverup, from not informing the relevant Democrat (as well as a Republican, Shelley Moore Capito, on the same committee) to their attempts to suppress the story, that really reeks, and which shows as plainly as one could imagine the institutional nature of the rot. This really is something different, something bigger, and something worse than the usual crap.
Two points to wrap up: One, while Clinton did commute Rerynolds' sentence, he did so after Reynolds had served 42 months of his 78 month term. And two, Mark Foley was one of the squadron of moralizers in the Clinton impeachment story.
Posted by: Charles Kuffner on October 2, 2006 11:07 PMI figured eventually Republican'ts like Tim would find a Democratic similar scandal from over 10 years ago.
Some of the Foley's recently released IM's imply sexual dates with the pages as well as explicit conversations regarding masturbation.
In view of the coverup by several GOP House leaders, will Sekula-Something give back some of that now tainted money, I don't think pointing fingers at old Democratic scandals will work as a defense. They are welcome to try.
Posted by: Gary Denton on October 2, 2006 11:19 PM*rolling around on the floor, laughing at the idea of Tim being a Republican*
Posted by: Sue on October 3, 2006 7:51 AMMel Reynolds is a case where our legal system worked. As I recall, he actually did serve jail time for his offense and had a portion of his incarceration commuted. Hardly what I would call easy treatment. Foley, I suspect, is looking at five years minimum. What federal prosecutor would resist having such a case?
Posted by: Dennis on October 3, 2006 12:14 PMI THINK ALL REPUBLICANS ARE VERY ARROGANT. IVE LIVED WITH HENRY BONILLAS BROTHER AND THEY ARE SO SCARY ARROGANT..HE IS VERY CYNICAL ABOUT HISPANICS AND HE HAS ALOT OF CRIMINAL TENDENCIES...I SEE GEORGE BUSH'S ARROGANCE IN ALL OF REPUBLICANS
Posted by: VICTORIA on October 27, 2006 1:18 AM