Top congressman defends Hastert (Boehner, R-Ohio)

[Hepburn]

Top congressman defends Hastert

The office of House Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio,) has sent reporters a copy of a letter-to-the-editor the congressman wrote to the Washington Times following that paper's editorial today calling for Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to step down as House speaker.

Boehner's letter doesn't really offer a full-throated defense of the Speaker and his importance to House Republicans. It doesn't offer reasons why it would be a terrible idea to throw Hastert under the bus, to use a phrase that has been heard a lot in Washington in recent days.


What it does is repeat the defense that congressional leaders have used since the scandal broke that they weren't aware of the sexually overheated text messages between former Republican congressman Mark Foley and an erstwhile page.

"...One thing is certain: no one in the leadership, including Speaker Hastert, had any knowledge of the warped and sexually explicit instant messages that were revealed by ABC News last Friday," Boehner says. "...I'm confident the Speaker would have moved to expel Mr. Foley immediately and turn him over to the appropriate authorities."

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/10/top_congressman.html

:puke:

Sure...Denny the Pedeophile-Enabler and Excuse Maker has done a hell of a job on this. Where have we heard this bullshit before? Hell of a job....DENNY!

:puke:

[pinerow]

1. You shoulda known and did nothing, ergo Hastert and Boehner

should both resign...and if they did not know, then they should both resign for their utter stupidity...:wtf:

[Hepburn]

4. There simply is NO way...

...if this shit went on for five years, as it has been reported in some of the media, that those Repuke assholes on the Page Committee did NOT know about this. No one is gonna tell me that in FIVE YEARS not page reported this to some adult. Hastert HAD to know and knew a LONG time ago about this. He does NOT deserve any support, but deserves to be removed from office and charged criminally. Part and parcel of the crime which Foley committed, in my opinion, was getting away with it. Those who covered it up are just a guilty as is Foley for the sexual exploitation of a minor which he perpetrated against that page.

[Tellurian]

8. Of course he'll defend Hastert, THEY'RE BOTH GUILTY! nm

[Double T]

2. There is CYA flying in ALL directions.........

rethug leadership resignations will still come before the elections as this situation continues to deteriorate.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. Isn't Boehner, like Hasturt, culpable in Predatorgate?

If you know of ongoing criminal activities, and do nothing at all to stop it, you are at best guilty as an accessory and at worse guilty of conspiracy to commit those crimes. By all accounts, Hasturt, Boehner and quite a few other top Republicans knew that Foley was repeatedly engaging in the sexual harassment of and statutory rape with his own pages and the pages of other Congressmen.

[Hepburn]

6. Sort of...

...I am a lawyer and unless one is a mandated reporter or has some other statutory duty, one has no duty to report any crime. If LE finds you as a witness and calls on you for a statement or you are subpoenaed to testify at trial, you cannot refuse to do so. But...no witness has a duty to voluntarily come forward ~~ only if found does one have a duty to truthfully cooperate and testify. To do otherwise is basically obstruction of justice.

The Hastert situation is different: To me, it appears that he participated in the cover up. That is something very different than not voluntarily reporting a crime. He knew and took action to keep it quiet and control the damage. Part of any crime is "getting away with it." Successfully completing a crime is part and parcel of the crime in and of itself. I learned in law school this is called "res geste" of the crime. Such things as the planning of the crime and getting away with it successfully are an essential part of any crime. The example I learned in law school: A bankrobber getting away from the scene of the bank robbery. The person driving the get-away car is just as guilty of the charge of bank robbery as the person who went into the bank and actually took the cash from the tellers.

So, as I see it, Hastert and the rest of the Repuke leadership participated in covering up what Foley was doing. It was not merely that they did not report it, they took steps to make sure it did not get out.

BTW: All of the legal BS above aside ~~ IMO, Hastert and the rest of the Repuke leadership had a moral duty to take care of Foley and his sexual exploitation of any of the pages even if there was no legal obligation to do so. Even if they were not legally obligated to do so, they sure as hell had a moral obligation to stop what was going on.

[depakid]

18. Not sure what the House rules say

but it's possible that there IS an affirmtive duty to report.

[Hepburn]

19. Good point.

I never thought of anything like that. I only was thinking about general legal principles.

Thanks for pointing that out! :hi:

[coalition_unwilling]

10. Accessory before and after the fact (n/t)

[Debi]

5. Because a 52 yo member of Congress sending personal emails

to 16 yo pages asking for their photographs and what they want for their birthday is perfectly acceptable behavior. And when the parents complain all that needs to be done is to tell the guy to knock it off. What? What problem? :shrug:

[leQ]

7. one has to wonder exactly what they DIDN'T see insofar as the messages

and people are getting IM and email mixed up. were these IM messages, or emails? it seems that since everything i've seen has been a conversation, it would be IM. i haven't seen any emails (yet). anybody else seen any?

[Debi]

15. I saw them back on Friday/Saturday

It was later that I saw the IMs.

The emails were still something that no parent of a 16yo would want their child to receive from a 52yo that wasn't a grand parent or other relative. I'll look for a link.


Here:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/sixteenyearold_.html

Just click on the bold parts and they'll link to the copies of the emails.

[kestrel91316]

9. Just more vipers. LIARS LIARS LIARS

They aren't just enablers, they're perpetrators.

I'm getting REALLY strong vibes from this whole mess and the Gannon/Guckert thing and * and KKKarl.

[patrick t. cakes]

22. yes yes yes!!

this thing goes way deep. foley was very confident, comfortable. like this was every day stuff, or acceptable in some circles. this isnt isolated.
very strong vibes. good call.

[Parche]

11. boehner

I heard Foley is very fondle of Boehner............

[Hepburn]

12. Fondle?? LMBO!!!

:rofl:

[populistdriven]

21. sure but n33d lube

[Vinca]

13. I could have sworn I heard Boner throwing Hastert under the bus

to save his own hide. A report on either MSNBC or CNN that Hastert told him "it had been taken care of" and he assumed it had been and was just as surprised . . . yada, yada, yada.

[Supersedeas]

14. no Flight numbers or no seating assignments - so, no accountability

[YDogg]

16. Inaccurate headline. Boehner is not a top congressman.

He's a tool.

[shanti]

17. that's their pat response now

"we didn't knowwwwwww". :argh:

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. They should have investigated further

That's the point. They found out about the emails, it was an open secret that the guy harrassed the pages, and they did nothing, first, because he was a safe bet for reelection, and second because he was a big money-maker for the party.

If they didn't know about the IMs it was because they didn't want to know. period.