Rep. Kingston: ‘It’s The Job Of The Speaker To Protect The Majority’
Rep. Kingston: ‘It’s The Job Of The Speaker To Protect The Majority’
In an effort to defend Speaker Dennis Hastert’s failure to act on warnings about Mark Foley’s predatory behavior, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, claimed on Fox News this morning, “The speaker’s job is to protect the majority. … Why would the speaker protect one member in a safe Republican seat? He would not try to risk the majority for that. There would be no reason for him to have that motivation.” Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) responded that the prescise reason Hastert didn’t act was due to political considerations: “He didn’t want to risk his majority.” Watch it:
Hastert’s duty to protect the pages should have superceded his desire to “protect the majority.” Kingston’s comments underscore the reason why the House leadership has landed in the trouble they are now in. Rather than addressing the Foley scandal from the perspective of protecting children, the leadership turned a blind eye to the problem, viewing it as a threat to its political power. Some examples:
– Hastert acknowledged Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) came to inform him of Foley’s inappropriate emails “in the context of maybe a half a dozen or a dozen other things…that might have affected campaigns.”
– Hastert said the Foley scandal “is a political issue” and that “there are some people that try to tear us down.”
– Rather than address the issue in a bipartisan way that would have underscored a common desire to protect the young interns, the conservative chair of the House Page Board — Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) — refused to inform the Democrat on the committee — Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI).
Full transcript:
KINGSTON: The speaker’s job is to protect the majority. We know that this race has been a 15-seat race to keep the majority. Why would the speaker protect one member in a safe Republican seat? He would not try to risk the majority for that. There would be no reason for him to have that motivation.
WALLACE: Congressman Meehan?
MEEHAN: I think the reason why he did it is because he didn’t want to risk his majority.
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25 Responses to “Rep. Kingston: ‘It’s The Job Of The Speaker To Protect The Majority’”
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It’s the job of the voter to take Kingston and the rest of hte corporate whores in Washington back to their corner in metaphoric hell.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:20 pmYet again the lie that Hassert fired him is perpetuated without anyone calling the liars on their lies.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:21 pm…and if/when pelosi is speaker?…
Republicans try to implicate Pelosi in Predatorgate with nonsense
October 8th, 2006 at 1:25 pmBy: John Amato @ 3:38 AM - PDT
On the tube Republicans can throw anything into the wind without impunity even if the talking head knows it’s garbage. Take these two. Rep. Kingston-GA and Rep. McHenry-NC, try to turn the Foley scandal into a Democratic conspiracy. These two weasels–and I use that word lovingly, try to absolve Dennis Hastert’s involvement in covering up Foley’s sexual proclivities and demand Nancy Pelosi be put under oath.
…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/ 2006/ 10/ 08/ republicans-try-to-implicate-pelosi-in-predatorgate-with-nonsense/
Both McHenry & Kingston were spinning that wretched laughable dribble so I sent them off an e-mail.
Poor, poor wretched Representative Kingston,
How utterly pathetic of you to try to hold others accountable for your parties failures. It does you no justice to try to blame Democrats or others for your own failings. Where is your sense of dignity, ethics, principles?
Personally I, as would many other Americans, LOVE to see one iota of proof that any Democrats or legislative representatives, other than guilty Republicans, intentionally held this information for political gain.
Any man of an ounce of credibility can back up such a claim. Before making such a gross liable claim I am sure you have evidence. What PROOF do you have????????? Waiting…………..Yeah that’s what we thought.
YOU CANNOT. What we all see is your side of the aisle and so called “leaders” did know and alone knew BUT DID NOTHING. The slightest of investigations, scrutiny, or inquiry would have revealed the lurid despicable Republican predatory behaviors.
Your transparent and desperate spin does not fool Americans. The do nothing, no oversight GOP congress is hopefully soon to end as this country can no longer bear such larceny, corruption, immorality, and incompetence.
Good luck on K street.
Jack.Kingston@mail.house.gov
Feel free to send your own FAN mail, they love hearing from their EMPLOYERS.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:25 pmsick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick. Recent “Daily show” gave us idea about BUSH’s JOB. Now we know about SPEAKER’s JOB.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:31 pmI lived in Kingston’s district when I was an undergrad. I which I still lived there so I could vote against this idiot. His reasoning is as stupid as the people equating this to what Clinton did.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:31 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBND7y7FmMc
Evangelicals and Conservatives to split due to Foley/Gay issue?
Tucker has a great quote about Republican true contempt for Evangelicals and Andrew Sullivan has a comparison to Conservative thought to Evangelical through and how the two ARE mutually exclusive. The Foley/Gay issue could split the Conservative/Evangelical marriage of convenience since Reagan’s era when it was taped together to benefit both.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:32 pm– Hastert said, “there are some people that try to tear us down.â€
Well I would certainly hope so. I would love to see someone pound the hell out of these self-righteous butt-wipes, but there really is no need. I think what most of us see so far is simply self-destruction.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:34 pmMark Foley has given a new meaning to “No Child Left Behind.”
October 8th, 2006 at 1:39 pmLook, Meehan, just go to Billmon and read the best thing yet written about Foley. Quick sum-up: they protected Foley because he was an earner. Not because of the majority, because of that leftover warchest from his Senate run and his earning ability. Armed with that insight, you would’ve had a better bat-down point to use against the omnipresent worthless weenie patrol of McHenry / Kingston.
http://billmon.org/archives/002801.html
October 8th, 2006 at 1:44 pmjowo - thanks for the link. LMAO watching Carlson say he did not buy into this administrations reasoning for the Iraq war. He is such a waste of skin!!!
October 8th, 2006 at 1:46 pmAnd lest we forget, that same chief of staff happens to room with said fat-assed Speaker of the House! So even if he forgot at the office, he certainly could roll over and tell him at night, since I am sure the story would have still been sort of fresh on his soiled underwear…
October 8th, 2006 at 1:48 pmFrom Raw Story - A story in the Seattle Times:
“The Navy lawyer who took the Guantánamo case of Osama bin Laden’s driver to the U.S. Supreme Court — and won — has been passed over for promotion by the Pentagon and must soon leave the military.”
This is what happens to anyone who is speaks out against this current administration in an attempt to defend our constitution.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:52 pmThe Speaker of the House works for the House, not the majority. That is why the entire House vote for the speaker. Of course to the GOP the good of the few (them) out weigh the good of the many (the United States).
Jamie
October 8th, 2006 at 1:58 pmhttp://www.intoxination.net
I just kept telling myself it would get better. After all, Foley had Hastert on his side.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:58 pmOh this is delicious. And by keeping the talking in this case to a minimum, the Dems do themselves a major service, and let the Republi-cons hang themselves.
October 8th, 2006 at 2:23 pmListen, I think Think Progress is possibly the best thing on the Web, and it’s usually right. But in this case, they misunderstood Kingston’s point. He wasn’t suggesting a motive for Hastert’s inaction. He was saying that Hastert would have NO MOTIVE for inaction, because inaction would threaten the entire Republican majority just to protect one safe seat. His insinuation, reading some between the lines, is that gay staffers must have been the ones who protected Foley by not properly informing Hastert.
October 8th, 2006 at 2:48 pm#17: Yeah but we should understand behind his lie. MEEHAN more correct.
October 8th, 2006 at 2:59 pmIt is the job of the speaker to represent the United States. That duty goes beyond party loyalties, and in the case of a crime, any crime being done by any member of Congress or the Senate or the Cabinet up to and including the president, it is the job of every single Congressman, Senator and indeed the president of the United States to see to it that justice is served, whatever the political fallout.
That the Republicans do not understand this, is simply a sign of where their loyalties really lie, and why they should not be put in a position to represent the people of America.
October 8th, 2006 at 4:08 pmNowhere among the duties of the House Speaker will you find “protect the majority”.
October 8th, 2006 at 5:14 pmhttp://speaker.house.gov/features/leaderhouse.asp
As a conservative, I am surprised and shocked by this and other republican scandals. I had drawn a strong line against the democrats because I was led to believe that if republicans were in power I could trust them to conduct themselves with higher standards. Standards they made me believe would be upheld. Now I’m in limbo with who to believe and who to trust. I’ve been duped! It’s deflated my faith in the republicans……
October 8th, 2006 at 6:47 pmThe Speaker’s job is to serve the American people.
October 8th, 2006 at 7:13 pmJGee,
There you go confusing the issue with facts…
October 8th, 2006 at 10:52 pmIf the Iraq war is destined to be a ‘comma’ in history,
will Foley ‘turn over a new page’ in history? Let’s hope not!
Personally, I think McHeny & Foley were in this together.
McHenry, will you swear to this under oath? If not, you’re
guilty. Hasturd, will you swear to uphold the majority party
regardless of conduct?
Reynolds, will you swear you didn’t meet with Jeff Gannon?
Cheny, fo F*ck yourself.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:54 amLooks like Denny could take some time off then. Fox is taking care of protecting the majority for him.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:28 am