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Conservative Activists Call on Hastert To Resign

By ThinkProgress on Oct 2, 2006 at 2:52 pm

Conservative talk show host Michael Reagan and Citizens United President David Bossie have called on House Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign immediately over his role in covering up Mark Foley’s inappropriate behavior. Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, was molested at age 8 by a camp counselor.

From a release:

“Speaker Hastert had knowledge of Congressman Foley’s inappropriate behavior and chose to protect a potential pedophile and powerful colleague over a congressional page,” said David Bossie, president of conservative advocacy group Citizens United.

“This inaction demonstrates a lack of leadership on Speaker Hastert’s part, and calls into question both his judgment and character. If Speaker Hastert was willing to sacrifice a child to protect Rep. Foley’s seat and his own leadership position, then he surely does not share our American and conservative values,” says Mr. Bossie. …

Michael Reagan, nationally syndicated radio show host and chairman of Citizens United’s Faith and Family Project, is also calling for resignations. “Any member of Congress who was aware of the sexual emails and protected the congressman should also resign effective immediately. I was sexually abused by a day camp counselor at age eight and also made to be part of child pornography,” Mr. Reagan stated.

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Politics

Hastert Holds Meeting On Foley Scandal, Democratic Member of Page Board Excluded

By ThinkProgress on Oct 2, 2006 at 1:43 pm

The House leadership continues to treat Foley’s predatory advances towards underage pages as a partisan issue. The Note reports that Speaker Dennis Hastert held a meeting today “to review ways to protect pages” but did not include Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), the Democratic member of the three-person House Page Board:

The Speaker will continue his effort to rid the GOP majority of Foley’s taint by meeting with the Clerk of the House, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), and his staff today to review ways to protect pages while they are serving in the nation’s Capitol. The Speaker will also discuss how Congress can protect pages after their program concludes.

The Clerk of the House, Karen Haas, is a former aide of Hastert’s. Both Hastert and Shimkus are part of the problem. They were both told about Foley’s inappropriate behavior in late 2005 and did virtually nothing to stop it.

This meeting will not “rid the…majority of Foley’s taint.” It simply reinforces the notion that the House leadership is more interested in protecting themselves politically than protecting the children under their care.

Politics

Hastert Yanks Press Releases On Efforts To ‘Keep Kids Safe in Cyberspace’ From His Website

By Amanda Terkel on Oct 2, 2006 at 11:31 am

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert first claimed he was made aware of Foley’s emails to a young congressional page by media reports on Thursday. He has now admitted he was actually informed last fall.

Up until this morning, the top of Hastert’s website highlighted the congressman’s efforts to “Keep Kids Safe In Cyberspace,” with press releases from 8/29 and 8/22, as well as a link to an 8/29 event:

hastertpagecache.jpg

Those documents are now gone. Hastert has removed the three links, with the top news reading, “Hastert Applauds Federal Funding To Stop Emerald Ash Borer” (7/22 press release):

hastertpagenew.jpg

UPDATE: TPM Muckraker has posted a copy of the August 29, 2006 press release, “Hastert Drives Effort To ‘Keep Kids Safe In Cyberspace,’” here.

UPDATE II: Salon’s Tim Grieve notes that the press releases are back up on Hastert’s site, “albeit right under breaking news about Indian gaming in Shabbona, Illinois.” The information on the 8/29 event has not returned.

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Yglesias

Iraq as Humanitarianism

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 2, 2006 at 11:29 am

Eric Posner throws down in The Washington Post demolishing the “humanitarian” case for the Iraq War:

Saddam Hussein was an especially bad tyrant, and Iraqi civilian casualties attributable to the U.S. intervention do not yet equal what he was able to accomplish, albeit over a longer period. The Kurds and many Shiites are better off. And many Iraqis continue to think that the war was worth it, according to polls.

But polls do not reveal the opinions of dead Iraqis. The humanitarian effect of the war has been at best ambiguous against the baseline of the containment period that preceded it, and if current trends continue, the overall effect will be that of a humanitarian disaster.

Many people blame the humanitarian costs of the war in Iraq on the Bush administration’s execution of it. This view is a psychological crutch that allows defenders of humanitarian intervention to keep the ideal alive for the next, presumably competent, administration of a President Hillary Clinton or John McCain. But complaints about this war are not noticeably different from complaints about earlier wars, where small mistakes (identifiable as such with the benefit of hindsight) resulted in enormous harm.

Posner goes on to make a broader argument I don’t really agree with (though I do agree with part of it) so this gets to be a rare case where I say read the excerpt, not the whole thing!.

Politics

Snow on Foley Scandal: ‘Simply Naughty Emails’

By Judd Legum on Oct 2, 2006 at 10:36 am

This morning on CNN, Soledad O’Brien asked Tony Snow why “any communication between a 16-year-old and a congressman” didn’t “raise red flags — major, massive red flags” with Speaker Dennis Hastert and others who have known about the communications for months.

Snow responded, “I hate to tell you, but it’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/10/naughty.320.240.flv]

Americablog, which first noticed the segment, has more.

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Transcript: Read more

Culture

The Unbearable Averageness of Gilbertology?

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 2, 2006 at 10:22 am

Wages of Wins has gotten around to its Washington Wizards summary and reaches an unorthodox conclusion. The ‘Zards, in Dave Berry’s view, had a strong supporting cast (“Only Boston, Dallas, Indiana, Miami, and San Antonio managed to have this many above average performers”) but Agent Zero himself isn’t especially good (“Of last year’s playoff teams, only the Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks were led in Wins Produced by a less productive player”). This sort of seems like one of these conclusions one could reach if and only if one had never actually . . . watched the team play or seen the Wizards offense go to shit without the professor of Gilbertology on the floor.

Politics

Snow on Foley Coverup: Even If Congressional Leaders Knew, White House Won’t Call For Resignations

By Judd Legum on Oct 2, 2006 at 9:46 am

Appearing today on ABC’s “Good Morning America” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was asked, “If it turns out that the leadership knew or had reason to know about what Congressman Foley was doing in those e-mails should they be forced to resign?”

He responded, “I don’t get into the calls for resignation, especially when it comes to members of the House.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/10/snow.320.240.flv]

Yesterday, White House counselor Dan Bartlett announced his opposition to an independent investigation of the Foley coverup.

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Transcript: Read more

Culture

Strategic Restraint

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 2, 2006 at 9:16 am

baltimore.jpg

The interesting plot development in the fourth episode of The Wire is that we’re finally getting some real peeks at Marlo Stanfield’s character and personality and so far, compared to the other criminals who’ve had a major role on the show, he seems like a . . . gigantic asshole. One theme we’ve seen consistently through the show is that, in the game, just as in counterinsurgency or grand strategy, it’s often useful to apply strategic restraint rather than deploy maximum violence. Stringer Bell was the street figure most associated with this philosophy, but it clearly lives on in Prop Joe’s co-op. And, indeed, even though the Bell-Avon split at times appeared to be on this very point, the script flipped late in Season 3 when Stringer suddenly wanted to hit Clay Davis and Avon pointed out that you can’t be killing state senators.

Marlo, too, seemed to be down with the program. When Lex kills Fruit, Marlo’s crew wants to retaliate massively against all of Lex’s associates. Marlo discerns that Lex’s beef with Fruit was personal, and that though he needs to kill Lex to demonstrate that you don’t fuck with Marlo’s crew, he also wants to minimize the violence so he retaliates only against Lex. Marlo’s handling of the security guard, however, is very much at odds with this approach. An extra corpse has been generated for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with the interests of the business. What’s more, the victim in this case is a civilian, a taxpayer, which is a much more serious step than killing a gangbanger — we’ve seen consistently that the Baltimore PD investigates such matters more rigorously than crook-on-crook violence. All of which raises the question of how this links up to the education theme: Marlo has been mostly portrayed as a source of education, along with Bubbles, Prez, Cutty, Omar, etc. But the other dealers in the co-op always emphasize Marlo’s youth. Is he a teacher, or one of those who’s going to get schooled?

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