This post reads like a childish tantrum.

"Um... Foley is still scum, but 1) he's gone, and B) it turns out the object of his predations was NOT a minor. But never mind that, we have a SCANDAL to monger!"

Time to buy a vowel, Jay - you obviously need a clue.

In Atlanta, meanwhile, former page Tyson Vivyan, now 26, told AP he received sexually suggestive computer messages in 1997, years before the communications exposed last week, from an anonymous sender who turned out to be Foley.

Vivyan said he visited Foley's brownstone at the congressman's invitation, bringing another page with him because he did not want to go alone. They had pizza and soft drinks, and nothing sexual happened, he said.

This happened in 1997, ten years ago, and the page is now 26. Do the math, then corect your post.

Jay,

You sound really unhinged on this one and off the mark. The email really said nothing of substance at all, and you turned it into a screed.

another clue for the Jay guy...

"The young man clearly was under 18-years-old when at least one of the IM conversation took place, "i'm not 18 till feb 23" and Foley's trolling for young teen boys was hardly a Hill secret. - Kevin Aylward - Wizbang Blog

I guess Jay doesn't read Wizbang!

Excellent post. And they're practically admitting this is the only way they could win.

From Drudge - www.drudgereport.com

"**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal... Developing... "

The democratic strategy of using the Foley scandal as a national issue is their normal tactic. There is a herd of stampeding elephants approaching the village and the democrats run around stomping on piss ants. Foley is a creep and the FBI should find out who knew he was a creep. Most important is 'who' knew he was a creep and held the information for political purposes and continued the endangerment of the page's? When it comes down to making statements under oath there will be a change in attitude or maybe they will pull a Slick Willie and lie (a democrats habit) and then get caught.

In the overall scheme of world affairs the Foley affair is the piss ant in the herd of elephants to everyone except the democrats that once again show they have no plans or programs for America and simply rely on slime and slander to get elected.

There is a lot of double talk from the democrats today. For the past several years they have fought to have the age of consent lowered to 16 and younger because they are 'adult' enough to make their own decisions. Now the democrars are saying that everyone under 18 is a baby in diapers. Sort of confusing aren't they?

Is William 'cold cash' Jefferson still a member of the 'culture of corruption' and still serving in congress?

Pizza and soft drinks! Oh the humanity! Triple X stuff! Avert my eyes lest they burn in eternal damnation!

And Vivvyn waited 10 years to share this information? He saved it from 10 years ago? Give me a break...

Scrappy,

Rove already put out the word that he has another "October surprise" planned for this year....

...which makes all of the tin-foil conspiracy theories being spun by conservatives that this Foley incident was a Democratic plot understandable.

You guys think the Democrats stole a page from your playbook - lol

Not to worry - America knows the Republicans will resume their usual lies and slime as soon as Hastert is run out of town. Thanks to Hastert that may take a while, keeping this story at the top of the headlines for many days to come.

And now Hastert admits he's responsible:

"I'm deeply sorry this has happened and the bottom line is we're taking responsibility," Hastert said at a news conference outside his district office in Batavia, Ill.

"Ultimately, the buck stops here," the speaker said of the controversy enveloping the House and the page program, a venerable institution almost as old as the Congress itself.

Hastert was abruptly changing the tactics he has followed since the scandal broke last week. As recently as Wednesday, he blamed Democrats for the scandal and insisted he had done nothing wrong.

One step closer to the truth... Now that the Ethics committee is moving forward Hastert knows the truth will come out sooner or later. Better than he accept responsibility now rather than have it shoved down his throat on the front page of the Washington Times.

How many lies did Hastert tell in the last few days - anyone keep count?

How laughable. You publish an e-mail containing what you dismissively refer to as "talking points," then rebut each one with Republican talking points. Get real. I guess no Republican scandal will ever matter as long as William Jefferson lives.

I love your take on Foley: "he's gone." Right, he resigned a whole five days ago, so why are we still discussing this? Move on, nothing to see here. Quick, look over there, it's Gerry Studds! I never thought I could actually smell the stink of desperation through a computer.

America knows the Republicans will resume their usual lies ...

OK, sorry to change subjects here, but did you read the entire article you linked, Lee? Or did you just read the portions that support your fantasies that all Republicans are liars?

See, I think if you had actually read the report completely you would have a hard time saying "lies" with a straight and serious face.

Seeing as how briefings on myriad threats and potential threats are made daily to the NSA, it's no great surprise then that "The information presented in this meeting was not new, rather it was a good summary from the threat reporting from the previous several weeks,..."

In short, it was a summary. But wait! It was done on a PowerPoint presentation! Oh, alert the media. PowerPoint must've made that presentation special. Not. Using PP couldn't be more routine or average, particularly for intel briefings.

Furthermore...

The CIA briefing didn't provide the exact timing or nature of a possible attack, nor did it predict whether it was likely to take place in the United States or overseas, said three former senior intelligence officials.

So, no where, no when, no how, no time, no nothing. Zip, zero, nada, zilch. So Rice should've advised the President to fire something, hell, anything, tall in a white turban and dress?

And...

(Richard) Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief, Ben-Veniste and the former senior intelligence officials all challenged some aspects of Woodward's account of the briefing given to Rice, including assertions that she failed to react to the warning and that it concerned an imminent attack inside the United States.

And...

Ben-Veniste said the commission was never told that Rice had brushed off the warning. According to Tenet, he said, Rice "understood the level of urgency he was communicating."

So...Rice doesn't recall what amounts to your average, run-of-the-mill daily briefing on threats where the threat was about as non-specific as it gets and you're calling her a "liar"? What a cheap and feckless rhetorical copout.

Now back to the really important matters. Like creepy gay EX-Congressmen...

I never thought I could actually smell the stink of desperation through a computer

What? You aren't on the email list for Tom McMahon, Howard Dean, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton?

I suspect that this scandal, as awful and revolting as it is, will be used as evidence in November should the Dems fall short of retaking the House and Senate that so many corect thinking Americans were on thier side that the only way for teh Rs to have won was to have cheated.

And, as a pointer as slimey as Foley may be, he is not my representative any more then William Jefferson is, and as such, his actions, regardless of party affiliation, will not affect how I vote in Novemeber. If you are voting for a Congressman in Utah based on a another states Congressman's actions, well, then you are more easily lead then most.

Jay,
You seem to be getting an unusual amount of "hatemail" in the comments section over this. I think I'll sign up for the 50 state initiative to get some crap to return in the fund raising solicitation envelopes.
I do agree with James T.- "All politics is local ( I stole that from somewhere!!!) and Foley ain't local".
I'll wait till the 8th of November to either (1) gloat, or (2) start saying "praise allah".

I love it.

A string of wizbangers defend Hastert, rationalize, scapegoat, etc - AND THEN HASTERT TAKES RESPONSIBILITY.

It's a good thing he doesn't get his advice from wizbangers, or he'd still be evading and rationalizing too.

Lee - thanks for being the voice of integrity here.

UHHH "mattie" did you just type what I read? "Pucker puss" (lee lee) and the word "integrity" in the same sentence. Come on now give us a small break here. Sheeezzz

If the issue was just Foley, then you'd be right. He resigns and the Republicans probably lose a previously safe seat. But the issue, no matter how much misdirection the Republicans spew, is the House Republican leadership, and their irresponsible behavior. And no, I'm not saying they approve of Foley stalking pages, but they had the primary responsibility to deal with the issue. Not the press, not Nancy Pelosi and not liberal bloggers. And they didn't do their job.

Someone mentioned Liberal Liar Lee and the word integrity. Not. If you believe Lee has integrity, you have hit the pipe a few to many times. Get yourself to a recovery program.

Chris,
And they didn't do their job.
-----------------------------------
That 's a good point and they deserved a spanking. But we need to plug the sewage which is the Dem party first, then we can clean up the Rep by electing more family-value reps into office in place of the liberal Reps. The Dems don't care about family value and the welfare of women/chidren in any case since they have been willing to tolerate people like clinton, studds, frank in their midst. They also embraced or covered up for organizations like NAMBLA. They celebrated play like "Vagina dialogue" which advocated rape of young girls. The liberal dem culture is in the sewage. That 's why we need to plug this sewage first.

Chris wrote, "I never thought I could actually smell the stink of dsperation through a computer."

You can't. That's the desperation of your own schadenfreude trying to hide reality from you.

OMG!!! This crap is so freakin funny!!! Y'all are like those low self-esteem battered wives who keep going back home for more. "Don't you understand?!?! THE GOP LOVES ME!!!" lmfao!!!

Always nice to see the naivety of "value voters" reduced to defending pedophiles like the Sludge Report. The party of morality has been reduced to comparing morality with the Democrats by digging up crap from 10, 20, 30 years ago? But wait, aren't you supposed to be morally superior to Democrats and not comparing yourselves to them? My, how the times have changed after having 4, thats FOUR Republican Congressmen bounced out for ethics and legal issues. FOUR!!! And yeah, Jefferson still has his job!!! You can't even take him out! Studds was re-elected for several terms which means, Republicans couldn't beat him! Nothing you should be bragging about.

Politicizing the issue by trying to accuse the other side of politicizing the issue makes you all look like sleaze that cares more about politics than protecting politicians than protecting children. Nice shovel ya got there, keep digging! And for what...if Hastert had reported this to the Page Board back when he was supposed to and follow procedure like he's bound to in his position, this scandal could've been played out and diffused by now. Aren't any of you battered wives the least bit upset by such crappy leadership? October surprise? You handed us the October surprise! Nice leadership ya keep voting for. Wanna buy some swamp land?

You conveniently keep forgetting the amount of voices (especially Christian) that are also calling for Hastert's resignation. Michael Reagan, Dr. James Dobson, Jay Sekulow, The Buchanans, Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council and many more. These people aren't Democrats and from what I can see, their voices are the loudest. A matter of convenience as you spin the defense of pedophiles and those that protected pedophiles and screwed the party beyond repair a month before elections. Anybody here even remotely smart enough to be pissed about that? At least Democrats were intelligent enough to get pissed at Clinton and his indiscretion was of consenting age. Helloooooo????? Duh! "THE GOP CARES FOR ME!!!!" We know, we know...you fell down the stairs. We got it.

Umm, Jay - it's not "doodyhead". It's "dutyhead". As in "poopyhead". It comes from being around small children - when they need to go "make duty" in the bathroom. They took the word "duty" and made it an insult.

And reading the comments reminded me why I don't read the comments...

Uhhh sin-tax could you cyfer what you just tried to say--sound like a lot of hogwash to me.

And dude (or is it "dute"?), it's "doody" or "doodie", not "duty".

Wizbang! sinks to a new low as they use yet another picture of large breasted, beer drinking German girls for their Caption Contest.

That's written as a joke and should be taken as such.

Ooops... put that in the wrong thread

Okay, so let me get this straight: Three years ago, there was allegedly some salacious IM sessions that went on between Foley and a page.

Assuming someone told Hastert (and we don't know exactly what was said to Hastert, or when, so don't get too excited yet). Exactly what was Hastert to do?

Were there actual IM sessions that happened after Hastert was told? What exactly should Hastert have done? Let's say that Hastert started logging Foley's IM sessions... (because someone told him something explicit - like he was having underage cybersex, and not something vague and general - which is more likely) What if after that, Foley stopped having the IM sessions at work? What could Hastert have possibly done? So Hastert tells Foley to keep it clean, and he does, and Hastert checks up for 6 months, and nothing to report... I would think that would be reasonable, wouldn't you?!? How long would he need to have his sessions watched? I know that many companies do no monitoring of IM sessions, because of the legal ramifications (heh, I said ramifications)... some do, but what are the rules for congress? I'd bet every rep gets a wide berth, because they probably treat it like phone conversations, and they don't want people listening in for political reasons - would you?!?

Look, Foley is the bad guy here, and Hastert is the cop. Sure, if you've reason to be suspicious, you're going to keep an eye on somebody - but for all we know, Foley maybe stopped doing this at work, and did it at home. You blame the criminal for the crime - not the cop. And seriously, how often do cops catch criminals in action?!?. Dems help me here - would you really want Hastert to get a court order to start watching his home IM sessions?!? Isn't it you guys who are all pissed off because you don't want the goverment snooping? I mean, seriously here... should they have been bugging his calls? Put surveillence on him 24/7? Besides all this, in the big picture, getting nasty on IM is hardly something I really want Republican leadership spending too much time on - I'm sure they're plenty busy doing other things.

We only have part of the story - these issues are complex. You dems are jumping on this way too early.

Maybe there's something here, but a lot of little maybes would have to add up for it to be as bad as you assume it is.

thecomputerguy, since I don't recall seeing any of your posts recently, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you haven't kept up with this issue, or with the discussions on here, and I'll respond respectfully.

No one has mentioned logging Foley's chats, or that the issue is whether he chatted at work or at home. There are many things Hastert could have done, none of them involving tapping Foley's computer, and they are described in great deatil in this and other threads. If you're really interested, feel free to read up.