Friday, December 08, 2006

Foley investigation shows Hastert 'negligent.'

A special four member House investigative panel consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans reported their conclusions today that the House Republican leadership, and in particular Speaker Dennis Hastert had been negligent and in fact had chosen to remain "remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences," of former rep. Mark Foley's emails to teenage pages and former pages.

The report also singled out two other members of the Republican leadership: Majority Leader John Boehner and GOP house campaign committee chairman Tom Reynolds.

This report did come out after the election-- and likely spared Reynolds from losing his district in Congress (he beat back a challenge from Jack Davis by 2 percent).

The report does say that the GOP leadership "did not violate any Congressional rules."

I would assume not. They write the rules. If the best defense you can give is that you didn't 'violate the House rules (which you yourself wrote)' then you deserve to lose your job (as Hastert did.)

It did point one finger at a Democrat-- a congressional staffer who it says leaked this to the press. However, that only proves (once again) how stupid coverups are. If you are a politician and try to cover up something, then it rarely means it won't come out. Much more likely is that it will come out, but rather than when and how you choose, at a time and method of your opponent's choosing. But like many things, that seems like common sense to me but almost an impossible thought to most politicians.

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