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Foley Won't be Punishment by Congress

SteveGrenard

Philosopher
S
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Oct 6, 2002
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By a technicality, Foley escapes punishment by Congress:

WASHINGTON -- The House's investigation of a page sex scandal has only one certainty: Former Rep. Mark Foley will escape punishment by his peers.

It is the Florida Republican's sexually explicit electronic messages to teenage former male pages that have ignited what has become a pre-election firestorm.

Congress only can punish current members, officers and employees. Foley resigned on Sept. 29, but is under investigation by federal and Florida authorities.
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Foley_Ethics_Probe.html
 
You mean Congress isn't going to make miscreants listen to Foley speeches 24 hrs. per day forever. That would be a great punishment(referring to exact wording of thread title!) !
 
My thought was that any trial or investigation or sanctions by congress of Foley after he has resigned would be unconstitutional.

Perhaps, though, congress could withhold a congressional pension or revoke any previleges that are available to ex-congressmen without a state or federal trial?
 
SteveGrenard said:
By a technicality, Foley escapes punishment by Congress:
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Question: Why should he be "punished"?

The man resigned. Further, it turns out the page in question was 18, and in the IM's never told Foley to bugger off, or any other words to that effect.

The worst possible crime here is sexual harassment of another adult, and the page has never made such a charge. It would be a curious turn of events if he made that charge at this late date, after all that mess Clinton was drug through.
 
I think he should be spanked. On camera. On the internet.
 
mamapajamas said:
Question: Why should he be "punished"?

The man resigned. Further, it turns out the page in question was 18, and in the IM's never told Foley to bugger off, or any other words to that effect.
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One of the pages was 18. There are something like 5 different ex-pages involved here.

But in any case, as lurid and reprehensible as his behavior may be, Foley indeed hasn't seemed to have broken any laws. I'm assuming, being the person who largely wrote them, Foley was at the very least aware of what he could and could not legally say to a minor over the internet.
 
delphi_ote said:
What is your reference for this?
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It's out there in the news media. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-abc-pages,1,5585817.story?ctrack=1&cset=true We know who the young man involved in the IM incidents is and he is now 21, and the IM incident was 3 years ago. One of the IMs mentions his birthday. That would have been his 18th birthday.

Further, the age of consent in D.C. is 16, so the age angle wouldn't have mattered in any case. Sexual harassment is the only criminal charge that can be dredged up out of this, and the page has not made that charge. What he does in the future, we'll see... but can you say, "Paula Jones"? I doubt the young man would want to go through that kind of crap. If you'll check the Chicago Trib story, his identity was released by accident by the ABC web site, so it doesn't appear that he was interested is the public knowing who he was at all.

My interest in this case is in finding out who knew about these IMs and sat on them until 6 weeks before a mid-term election. THAT is the hypocrite... the one "protecting the children" who didn't think protecting the "children" mattered until an election was near.
 
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mamapajamas said:
It's out there in the news media.
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And yet you can only find a source requiring registration.
mamapajamas said:
We know who he is and he is now 21, and the IM incident was 3 years ago.
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He? So there was only one?
mamapajamas said:
Further, the age of consent in D.C. is 16, so it wouldn't have mattered in any case. Sexual harassment is the only criminal charge that can be dredged up out of this, and the page has not made that charge. What he does in the future, we'll see... but can you say, "Paula Jones"?
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So you're okay with Foley's actions? Because it is not illegal, flirting with these boys was just fine with you?
mamapajamas said:
My interest in this case is in finding out who knew about these IMs and sat on them until 6 weeks before a mid-term election.
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You're making an accusation without even naming a suspect. You don't know this happened. It's ironic that your political muckraking involves blaming a shadow for political muckraking.
 
A) Republicans have much tolerance for gays in their party.

or

B) A homosexual predator thought that he would never be caught while posing as a Republican. Like the gay priests all thought that they would never be caught.
 
But Denny Hastert knows. It's the fault of "ABC News and a lot of Democratic operatives, people funded by [liberal billionaire philanthropist] George Soros."
 
American said:
A) Republicans have much tolerance for gays in their party.

or

B) A homosexual predator thought that he would never be caught while posing as a Republican. Like the gay priests all thought that they would never be caught.
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Or you mean pedophiles posing as priests?
 
Joshua Korosi said:
In my opinion, he should be forced to resign in utter disgrace.
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He's already been there and done that. That won't stop the FBI and FDLE from going after him if they can find anything. And it probably won't stop Congress or the Feds from going after HasDirt. In fact HasDirt may be the only thing they have left.
 
So, how many tax dollars should we spend investigating this wanker? None, IMO. He resigned, he's disgraced, and to spend government money for what will now amount to political haymaking makes no sense at all. But this is US politics, so let the politicians throw the usual crap into the usual fan...and they supply the fan, and send us the electric bill.

Bah. Politics as usual. Ho hum.
 
Joshua Korosi said:
In my opinion, he should be forced to resign in utter disgrace.
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Isn't that what happened?

mamapajamas said:
My interest in this case is in finding out who knew about these IMs and sat on them until 6 weeks before a mid-term election. THAT is the hypocrite... the one "protecting the children" who didn't think protecting the "children" mattered until an election was near.
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Doesn't this go both ways? Republicans covered it up too, didn't they?

delphi_ote said:
So you're okay with Foley's actions? Because it is not illegal, flirting with these boys was just fine with you?
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Isn't legality what they should go by? If he did something wrong but legal, you can't punish him but the thing to do about it is to change the law.
 
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