The case of Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s e-mail exploits isn’t the first time congressional pages have been a favorite pastime of the boys on Capitol Hill.
In 1983, Reps. Gerry Studds (in photo) and Daniel Crane admitted to sexual relationships with pages, too. Both were censured by the House ethics committee as a result of their activities, but each had different outcomes. Studds, a Democrat from Massachusetts, defended the homosexual affair by saying it was difficult to lead a “meaningful private life” and won re-election by his sympathetic constituency. Crane, a Republican from Illinois, was involved with a 17-year-old female page. He apologized to his wife, family and district, but it wasn’t enough to retain his seat.
The page program was started in 1829 by Daniel Webster and currently has 72 high school students divided between the House and Senate. The program is designed to serve as an introduction to a career in politics, but the educational program apparently includes extracurricular activities beyond running errands for senators and congressmen.
Posted by Angie Holladay
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66 Comments
Don’t let em grow up to be interns, either? (aw, c’mon..somebody HAD to say it..)
So…history shows this inappropriate/illegal/immoral behavior is not limited to one party? Where were the calls of outing the entire Democratic party when Studds did much the same thing?
Trying to make this a bipartisan problem is so lame….
Sorry rap. This is ALL yours.
Why should the r’s be above the clinton treatment?
Evil is as evil does. I think I hear the sound of more shoes dropping.
SO… ya wanna bring up three or four problem democrats?
The list of republican bad actors is as long as your, um, arm.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364×2295202
hee hee hee hee
I love making them click on DU.
And perhaps the only thing more lame than a half assed attempt to make this the dems fault is playing this game of “you have more bad guys than we do”
I mean, you do, (heheheheh) but good god, how low have we as a country sunk when we resort to keeping track of which party elects the most sexual criminals?
But hey, it does divert out attention from the build up to nuke iran…..
You should remember also the times: This was before all sex in the USA became a matter of hysteria. This climate was created by Bible beating Republicans.
raptor – it was pretty much established yesterday that Studds and the other one at the same time (a Rep) were both censured by the House. Their ‘partners’ were older although still underage. And there was NO evidence of the Democratic leadership covering it up. The big issue here is not Floey – it is Hastert, Shimkus, etc. Just as with the wayward Priests the issue was toe coverups.
Oh, and the FUNNIEST excuse for foley was given by tony perkins of the family research council or whatever dobson calls his group.
He says, hastert, shim, et al, didnt publicly go after foley because… wait for it….
THEY DIDNT WANT TO BE ACCUSED OF GAY BASHING!!!!!!!!!!
hehehehehehe hee hee hee haw haw haw haw
When the hell has the gop EVER been concerned about gay bashing?
hehehehehehheh
They make a freakin’ CAREER out of gay bashing. And now they are afraid to pull the trigger on slime like foley because, ahem, they didnt want to offend the GAY community?
OMG. can you say tortured logic?
Truely. Jesus wept.
In another installment of the “c’mon, SOMEBODY had to say it” file, this all makes me think of that old Bob Seger song–
you know, “Turn the Page.”
Heehee..I love it. Sometimes I love saying something outrageous just to watch the swarming of righteous indignation.
Gotcha..
hee-hee!
Perkins also trotted out the old lie about gay folks being more likely to be pedophiles than straight folks.
As my idol, CF would say “fucking please”.
That old saw has been refuted so many times we all grow weary.
But for the fact challenged, here we go again, one more time, with feeling….
(Sorry for the length, but I had no link. just text.)
Conducted by the Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO,Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health SciencesCenter, The National Jewish Center for Immunology and RespiratoryMedicine, Denver, CO, The Children’s Hospital, Denver, CO
Objective: To determine if recognizably homosexual adults arefrequently accused of the sexual molestation of children.
Design: Chart review of medical records of children evaluated forsexual abuse.
Setting: Child sexual abuse clinic at a regional children’s hospital.
Patients: Patients were 352 children (276 girls and 76 boys) referred to a subspecialty clinic for the evaluation of suspected child sexual abuse. Mean age was 6.1 years (range, 7 months to 17 years).
Data collected: Charts were reviewed to determine the relationships of the children to the alleged offender, the sex of the offender, and whether or not the alleged offender was reported to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Results: Abuse was ruled out in 35 cases. Seventy-four children were allegedly abused by other children and teenagers less than 18 years old. In 9 cases, an offender could not be identified.
In the remaining 269 cases, two offenders were identified as being gay or lesbian. In 82%of cases (222/269), the alleged offender was a heterosexual partner of a close relative of the child.
Using the data from this study, with 95% confidence limits, it was concluded that children would identify recognizably homosexual adults as the potential abuser only from 0% to 3.1% of thecases.
These limits are within current estimates of the prevalence ofhomosexuality in the general community.
Conclusions: The children in the group studied were unlikely to havebeen molested by identifiably gay or lesbian people and
most frequent abusers were male heterosexuals close to the family or in the family.”
Re: “gays are pedophiles bullshit”
The guys who shot up the schools in PA and CO were pedophiles. HETEROSEXUAL PEDOPHILES!
Thank you Ben!
this story just keeps getting more and more disgusting…
i want this guy prosecuted to the full extent of the law HE HELPED MAKE…i want him to face the same punishment any one of us would face for doing the exact same things!
“i want him to face the same punishment any one of us would face”
Sconad, you mean real punishment? Like the kind “any one of us would face” if we were a wealthy, well connected republican congressman who has $100,000 to give to OTHER republican congressmen facing election?
That kind of punishment?
heheheheheheh.
Ya gotta go through rehab first…
And where oh where is paulie roshill?
To quote the song “come and get your love”….
heheheheh
Your silence is deafening paulie. Are you afraid to condem even THIS vile republican?
Or dont they pay you to do THAT?
hehehehehehehehehehehheheheehehhe
The real story here is seeing the difference between the way the constituencies of the democrats react to the scandal in their party versus the way the republican voters react. To democrat candidates and voters this behavior is acceptable even appropriate. To republican voters the behavior is repugnant and unaceptable. Let the american people decide whose values are more in line with their own.
Lots of articles today about how the source for Brian Ross’s story about foley was a republican, not a democrat.
I said it here first. Perhaps this is a chance for the little furher to do some house cleaning?
I mean, hastert, delay, abramhoff, reed, the dukester, all served their useful purpose for bush.
And now it’s time to take out the trash. Just in time to install better smelling puppets for the next session of congress.
I’m tellin’ ya. This is all a distraction to keep us from talking about the war in iraq and the ships cruising toward iran and the persian gulf.
And the investigation of kkkarl rove’s top aid in the abramhoff bribery scandal.
But what a fun distraction it is!!!
hee hee hee hee
The party of family values. Ya. We see what the republican family values more than children.
Re-election.
“To democrat candidates and voters this behavior is acceptable even appropriate”
Got any facts to back that outrageous statement?
Any quotes or evidence from anywhere that democrats and their constituents approve of this behavior?
Or are you just blowing smoke out yer ass again?
Again, if you are speaking of gerry, I think he garnered more than a few republican votes for re-election.
You are giving TM a run for her money in the “stupid post” contest.
But we are amused, and we do encourage you to try again jw.
“To republican voters the behavior is repugnant and unaceptable.”
I guess that is why they engaged in a massive cover-up for foley, even though they knew all about him.
Ya.
That coverup thing is ALWAYS how republicans demonstrate what they find repugnant and unacceptable.
I also noticed how the republican leadership found foley’s $100,000 contribution to their election war chest to be “repugnant and unacceptable”.
I think they found it “repugnant and unacceptable” right AFTER they endorsed and deposited the check….
jw,
And ’scandal in our party’ would that be, jw? Be specific.
Fucking please. Get off your delusional high horse and into reality. People in positions of public trust preying on young folks is wrong, wrong, wrong. Duh, duh, duh.
What you repukes seem cool with is how Hastert tried to sweeep it under the rug. Lack of accountability seems to be the dominant Republican “value” de jour.
hee hee hee hee
Wanna bet values boy wont touch that republican family value?
hehehehehehehehehehhe
1. Comparing one parties bad behavior to another is stupid. Don’t justify one set of bad behaviors with another.
2. Cal Thomas had an interestng article on the morals of this scandal. Can it be a scandal when we aren’t supposed to have morals or make judgements about anyones behavior? An interesting comment on the status of our society and our belief system
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/editorial/15670714.htm
jw = jackass wingnut.Good luck CF.
Ya’ll may as well skip anything jackass wingnut writes.It don’t respond well to logic.
Ok hawkeye, I see you are closing in fast on the outside for the stupid post contest.
“Can it be a scandal when we aren’t supposed to have morals or make judgements about anyones behavior?”
Sigh. Who said we arent supposed to have morals?
Making judgements about what goes on between two consenting adults is very different from making judgements about behavior with NON CONSENTING MINORS.
Damn, what is so hard to understand about that? Gay marriage is between consenting adults capable of entering voluntarily into a contract.
Child rape is not consensual. It is done to someone who has no power or ability to consent.
Jesus wept. Did you all right wing religious republicans just take a stupid pill with your kookaide this morning?
If you cant see the difference, let me introduce you to my friend chester the molester. I bet he can ’splain it to ya….
KFG,
1st he name calling is stupid,so lets not resort to that.
2nd I simply asked a question. You are making great leaps about what I asked. I expected more from you. Do you not see a coarsening of our society from all sides. Have the republicans not tried to spin this as has Foley and his alcohol rehab excuse. Think about the question itself.
Finally, you don’t know anything about me or my politics, so assuming I’m one thing or another only cheapens your commentary
Hawkeye, maybe I dont know you personally, but I know you did indeed say this:
“Can it be a scandal when we aren’t supposed to have morals or make judgements about anyones behavior?”
I think that is all I need to know about you, your politics, etc. to be able to say “stupid”.
Is it name calling if the shoe fits?
“To democrat candidates and voters this behavior is acceptable even appropriate.”
More BULLSHIT from jw.
But the bahavior was clearly acceptable to HIS Party leadership who covered it up!
Don’t expect much in the way of cogent discourse with farmgirl. Her posts can be summed up with “blahblahblahIhaveissueswithdaddyblahblahblahImgayblahblahblahjesusweptblahblahblahhehehehe”. Anyone who doesn’t march in lockstep is a homophobic right-winger, and there is zero substance to anything she says.
Again Kfg
I’ll ask in the context of my question on morals do you not see a cheapening of them on all sides and how this leading to coarsenign of our society. Must have morals and norms, must have compassion, must have right and wrong, must have empathy. Is our lack of these things not leading to a coarsening of our society. There has to be a balance and we are askew on both sides in my opinion
So far the Republicans have not blamed Foley, they’ve blamed Stubbs, Frank, Clinton and the children themselves. The great thing about being a Republican is never having to take responsibility for anything.
It wasn’t too long ago that the Republican talking point was the phrase “blame game” and how they were upset the Democrats were calling the Republicans to take responsibility for their failures.
It’s really pathetic. The children tried to take responsibility for the issue but the Republicans ignored them because Foley gave the party $100,000. The children went to Fox News and Fox News ignored them. If it’s the children taking responsibility for the event what are we to call the adults who did nothing? I call them Republicans, ‘nuf said.
“Must have morals and norms, must have compassion, must have right and wrong, must have empathy.”
I dont think there is much controversy over “thou shalt not kill”. Or “thou shalt not steal”. I think we can agree on right and wrong without invoking “your morals vs. my morals”.
Or the bogey man of NO MORALS.
Allowing consenting adults to live their lives as they see fit, without harming others, is hardly a lack of morals. Or a lack of right and wrong.
It is called freedom. You should look it up sometime.
hawkeye – I do not recall any Democrats endorsing pedophilia.
I had to laugh yesterday when I heard Hannity blaming it on the “left-wing conspiricy”. Maybe we slipped Rohypnol in Foley’s booze!
When Republicans are caught doing immoral things they resign because their constituency demands it. When liberals get caught doing immoral things they do not resign in shame but are reelected The left wing of the democrat party has a higher tolerance for immorality than conservatives, in fact the democrat party envisioned by Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi is amoral. There are many examples of liberals lust of immorality many of them are on the democrats A team to this day. Yes, there are conservatives who are immoral, in this regard both parties are equal. The real story is not which party has more sex offenders in office but how differently each parties constituents react to these scandals. The democrat party which is becoming more amoral everyday refuses to hold people accountable or pass judgement on immoral acts because they do not believe in their hearts the acts are immoral.
“When liberals get caught doing immoral things they do not resign in shame but are reelected The left wing of the democrat party has a higher tolerance for immorality than conservatives, in fact the democrat party envisioned by Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi is amoral.”
jw, I have asked you for facts and links on three different threads now.
With out facts or proof, I guess this would be more ass smoke bloviating?
Hmmm. NO links, no facts, nothing but outrageous statements.
Who does that sound like?
Oh and jimmy, I guess you missed my fathers day post. Your loss.
hee hee hee hee hee
“there is zero substance to anything she says.”
Well jimmy, I have posted facts, links and studies.
You and jw… um…. just ass smoke.
Wanna talk substance? Or do you just wanna blow smoke?
heheheheheheheheheh.
Pass the beans.
KFG
Always gotts get in that last jab don’t ya. :)
I couldn’t agree with you more that people should be left to lives their lives as they see fit. That would be the rub though. What is fit? How does that effect society? is the greater good of society more important than individual rights? If individual rights are more important then do we need a govt? Is govt there for boundaries or just to faciltate peoples needs? Where doe sit end. Again all sides are doing a poor job of living and working togther.
Ben
I don’t recall saying democrats endorse pedophilia. All I did was pose a question about morals and norms and its effect on us. Guess I should be clearer:)
“Studds, a Democrat from Massachusetts, defended the homosexual affair by saying it was difficult to lead a “meaningful private life” and won re-election by his sympathetic constituency.”
Do you really think he was re-elected with NO REPUBLICAN VOTES?
heheheheh. Six impossible things before breakfast.
I guess if you want to be typical kansas xenophobic bigots, you could just blame the district that elected him as northeastern libruls.
heheheh. No repubs could have voted for him, right?
heheheheheh. Keep it up boys, you are the best recruiting tool we have.
And the best gracie allen I have ever used….
tap, tap, tap, tap, tap….
still waiting on those facts, figures, studies and links.
tap, tap, tap.
Or do you just want to let your ass smoke stand?
hawkeye – problem is, how do you define morality? Eating pork evil because both the Torah and Quran say it is? Not keeping the Sabbath?
Your clear implication was to equate the ‘consenting adults’ dalliance of Clinton (which I tolerate although not approve) with the pedophilia of Foley (which I neither tolerate nor approve)
Remember, the GOP leadership approved of Foley’s actions until they were “outed” by the left-wing conspiricy (according to Hannity)
” What is fit? How does that effect society? is the greater good of society more important than individual rights? If individual rights are more important then do we need a govt? Is govt there for boundaries or just to faciltate peoples needs?”
I determine what is fit for my life, not you, not your churches, not your government. What I do, with consenting adults, concerning contracts, is no one else business.
The greater good of society? You think constitutional amendments denying equal protection under the law promote the greater good of society?
heheh. You must have loved the torture bill and then end of habeas corpus.
and this bullshit about individual rights means we dont need a government? Woof. Too stupid to even address. Uh, we need government to protect individuals like me from individuals like you, terry, joe, and fred.
Is YOUR government there for boundries or to facilitate meeting the needs of the people?
Personally, I dont need the govt to set my boundries. Apparantly you and your kind do. Too bad you are so inherently evil you cant set your own boundries, but must rely on the “daddy state” to tell you what is right and wrong.
Me? I have an internal moral compass. Apparantly you dont if you need the govt to tell you what is moral, what is fit, what is right and what is wrong.
Bring it on scott. We’ve danced this dance before.
Foley had to resign partially because of the immense hypocrisy of his act and his position on a committe that protects children from people like him.
There’s also the instance in San Diego which appears to be a sexual encounter with a minor.
It’s sad though, the Republicans have to go back as far as 1983 to find something remotely similiar to what Foley did. The difference was that Stubbs was never protected by fellow Democrats, nor campaigned on protecting children from sex predators, and was censured by the Congress. The Democrats took the issue seriously at a time before the Catholic priest sex scandals. On the other hand the Republicans did nothing and still do nothing.
Doug, dammit, get with the program.
They arent doing nothing!!
They are covering up, making excuses, casting blame and backpedaling as fast as they can!!
jw?
Son? Rush is on. You should be listening for your talking points for tomorrow. So far, everything you have posted here today is lifted from Rush’s diahreaa yesterday.If that is all you have, why not spare us and go back to your random bitching about diverstity or bashing the homeless.
Jimmy? And you added just what to this subject?
Denny Hastert has changed his story three times. It still is not gonna save him from being thrown under the bus by his party.
november is gonna be
so.much.fun.
jw,
Thanks for the guided tour of your vapid Republican worldview.
Care to provide some examples to go with your sweeping generalities? Care to address the GOP’s systematic attempts to cover up and minimize the significance of Foley’s actions? Or, for that matter, the refusal of GOP candidates and the GOP’s House reelection committee to return the funds donated by Foley, or to refuse to divvy up his $2.5 million war chest among various candidates?
You know the old political saying”if you are explaining, you are losing”.
hehehe
Y’all just keep ’splaining why this is the democrats fault, why foley isnt really to blame, and why the republican leadership worked so hard to cover this up.
We love to hear you explain!
damn CF, I hate when you beat me to the punch.
Yes boys. Please explain.
This is so much fun, but I have beef to roast. I’m tired of roasting elephant.
And I see the second shift of the fighting 101st keyboarders has arrived.
Gentlemen, I leave the humiliation of these kookaide drinkers in your oh so capable hands.
I’ll check back for those facts, studies, links, etc.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH
jm,
I pity you. Everything you believe is a lie, and you’re too dumb to see it.
DOH! That’s ‘jw’.
This from the Washington Post which describes the differences in House Leadership in the Studds day vs. today. Draw your own conclusions as to which behaved more ethically.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301109.html
KFG,
Why the anger? I don’t personally disagree with everything you said and I have great fears about how far the govt should go in many areas. I simply asked those questions to provoke some thought out of people in general. Again its about balance, not your version or my version but all of ours. How do we live together and agree to disagree?
Did I ever tell you what to do or how to live your life. Nope I asked a question about morals and referenced an article. Actually I asked several questions after that but I also stated its about BALANCE.
The rest I’ll ignore. Obviosly you are angry about injustices personal to you and I can’t fix those here. I’ll keep you n thoughts and prayers and hope you have a better day from here on out.
Ben
I didn’t imply anything about Clinton. I simply asked a question about society and our morals and norms. By the way I could car eless if he had sex, it did bother me when he lied under oath about itand tried to spin it with the definition of “is”. All our politicians need to hold themselves to a higher standard.
I also agree that the finger pointing is ridiculous and does not excuse Foleys actions.
That is the question Ben, what will be our morals and norms and when is to much of a good thing to much and when are we holding people back on the other hand. Tough Questions for sure
“The course the House took in that scandal, and its reaction to the current one, show the difference between a leadership that saw a threat to the integrity of the House of Representatives and one that sees a threat to its continuing control of the institution. It’s useful today to remember that there was a time when partisanship took second place to trust and the House leadership had the strength to wash its own dirty laundry.”
Yep – Tip O’Neill of the Dems sought to clean house; Hastert prefers sweeping under the rug.
By the way, from Wikipedia:”As the House read their censure of him, Studds turned his back and ignored them. Later, at a press conference with the former page standing beside him, the two stated that what had happened between them was nobody’s business but their own.”
Say what you will about a grown man diddling a 17-year-old, but it wasn’t exactly the same thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Studds
raptor,
“Don’t let em grow up to be interns, either? (aw, c’mon..somebody HAD to say it..)”
Who are you talking about?
You do know that Monica was no longer an intern, and was almost 22+1/2 years-old, when she first met Clinton?
Or perhaps you prefer to believe the lies from Hannity, National Review Online, and others?’THE NEWLY 19-YEAR-OLD INTERN! A treasured old lie was no longer enough. So Hannity gave us a new one:’http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh100406.shtml
I.O.I.Y.A.A.D!!!
I’m shocked! Sean Hannity lying?!
Next thing I know there will be gambling at Rick’s!
Jimmy?Are you the Jimmy I think you are?
Why didn’t the pages give the first offensive email to their parents, the parents give it to the FBI and then block sender? And the stupid one “do you want to go out for ice cream?” What is that? It sounds like an invite to a 5 yr. old. Foley has got to be in dire need of therapy. I hope his next job is digging ditches.
Connie,Why didn’t they give the e-mails to their parents? Hey, these are teenagers who are trying, as all teenagers are, to prove they don’t need their parents.And no, Foley shouldn’t be digging ditches, he should be busting rocks at Leavenworth!
How about bending over to pick up the soap on the shower floor?
The pages are intelligent kids that know that politics is a game. Who were they going to go to about the messages from Foley? Pages know the power lies with the Congressman and now we know why – the GOP leadership covers their butts!
And if any of these pages really wanted to pursue a career in politics – they knew not to turn in one of their own. Instead, they avoided the creep.
I think Republican Congressmen prefer Bob Seger’s line …Turn The Page!
Steve,Promise him anything, but give him our page?
No paper clips? Just bend the Pages over