Republican leaders were negligent in House male-page case, ethics finds
Republican leaders were negligent in House male-page case, ethics finds
By David Stout
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: December 8, 2006
WASHINGTON: House Republican leaders were negligent and in some instances "willfully ignorant" of Representative Mark Foley's improper advances toward male pages, but the leaders did not break any rules in handling the case, the House ethics committee said Friday.
The committee said collective failure to look deeply "is not merely the exercise of poor judgment; it is a present danger to House pages and to the integrity of the institution of the House."
Foley, a Republican from Florida, resigned his House seat in late September after it came to light that he had sent improper e-mail messages and other computer messages to some former male pages he had become friendly with while they were serving as assistants in Congress.
The Foley affair was a further embarrassment to a Republican Party already reeling from financial scandals involving some of its lawmakers; and in the view of some political analysts, it may have helped cause the Republicans to lose control of Congress in the November elections.
A subcommittee of the 10-member ethics committee interviewed the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, and dozens of other witnesses to determine whether Republicans were aggressive enough after they first learned of Foley's conduct, long before it became public.
"In its review of this matter, the investigative subcommittee was disturbed by the conduct of some of those who dealt with allegations regarding the conduct of former Representative Foley," the committee said in an executive summary of its 91-page report.
When confronted with the allegations, some lawmakers tried to shift responsibility, while others took more direct action but declined to look deeply or follow up to see if their efforts had any "positive results," the summary said.
"Others tried repeatedly to elevate the matter but encountered obstacles in the chain of command," according to the summary. "In all, a pattern of conduct was exhibited among many individuals to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences of former Representative Foley's conduct with respect to House pages."
Representative Doc Hastings, the Washington Republican who heads the ethics panel, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, said the report on the Foley affair should remind House members that they have "an affirmative obligation" to speak up when encountering behavior like Foley's — a point the report emphasized in strong language.
"Twenty-twenty hindsight is easy," Hastings said.
Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and his party's ranking member on the committee, said the Foley affair had been investigated fairly and without partisan motive. "This is not a jury-rigged result of a series of compromises," he said.
By David Stout
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: December 8, 2006
WASHINGTON: House Republican leaders were negligent and in some instances "willfully ignorant" of Representative Mark Foley's improper advances toward male pages, but the leaders did not break any rules in handling the case, the House ethics committee said Friday.
The committee said collective failure to look deeply "is not merely the exercise of poor judgment; it is a present danger to House pages and to the integrity of the institution of the House."
Foley, a Republican from Florida, resigned his House seat in late September after it came to light that he had sent improper e-mail messages and other computer messages to some former male pages he had become friendly with while they were serving as assistants in Congress.
The Foley affair was a further embarrassment to a Republican Party already reeling from financial scandals involving some of its lawmakers; and in the view of some political analysts, it may have helped cause the Republicans to lose control of Congress in the November elections.
A subcommittee of the 10-member ethics committee interviewed the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, and dozens of other witnesses to determine whether Republicans were aggressive enough after they first learned of Foley's conduct, long before it became public.
"In its review of this matter, the investigative subcommittee was disturbed by the conduct of some of those who dealt with allegations regarding the conduct of former Representative Foley," the committee said in an executive summary of its 91-page report.
When confronted with the allegations, some lawmakers tried to shift responsibility, while others took more direct action but declined to look deeply or follow up to see if their efforts had any "positive results," the summary said.
"Others tried repeatedly to elevate the matter but encountered obstacles in the chain of command," according to the summary. "In all, a pattern of conduct was exhibited among many individuals to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences of former Representative Foley's conduct with respect to House pages."
Representative Doc Hastings, the Washington Republican who heads the ethics panel, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, said the report on the Foley affair should remind House members that they have "an affirmative obligation" to speak up when encountering behavior like Foley's — a point the report emphasized in strong language.
"Twenty-twenty hindsight is easy," Hastings said.
Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and his party's ranking member on the committee, said the Foley affair had been investigated fairly and without partisan motive. "This is not a jury-rigged result of a series of compromises," he said.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 7:53 AM
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