With all the hot air surrounding the Foley scandal, it's hard to discern facts from spin. Earlier today, I said that it's "politically stupid and morally wrong" for Randy Kuhl to remain silent about this episode. Those words may sound overblown, but let's re-examine the cornerstone of Tom Reynolds' and Dennis Hastert's defense: the notion that the first email correspondence they received was merely evidence of an "overly friendly" relationship.
The initial email [pdf] from the page to an adult he trusted has been posted by most media sites. What Hastert and Reynolds want us to forget is the page's reaction to Foley's emails:
Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out.
I talked to another page that was here during the school year and the first part of the summer...(her name) said that there was a congressman who did hit on pages.
sick sick sick sick sick sick sick
In any institution where adults have responsibility for teenagers, something that made one of the kids this uneasy would start an investigation. The teen who sent the email, along with the kid reporting the rumor of an adult who hit on teenagers, would be interviewed. In other words, established procedures would be followed.
The House of Representatives, like your local High School, is an
institution with established procedures where the well-being of
teenagers is entrusted to adults. High School leadership who ignored
evidence like this letter, and circumvented procedure, would be fired.
Similarly, voters can expect that leaders who ignored the procedures of
the House should be punished.
Tom Reynolds is a party leader, just like Dennis Hastert, because Reynolds is in charge of the '06 election, perhaps the most important job in the Republican Congress. He has no "supervisor". He's The Man when it comes to the election, and he begged Foley to run after seeing this email.
Randy Kuhl doesn't have a role in the scandal itself. But I think Eric Massa is right to ask him where he stands. I stick by my judgment that Kuhl's silence is "politically stupid and morally wrong".
Comments
Listen----Mr. Hastert came into the district the last time around when Mr. Kuhl was running scared against a 26-year-old newcomer (and with good reason). Our Hammondsport friend SHOULD be pushed to make a staatement, up or down o r neutral but take a position on this. Otherwise, it's politics as usual and....