I know that Foley's pedophilia is a big story right now, but the part in bold below is what shocks me more.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061003/ap_on_go_co/bush_congress_pages_4;_ylt=ApUIlnEJ2LSpg7sAZAO2dJu GbToC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl


Bush in favor of Foley investigation

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
49 minutes ago

STOCKTON, Calif. - President Bush said Tuesday he was "dismayed and shocked" at disgraced lawmaker Mark Foley's behavior and supports House Speaker Dennis Hastert's call for a full investigation.

"This investigation should be thorough and any violation of the law should be prosecuted," Bush said while campaigning for Republican lawmakers in California.

Some, including a Washington newspaper, have called for Hastert to resign, but Bush expressed confidence in the speaker's ability to resolve the matter, calling him a "father, teacher, coach."

"I know Denny Hastert. I meet with him a lot. He is a father, teacher, coach who cares about the children of this country," Bush said. "I know that he wants all the facts to come out."

Bush took no questions. And as he stepped toward his motorcade, the president ignored a shouted question directly asking whether Hastert should resign.

The president spoke after Hastert brushed aside any suggestion of resignation Tuesday as House Republican leaders struggled to contain the fallout from an election-year scandal involving sexually explicit messages from the disgraced former Florida Republican lawmaker to underage male pages.

"I know that he wants all the facts to come out and he wants to ensure that these children up there on Capitol Hill are protected," the president said. "I'm confident he will provide whatever leadership he can to law enforcement in this investigation."

"I was dismayed and shocked to learn about Congressman Foley's unacceptable behavior," Bush told reporters.

"I was disgusted by the revelations and disappointed that he would violate the trust of the citizens who placed him in office," Bush said. "Families have every right to expect that when they send their children to be a congressional page in Washington that those children will be safe."

The president spoke in a courtyard of the George W. Bush Elementary School. Inside, the president visited young children practicing their reading in the school library named after his wife, Laura. The school has 858 students in grades kindergarten through seventh grade.

Bush's comments on the Foley scandal came as he also addressed a string of deadly attacks in schools in the past week. He said Americans have a responsibility to protect their children.

"Our school children should never fear their safety when they enter into a classroom," the president said.

"Laura and I were saddened and deeply concerned, like a lot of citizens around the country, about the school shootings that took place in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Wisconsin. We grieve with the parents and we share the concerns of those who worry about safety in schools," Bush said.

On Monday night, the White House announced a conference of education and law enforcement experts on how the federal government might help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath. No date has been set and it was unclear whether Bush would attend.

Is it a special education facility?

I wonder how many Richard M. Nixon High Schools got renamed.

George W. Bush Elementry is named after his wife Laura???

WTF?!?!?!?!!?

Edit: I can't read, and don't know the difference between a library and a school.

Did anyone else see the press conference? His attorney anounced that the fellow is gay, and was molested as a teen by a priest or someone.

Ta dah!


Kirk Fordham, a former aide to ex-Rep. Mark Foley, said he alerted the office of the Republican leader of the House of Representatives two years ago about worrisome conduct by Foley with teenage pages, AP reports.

wow the republican party is such a mess

Damn, now i wonder what bs they'll say to act as if they didn't know?:rolleyes:

The Republican Party has nothing to defend against. Foley is a Democrat. Just ask Fox News:

http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/3/Foley_dem.jpg
http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/3/Fox_Foley_3.jpg

Ummm if thats real, thats unreal.

Those are both real clips from Fox News, who are subtly trying to baffle their sheep into thinking the Democrats were associated with alcoholic gay abused Foley. (Alcoholic? Gay? Sexually abused? He can't just pick one and stick with it, can it? Sheesh...)

SHOCKING!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061019/ap_on_re_us/congressman_e_mails


Report: Priest admits Foley relationship

16 minutes ago

SARASOTA, Fla. - A Roman Catholic priest said he had an inappropriate two-year relationship with former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record) in the 1960s that included massaging the boy in the nude, but he did not specifically remember having sex, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, 72, described several encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. They include massaging Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being nude in the same room on overnight trips.

Mercieca said there was one night when he was in a drug-induced stupor and there was an incident but he couldn't clearly remember, the newspaper reported.

"I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown," the newspaper reported Mercieca as saying from his home on the island of Gozo, south of Italy. "I was taking pills — tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. They affected my mind a little bit."

Mercieca could not immediately be located for comment Thursday by The Associated Press.

Foley resigned from Congress last month after his sexually explicit e-mails to young male pages surfaced.

His lawyer said shortly after his resignation that Foley was an alcoholic, gay and had been molested as a boy by a "clergyman." Foley's civil lawyer, Gerald Richman, said the alleged abuser was a Catholic priest whose name he shared with state prosecutors on Wednesday.

Richman did not return phone messaged left Thursday by The Associated Press. Foley's criminal defense lawyer David Roth declined to comment.

Earlier this month, Roth said: "Mark does not blame the trauma he sustained as a young adolescent for his totally inappropriate" e-mails and instant messages. "He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct."

Mercieca had worked at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lake Worth in 1967, according to church records. Foley would have been 13 at the time.

The state attorney's office in West Palm Beach did not immediately return a telephone message Thursday. A phone for the Archdiocese of Miami wasn't accepting new messages because its voice mail box was full.

Mercieca, 72, said he and Foley became fast friends when he moved to Florida from Brazil and "loved each other like brothers," the newspaper reported.

Mercieca said he taught Foley "some wrong things" related to sex, though he wouldn't specify what he meant, the newspaper said. It reported the priest said that at the time, he considered the relationship innocent, but he now says he could see how his actions could be called inappropriate.

Mercieca said although Foley plans to "expose him to the world," he still has "great memories of our trips," the newspaper reported.

"I wish him well," Mercieca said. "Let bygones be bygones."

Mercieca was adamant that his encounter with Foley was an aberration, and that the Catholic Church never had to send him for counseling during his 38 years in the priesthood in Florida, according to the newspaper.

"I have been in many parishes, and I have never been" accused, he said.

A Web site for the Diocese of Gozo lists Mercieca as one of its priests. Joseph Calleja, a priest with the diocese, said Mercieca is still an active priest but that he lives at his own home. Gozo, a Mediterranean island, is part of the Republic of Malta.

This one's in the rumor mill -- would make congressman #3 twiddling with the pages, along with Foley and Kolbe:

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/jerry-weller/meet-jerry-weller-208722.php


10 19 2006
Meet Jerry Weller

The Illinois Republican (at right) is married to the lovely Zury RÃfudgeos Montt (aka Zury RÃfudgeos Sosa, aka Zury Rios-Montt de Weller), daughter of the former military dictator of Guatemala. He’s also scheduled (per various rumor mills) to be outed as the newest subject of our beloved Cocktober Surprise.

But don’t worry, GOPers, this one’s straight as an arrow. The underaged objects of his attention were the lady pagettes.

We’re working on getting the details. Meanwhile, this could turn out the be the worst day of Hastert Chief of Staff Scott Palmer’s life, as former House Clerk Jeff Trindahl’s gonna nail him before the ethics committee today.

The congressmen are all just making sure they're on the same page.

Yeah, I know, that was horrible.

By the way, how the hell does "drug-induced stupor" make people sleep at night?
Oh, so my priest thinks it's ok to skinny dip with little boys and undress them for a back rub, (already worth asking wtf?) but he only fondles them in a sexual way when he's high as a kite on drugs. That's ok then. Another double wtf? moment.

So are priests running a coke ring? Is Jeff Smoker a man of the cloth? And does he have his hand up a 10 year old boy's cloth? Yikes. I guess the GOP figures that if they're going to crash this hard, they might as well take the Catholic church and Pope "Muslims are Evil" with them. Why not? Let's get back to Democrats and Protestants exclusively, huh? Geez.

It turns out that the person who got the media talking about the Foley emails is from Royal Oak, working on behalf of HRC, a gay rights group:

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2006/10/26/3

http://stopoctobersurprises.blogspot.com/

He was trivially identified once his IP address was identified, courtesy of a "bug" planted in his email which causes (so-called) "smart" mail clients to phone home. (Also, the guy was silly enough to respond to the emails by clicking web links and doing stuff to reveal his identity.)

The death spiral of this election season for the Republicans started right here!