October 4, 2006
Defending Hastert
- We have had Democrats up in arms about listening in on the phone calls of foreign terrorists or using data mining to ferret them out—and Republicans have bitterly criticized them for it. But now, we have Democrats and even some Republicans who are claiming that Dennis Hastert should resign his leadership position because he didn't start an exhaustive investigation into the background and sexual conduct of a gay American congressman based on nothing more than the fact that he sent some "overly friendly" emails to a page.
The FBI? They received these e-mails and didn't take it any further because they decided that there was nothing there. The hostile, liberal media? They got these e-mails and didn't publish them because they decided that there wasn't enough to go on. But Dennis Hastert? He's supposed to look at these exact same e-mails, instantly decide—perhaps by using Nostradamus-like psychic powers—that Foley was guilty and then start looking for evidence to prove his hunch right.
Nicely done! I think he also adresses the "double standard" aspect 1000 times more deftly than I:
"Although that's certainly unfair, it's probably a plus overall for the GOP. After all, because Democrats do regularly give each other passes on ethical issues—they have a former member of the KKK, a guy who a left a woman to drown to death, and a congressman who stuck $90,000 in bribe money into his freezer representing them up on Capitol Hill."
Ouch.
Posted by: jk at October 4, 2006 8:07 PM | What do you think? [1]