The Dog Ate My Homework
Submitted by Fred Seamon on October 6, 2006 - 2:04pm.
Current Events | Essays | Hastert
I recall this as a humorous statement intended to shift the blame for one’s failure to fulfill an assigned task to someone else. It seems quite apropos in light of recent Foleygate events. What particularly brought it to mind were Denny Hastert’s bizarre off-the-wall assertions that Bill Clinton, “liberal” ABC News, and George Soros were to blame for his failure to report a sexual predator among Republican Congressional ranks.
He made my head spin with his accusations and explanations as to why he had waited so long to take action against Foley. Initially, he inferred that Clinton might somehow be involved, noting "All I know is what I hear and what I see. I saw Bill Clinton's adviser, Richard Morris, was saying these guys knew about this all along. If somebody had this info, when they had it, we could have dealt with it then."
He also claimed that "people funded by George Soros, want to see the scandal blow up.”
Subsequently, he blamed his staff for not bringing Foley’s illicit activities to his attention and when confronted with assertions by Republican colleagues John Boehner and Tom Reynolds that they had informed him of improper Foley activities some time ago, claimed that he had no recollection of this.
So Clinton, the liberal media and George Soros are responsible? Why do I have trouble grasping this? Besides its utter implausibility, I guess you have to blame it on my upbringing. My parents, education and training as an army officer all taught me that the right thing to do is to always accept responsibility for my actions and those of my subordinates, whatever the consequences. As a former federal official, I hold all those in public office, especially elected officials to this standard.
What should Hastert have done? That’s easy. What any parent or individual responsible for young men and women would do. He should have referred Foley to the House Ethics Committee for their immediate action as soon as he had even an inkling that something was amiss. He should have placed their well being above that of the Republican Party. What should he do now? What any honorable person would do. Quit his post as Speaker of the House, resign from the House of Representatives and return to his home in Batavia, Illinois.
Hastert as much as anyone should have had his antenna up for bad actors like Foley. Even if he failed to pick up on the reports he received about Foley, that is absolutely no excuse. He said he accepted responsibility and that the "buck stops here", then turned around a started blaming everyone but himself.
The Conservatives coming out to support Hastert ... and ABC (and other networks) helps them get away with it and they are LYING! read this........
Conservatives Propagate False Talking Point Defending Hastert’s Handling Of Foley Scandal
Top conservatives have fanned out on television to defend House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s role in the Foley scandal.
A key talking point: when ABC made Foley’s sexually explicit communications public, Hastert “dealt with it immediately” by going to Foley and telling him, “Resign or be expelled.” Both Ken Mehlman and Ed Gillespie said Hastert’s bold ultimatum to Foley was something not seen “in thirty years in this town.”
In fact, their entire story is a fabrication. Hastert could not have issued an ultimatum to Foley after the sexually explicit instant messages were made public, because by that time, Foley had already resigned. ABC did not make Foley’s sexually explicit communications public until Friday, September 29, at 6pm ET. Foley had already resigned three hours earlier, at around 3pm ET.
As ABC producer Maddy Sauer has described, Foley decided to resign not after an ultimatum from Speaker Hastert, but after ABC called his office on Friday morning and read Foley staffers the instant messages they had obtained. According to Sauer, Foley’s office called ABC an hour later and said the congressman would be resigning.
Speaker Hastert himself acknowledged that he had no role in Foley’s resignation in his first statement on the issue on Monday:
When [the instant messages] were released, Congressman Foley resigned. And I’m glad he did. If he had not, I would have demanded his expusion from the House of Representatives.
Go to link to see video: http://thinkprogress.org/
a whole season's worth of OU football tickets. I sent the "residue" to the Athletic Department, and they bought my story and sent me replacement tickets. To hell with homework, OU tickets are PRECIOUS!
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
BE THE CHANGE you wish to see in the world.
If not us, WHO? If not now, WHEN?
... that the Repubs were saying this was all the Democrats' fault.
The other night after watching Jon Stewart for the second night in a row make jokes about how it really all came back to the Democrats, I switched over to Fox News at the end of The Daily Show and there they were, blaming the Democrats. Straight faces and all!
It was their Breakfast with Bimbos program and one of the hosts said he suspected it was the Dems fault that this hadn't come out until now. Another one said that apparently the source of the leak to the media was a Republican staffer. But then, the first guy nodded knowingly and said "Yes, that's how the Democrats would leak that kind of information, though, through a Republican."
They all agreed that made sense. I laughed harder than I had at the Daily Show and switched it off.
You'd be taking them to the Better Business Bureau if you bought a washing machine the way we went into the war in Iraq. Wes Clark, CNN Aug 17 2003
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/8888
Impeach Action Page
They push blame lie create attack campaigns
We call for impeachment and accountability -Sun Tzu
www.ptnine.com/Warren.wmv "Since this administration has been in office we've had nothing but security problems." WKC
Thanks for writing and posting it.
And, a high school coach, a high schol teacher, particularly know, as part of their professional responsibility that he is supposed to report, under law, any colleage who is using position to sexually exploit a or abuse a childd or teenager.
this is not a new scene to a coach or a teacher, as it might be to many people.
It's gone into in their licesnsure qualifying, and in most states, it's required under law of doctors, teachers, including coaches, therapists, etc.