By Thursday afternoon, the Republicans were forced into doing the only
thing they could possibly do under the circumstances - rally around
Hastert and try to, er, ride the scandal out.
Hastert gave a press conference on Thursday to let everyone know that
he wasn't going to quit, but he did take full responsibility for what
had happened. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15143036/
House Speaker Dennis Hastert apologized and took responsibility on
Thursday for the unfolding page sex scandal involving fellow
Republican Mark Foley.
"I'm deeply sorry this has happened and the bottom line is we're
taking responsibility," Hastert said at a news conference outside his
district office in Batavia, Ill.
"Ultimately, the buck stops here," the speaker said.
So there you have it.
Hastert is deeply sorry.
He's taking responsibility.
And the bottom line is that the buck stops here.
Hastert also promised to hold investigations into the scandal, which
was very nice of him.
"What did I know and when did I know it," that sort of thing.
As soon as the investigations were announced, Republicans immediately
fell all over themselves to take responsibility and stop the buck:
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/100506/news3.html
North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry called on Democratic
leaders yesterday to testify under oath about when they knew of former
Rep. Mark Foley's (R-Fla.) Internet communications with a House page.
Oh, for crying out loud.
By the way, did I mention that Hastert's Grand Taking Of
Responsibility came after he'd already tried the Kenny Boy Defense?
"I've never had a conversation with him (Foley)," Hastert said last
week, "other than his vote on a tariff matter at one time or another,
I think."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0610050131oct05,1,872380.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/06/263_hastert-foley.jpg
Yeah, looks like you barely knew the guy, Denny.
By the end of the day, Republican commentators found themselves
cycling back around to Bill Clinton (and George Soros),
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061005/ap_on_go_co/congress_pages_80
while Drudge completely lost the plot and began yelling that the
instant messages were a prank gone bad.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001734.php
For a split second it almost looked like they were on the verge of
catapulting the propaganda and turning the corner - right up until
AmericaBlog noted that:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/10/hasterts-staff-our-boss-lied.html
Tonight on CNN, Paula Zahn asked Dana Bash about Hastert's allegations
that Democrats and ABC News were somehow to blame for the Foley
Republican child predator scandal:
Zahn:
Is there any proof of that?
Bash:
No, there isn't any proof of that.
The Speaker's office is saying they haven't been able to back that up.
They can't back it up because it's not true.
Their boss lied.
And, the Speaker's office admitted it.
By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
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