Democrats look to use parent angle on Foley scandal
Democrats eager to talk up the page scandal swamping the GOP plan to claim that the Republicans are not protecting the children of parents back home. "Look at the E-mails the leadership had as if you were a parent," said one House Democratic strategist. "You wouldn't just want to investigate who sent them; you'd want to kill that person. That's why this is such a big deal," he said.
GOP leaders, added the strategist, "acted like hacks when they should have been acting like parents." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is expected to play a front-and-center role but to address the issue more from a parental perspective. An aide said that she "comes at this as a mom and grandmother and is furious these kids weren't protected."
As she traveled over the weekend and talked to parents, Pelosi's view strengthened. "Most parents we talked to over the weekend feel the issue is that the Republicans were given–and ignored–a huge warning with the first set of E-mails," said the strategist. "Had there been an investigation at that time, the sexually explicit E-mails may have been uncovered. But we lost that opportunity when the Republicans chose to protect Foley instead of those kids."
GOP leaders seemed to be reading from the Democratic playbook, with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert telling reporters today that "as a parent and speaker of the House, I am disgusted." Hastert and Rep. John Shimkus, a fellow Illinois Republican who heads the congressional page board, spoke to reporters today to outline steps being taken to ensure the safety of pages. Later, Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan, the only Democrat on the page board, expressed anger that he was not called in for the latest discussion between Hastert and Shimkus about page safety.
According to accounts Hastert has not disputed, House Republicans informed him in 2005 of E-mail exchanges between Foley and one congressional page, which GOP leaders described as "overly friendly" but not overtly sexual. Hastert insisted that no Republican leaders were aware of Foley's 2003 E-mails and instant messages to another page, which were much more sexually explicit.
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