Western Courier

Issue date: 10/9/06 Section: Opinion

Conservatives have done it again.

This time, though, liberals joined conservatives in their pursuit to focus on meaningless issues. Most voters have jumped on the bandwagon as well, according to a CNN.com story that reported the scandal involving Congressman Mark Foley and a male teenage page. The Web site predicted that this scandal would be a major blow to Republicans in the upcoming congressional elections.

Republicans have made an effort to separate themselves from Foley, so that they can remain the party of "moral values," and the Democrats are quick to accuse the entire Republican party of knowingly covering up the congressman's behavior.

Yes, Foley should be removed from office. He made suggestive comments to a minor, which is against the law for very good reasons. The fact that the minor was a boy instead of a girl, however, should have absolutely no impact on the consequences delivered to Foley. He has every right to be a homosexual, but no right to be sexual at all with minors.

That being said, Dennis Hastert, who is being accused of not doing enough to protect teenage pages, should be left alone. Dennis Hastert did not make suggestive comments to minors. He may have made a mistake in overlooking these e-mails, but it was most likely an honest mistake and therefore he should be forgiven and Congress should move on.

Foley may have committed a crime, but the crime was not serious enough to kill or to emotionally or financially cripple anyone for the rest of his life. Most of the decisions that Congress should be spending its time discussing are that critical. It's an absolute wonder that this cover-up is getting so much publicity compared to the threat of nuclear tests by North Korea, the continuing deaths of thousands of people in Iraq and the looming destruction of our environment.

The Downing Street memo did not get this much publicity. Most people don't even remember the Downing Street memo. The publication was a top secret document detailing a meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair that strongly suggested, if not stated outright, that Bush and Blair had invented the weapons of mass destruction claim in order to justify the war in Iraq.

North Korea, an obviously hostile country, is threatening to test its nuclear weapons. The countries of the world are gravely concerned about this test and have even considered pre-emptive nuclear strikes if the threat becomes real.

Continued...

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