And another Washington scandal
Comments (10)
Monday, October 2, 2006 | 03:21 PM ET
By Henry Champ
Today the focus is on ex-congressman Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida.
Foley resigned abruptly last week amid allegations he sent sexually explicit text messages and e-mails to teenage congressional pages.
This is potentially a federal crime and the FBI is investigating not only these allegations but also other questions involving the Republican leadership. Did the GOP bosses know about Foley's activities and look the other way in order "to preserve a congressional seat in an election year," as Democratic leader Harry Reid now charges, upping the political stakes.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Illinois, first told the media he learned of the issue only last week. Since then, however, New York Republican Thomas Reynolds said he notified Hastert months ago of Foley's e-mails to a 16-year-old boy who was a page in the House of Representatives.
At the same time there are questions over who leaked this information about Foley to ABC News, which broke the story.
This has not been a good season for American lawmakers.
This summer Republican Randy Cunningham was sentenced to eight years in jail for bribery. Democrat William Jefferson is trying to explain to the FBI how $90,000 ended up in his freezer. The police are investigating allegations he accepted bribes to help arrange African business deals.
And there is Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist now in jail for five years. He's admitted to bribery, potentially involving folks from both parties.
The stain on Capitol Hill is there for everyone to see and yet the issue for party operatives seems to be: Can it be turned into a political advantage?
Image attacking
The problem with attacking your opponents, however is that these image attacks don't just stop with elected officials, they often spill over to the electors.
Floridians still bridle at comments about their political culture following the "hanging chad" issues of the 2000 election.
Ohioans do as well. Mudslinging over ballot machine irregularities in the last presidential election has created tensions among African-American voters, some of whom allege they were effectively disfranchised by the way these machines were used.
Then there is proud Virginia where there is a tight Senate race between the two parties. The home state of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and James Madison, Virginia calls itself the Old Dominion and curries a reputation of urbanity and gentility.
There is little gentility in this year's Senate race.
The Republican incumbent George Allen called an opponent's Asian worker a "macaca", a racial epithet offensive to Asians. Then he admitted flying a Confederate flag in what he called his "rebellious" youth. On the Today show Jay Leno welcomed his audience saying, "you know in the time it took me to walk out here, Senator George Allen insulted five more ethnic groups."
The Democratic opponent James Webb, a former secretary of the Navy, was drawn into the fray with controversial remarks of his own: 27 years ago he wrote an article arguing women shouldn't be allowed in senior combat roles.
It was left to satirical TV host Jon Stewart to ask: "Well, Virginia, it's now up to you, which of these two men will help you build a bridge to, let's say, the early-to-mid-20th century?"
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has publicly complained this "take-no-prisoners" campaign by the two main Senate opponents is hurting his state, which has been going out of its way to attract foreign companies to the job-starved south.
Six weeks to go. And one wonders how voters will react to two parties who appear willing to say anything, do anything to win.
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Henry Champ is CBC Newsworld's correspondent in Washington, D.C., delivering Canadian viewers the latest developments in the U.S. political arena. Recently, he has been a leading Canadian voice on coverage of the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq and the growing concerns over the Canada-U.S. relationship.
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Comments (10)
Don MacKenzie
Ian in Ottawa, you should get the facts straight before you start flaming.
Since I couldn't find anything on cbc.ca, here's a link to a breakdown of Abramoff's largesse, courtesy of the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2005/12/12/GR2005121200286.html
The long and the short of it: While Abramoff gave more money to GOP candidates, Democrats' hands aren't exactly clean either.
Now
Posted October 4, 2006 09:03 AM
Gary Dare
And adding to Peter's Hoefgen's comments to Donald Derry, the Liberals' ad scandal did not kill anybody like in "Licenses For Bribes". George Ryan, the previous (Republican) Illinois governor recently procecuted, had his minions collect bribes for truck licences to unqualified (and sometimes even illegal) immigrants (could hardly read or write English, etc.) with the funds going to his election campaigns. The Willis family lost their five children in 2001 in a fiery crash on I-94 coming back from Milwaukee due to one of those truckers. Last spring, an elderly couple had one of those guys crash into them on I-205 outside of Portland, Oregon.
Posted October 3, 2006 09:55 PM
Peter Hoefgen
Mr. Derry, I find your comments on this board absurb, equating what is going on with financing and incorrect membership sign ups (the same thing the Conservatives have done in the past by the way) with asking a child for sex.
The scandal is America is ten times as bad as what has gone on in Canada, it involves children, and sex (talking about sex), no money! Think before you actually speak out about corruption.
As for the Republican who has done this, he is the same person who spoke swiftly about taking away the rights of Child predators, lets hope that the police, FBI and congress speak swiftly about what he has done, and take away his rights. And hopefully we will have a full investigation once the Democracts win the November elections to see how deep this scandal really does go. Protecting children is the number one priority, and with this case the Republicans have failed, and have failed miserably!
Posted October 3, 2006 02:50 PM
Donald Derry
May I remind those of us in The Frozen North who are making smug and smarmy comments about Our Friends South of the Border that we should speak very, very carefully and very, very quietly about corruption in government.
Have you been listening to what's going on within the ranks of Canada's Official Opposition and their attempts to find a leader who won't (a) bankrupt them or (b) force them to hold another inquiry in the near future. I mean, have you REALLY been listening.
Michael Ignatieff as saviour? Good Lord!
Posted October 3, 2006 01:27 PM
Patrick Kelly
Montreal
One could be easily overwhelmed by the volume of scandals if one doesn't learn to filter out what is important. Whatever James Webb wrote 28 years ago, or whatever flag George Allen flew when he was in high school is all but completely irrelevant. These faux scandals only serve to devalue the real scandals and real issues that should preoccupy voters
Posted October 3, 2006 12:44 PM
Don Simpkin
What I find interesting is where the two parties come up with their candidates, and why don't they screen them for these types of attitudes before placing them in the spotlight? It not only makes the parties look bad, but it doesn't do the U.S. any favours for their international reputation. Isn't Dubya bad enough for P.R. without bickering good ol' boys running for office in Virginia?
Posted October 3, 2006 12:19 PM
Don
Winnipeg
I don't really think that the rate of corruption and misdeeds amongst the Washington power elite have risen significantly... I just think that a culture of open disclosure via electronic communication has brought about more investigations, more indictments and more convictions. The corrupt senator or lobbyist used to worry about a paper trail... now they worry about an e-mail trail, one that a lot more people may have access to and is a lot harder to get rid of.
Posted October 3, 2006 11:49 AM
Ian
Ottawa
"And there is Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist now in jail for five years. He's admitted to bribery, potentially involving folks from both parties."
Wow, that's a pretty biased viewpoint considering Jack Abramoff was a Republican lobbyist. Are you working with Karl Rove?
Posted October 3, 2006 09:43 AM
Joe
Halifax
Politics (like power generally) and corruption seem to go hand in hand but in recent years the sheer number of outright cases of impropriety, etc seem to have skyrocketed. One reason this may be occuring is simply that what happens at the top usually "tickles down".
If a corporate CEO is skimming accounts or making illegal deals and it becomes general knowledge, how long can it be before senior and middle managers begin to adopt the same culture? In terms of American politics these days, we have a president and vice-president, among others, who have been accused of so many illegal acts and corporate shenanigans (and who continuously get away with it) it is no surprise that other senior politicians in both parties have seen the writing on the wall and adopted similar immoral practices for personal and political gain.
The rules of the game have been re-written to a degree and the players are adapting while the general public continues to believe in a system that existed 15+ years ago. If there is an actual desire to clean house then there is no choice but to start at the top.
Posted October 3, 2006 08:08 AM
Dwight Williams
Seems a simple enough answer: find someone relatively sane who isn't enrolled with one of the Big Two parties in the USA, and vote for them.
For all the eccentricities I've been reading about and hearing about regarding the elections processes throughout the several States of the Union, I believe that remains an option for a very large number of citizens once they've registered.
Thankfully, if 2004 provided any truly useful informatiion to go by, an increasing number of Americans have rejected the "do nothing" approach, and I trust that the trend will continue, to the good of that nation.
Posted October 2, 2006 05:18 PM