October 03, 2006
Passing strange
Hastert's main defense seems to be that he saw only the "overly friendly" emails but not the X-rated IM's. But doesn't it seem a little odd that a 16-year-old boy could tell that the emails were "sick, sick, sick, sick, sick" but a bunch of grown men couldn't?
These people don't think torture is sick, or racism, or Ann Coulter. Why on earth would they object to Foley's emails?
Posted by: Michael Connolly at October 4, 2006 05:26 AMWell, I am glad that I am not the only one who noticed that! The fact that the kid thought they were skeevy enough to report them to his sponsoring congressman's office should have been enough to warrant further investigation, whether or not the grown-ups thought they were just "overly friendly".
Posted by: ajw93 at October 4, 2006 10:08 AMI don't think it is all that strange. The kid knew about the IM's and other shady behaviour. That let him easily put the emails into their proper sick context.
But the allegations should have been enough to warrant a little further investigation, so the fact that the emails weren't super-obvious doesn't absolve anyone of anything.
Posted by: Sebastian Holsclaw at October 4, 2006 01:09 PMPut it in context: The page is an employee. The Representative is an elected official. Why is there contact between the two any more personal than there should be between supervisor and employee? All the personal contact beyond that which is normal in the workplace is/should be unprofessional.
Posted by: Sarah at October 5, 2006 09:54 AMSarah, I believe that the boy in question was a former page.
I'd note that one FL newspaper, which has had the emails for a year, described them as "friendly chit-chat."
I'd guess that 16-year old boys are more likely to find conversations with homosexual adult men distasteful than adults are.
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