Withholding Evidence of a Crime for Political Gain?

Have those who seek political power become so self-absorbed, so jaded and cut-throat, that they would sacrifice our children for political gain? If we are to take the circumstances surrounding the Mark Foley affair at face value it would seem to be so.

Let me be perfectly clear, if – and because we live under a legal system based on the premise that everyone is innocent until proven guilty I stress the word “if” – it is determined that Mark Foley committed a crime he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and punished accordingly. That being said, if prosecution is warranted, those who withheld any damning information, no matter the length of time, only to use it as an opportunistic political silver bullet should be held accountable as accessories to the crime.

Ethically, Mark Foley needed to resign. While one’s personal life is certainly his own, Foley was elected to office to represent the people of his district. Because of this, his personal, as well as his professional actions, reflected on his constituency. To a large extent, that made his life not his own. This is especially true when he was “on the clock.” To have been using the congressional email system to establish personal relationships and then to have been communicating inappropriately with anyone while he was on the House floor, was a dereliction of duty. He was not serving the best interests of his constituents. To his credit, for what it’s worth, he did the right thing in resigning.

Ethically speaking, if everyone elected to Congress who routinely put their personal political well-being ahead of the needs of their constituency resigned, there might – might – be a dozen people left to conduct the nation’s business.

To date, there is no evidence that Foley committed any crime. This is one of the more important points to remember about this issue. While Foley is rightly receiving a political flogging for his lack of ethics and a public humiliation for his questionable and disturbing “Gerry Studds” styled sexual advances toward young men, he is still innocent of any crime until proven guilty. With the recent revelation that the most disturbing Instant Message used to vilify Foley was initiated during a time when the page in question was already 18-years old, this point becomes even more important to remember.

The most disturbing element of this “scandal” is the fact that information surrounding the Instant Messages – not the innocuous emails that even the mainstream media determined were less than a red flag, but the sexually explicit Instant Messages that only came to light recently – was in the hands of people who eventually took action on them, refusing, so it seems, to do so until deep into an election cycle.

There is no arguing that Foley’s actions are questionable, but then, that is what investigations are for; finding out the truth. The 20/20 hindsight of the reactionaries emanating from the “culture of political opportunism” regarding who should have done what and when is politically irresponsible and intellectually stunted. To insinuate that of the thousands of people who work on Capitol Hill the only ones who had advance knowledge of Foley’s exploits existed exclusively in the hierarchy of those on the right side of the aisle is not only untruthful, it is foolish. Look only as far as the George Soros backed organization Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics – a very progressive organization to say the very least – to debunk that notion.

Further, calls from the left – and embarrassingly from some on the right – for Republican leadership to resign are so absurd (and, in the face of the histories of Gerry Studds and Barney Frank, hypocritical) that they stink of exploitative over-reaction from the left and an irrational panic generated from uncertainty on the right.

If – and again, I stress the word “if” – Mark Foley is found to have committed a crime, and the releasing of the Instant Message information could have averted that crime, then those who had access to information that was withheld for political purposes must be held accountable for having placed under-aged children in harms way.

It is well past time that we demand more from those we elect to office. The American people have growing weary of the spoiled-brat backstabbing by the congressional elected class and the politically correct, “me-first”, propaganda spewing from the “citizen action groups” they enable. Making sure that the law and the penalties for crimes committed applies to their actions – or inactions that allow a crime to occur – is a great way to start.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 5th, 2006 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. | 0 views | Trackback | Print this page |

Frank Salvato is the Executive Director and Director of Terrorism Research for BasicsProject.org a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and education initiative. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His organization, BasicsProject.org, partnered in producing the original national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist terrorism. He is a member of the International Analyst Network. He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. Mr. Salvato has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor on FOX News Channel, and is a regular guest on talk radio including on The Captain's America Radio Show airing on AM1220 WSRQ and on the Internet catering to the US Armed Forces around the world and on The Roth Show with Dr. Laurie Roth syndicated nationally on the USA Radio Network. His opinion-editorials have been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times & Human Events and are syndicated nationally. He is occasionally quoted in The Federalist. Mr. Salvato is available for public speaking engagements. He can be contacted at contact@newmediajournal.us. | More from Frank Salvato