Excuses, Excuses

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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How you doing on excuses in the Mark Foley Congressional Page scandal?

Remember when the story first broke? Congressional excusers who apparently knew of this, first described the e-mails that Foley sent to a 16-year old page as "overly friendly," not explicitly obscene.

My first thought was that great line from Robin Williams' new movie when a presidential character denied wrongdoing: "I did not have sex with that woman...I wanted to."

Then we heard that whatever he had done, Foley had checked into alcohol rehab — the obligatory stop for national celebrities caught in scandal

Question: does getting drunk make it OK for a grown man to prey on 16-year-olds or for congressional leaders to cover it up?

From Chapter Two of the excuse manual came word that as a child Foley was abused by a priest, but was now cooperating with authorities — naming names.

Which brought a 69-year-old man from under a rock somewhere with an excuse to gag a buzzard.

It's always dangerous to say we know enough, but haven't most of us with an IQ higher than our age figured out two things here: that Foley is a creep who should be kept away from kids and that Congressional leaders knew that — how could they not have known — yet chose to ignore it?

I have a request. My barf bag is at the ready, but spare me any more detail.

I know all I need to know on this one.

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E-mail Face the Nation.
By Bob Schieffer

[cofmanaaron]

At least Studds was censured, the wierd voters of Massachussets are responsible for keeping him in congress. But Foley was protected by Hastert and the Republican congress. Republicans are mad with power and want to keep it no matter what. That is the big issue now that Foley did the right thing and resigned.

[xild]

Yes.

[pendragon679]

Thank you, Mr. Scheiffer, for having the courage for saying what needed to be said here. This horse is dead; it's time to stop beating the corpse. There are more important issues facing us than the misbehavior of one Congressman. Things like Iraq, taxes, health care, illegal immigration, etc. But, then again, the current administration doesn't want us to know what a truly awful job they've done on the real issues. It's easier to divert the public's attention with sleaze. I'm with you, Bob; my barf bag runneth over.

[radiob-2009]

To everyone here the Foley scandal continues to unfold as the Nyguen letters does.If people wish to bring up Studds then they better take a look in the mirror first.There are currently over 50 investigations involving everthing from sexual to bribery going on and only three of them are about democrats.A longer look at history demonstrates that the GOP has had as many if not more sexual scandals than the democratic party.They range from underage sexual contact(13 year olds),homosexuality and extra maritial affairs.Some of these people are still in office anywhere from the local level up to the congressional.Covering up such conduct is a crime and anyone found guilty should resign at the very least.To many politicians that have been convicted continue to collect their pension which is an insult to every american.Until the people demand harsher penalties and the revocation of pensions the crimes will continue.They are not above the law regardless of political affilation and should be treated with stiffer penalties than the average Joe citizen because they have committed two crimes for every one that they are convicted on.The second crime being a failure to uphold the public trust.It is a moral and etnical crime not one by statue.It is still a crime.

[r_harbison]

To janem4,

You sound like an alcoholic in denial, 'Why didn't you get mad at my uncle when he was drunk 40 years ago?' It's time to face reality, Foley is a child stalker and an unknown number of Republican representatives that we have put our trust in, particularly Dennis Hastert, have hidden the truth for three or more years and are now trying to blame their staff, or using the famous DC reply, 'I don't recall!' If our politicians can't remember such important issues as sexual advances against our children, then they should resign, and if they don't, I hope the American voting public has the common sense to vote the lying, self-serving a-holes out of office. This administration and its influence (arm-twisting, politically threatening coercion) has brought our respect for our government to an all-time low and has made our country the bane of the international community. Those of you who continue to blindly support your party, no matter what they do wrong and no matter who proves it, are synonymous with those who supported the rise of Nazism in the name of security for the Fatherland!

[cofmanaaron]

What is Hastert's excuse? I thought it was innocent. Yeah right. If he did, then it just shows how inept the Republican congress is.

[tmartin165]

Divert,Divert,Divert!! That's always the Republicans' answer.

[david98105]

Usually when someone says, %u201CI%u2019ve heard too many excuses%u201D, it is implied that the perpetrator has not also taken compensatory action to atone for their misdeeds. What is lost in Bob Schieffer%u2019s rant is the fact that Foley has resigned from office. What we got from Foley was excuses and a resignation as opposed to others who have given us no resignation and no excuses. There is a difference between actions and words. Foley took the action that was necessary as opposed to, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank, Daniel Crane, and Gerry Studds, none of whom resigned because of their misdeeds. In some of those cases, the public wasn%u2019t even afforded the respect of hearing an excuse as if they were saying, %u201Cif you don%u2019t like it, what are you going to do about it?%u201D There is a double standard in play. If you are a Republican, you leave office no matter what your excuse is. If you are a Democrat you stay in office, no matter if you offer an excuse or not.

[cofmanaaron]

Like Republicans are known for their honesty. Ha!

[cofmanaaron]

see through the Republican lie about democrat involvement: go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=kcQMZpQ3l3g&mode=related&search
its 2 minutes into the video
And does anyone here have any evidence for Ross knowing back in August except for the assertions of Republicans?