Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Foley and Illegal Immigration

For me, the two big issues in the upcoming midterm election are:

1. The Foley scandal. The questions for me are: What did the Republican leadership know, when did they know it, and why did they fail to act on it? If the Republican leadership did fail in this scandal, why are they still being supported by MY representative?

2. Illegal immigration. I still want to know why Congress passed a bill giving Homeland Security funding to build a wall on the Mexican border, but NOT requiring DHS to build it? And why only 700 miles when the border is nearly three times that?

The first issue shows me that Republicans are more concerned about retaining power than they are, per the second issue, resolving problems. If I want a power hungry party that won't solve problems, I can vote Democrat.

If I vote for a representative at all, it will be third party.

That said, in local political offices, I will still consider voting Republican. The state of Georgia is one of the better run states in which I have lived.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Foley scandal is the "big" scandal for you? Or at least one of them? O.K. All I can say is that we have very different political fixations. North Korea? Iraq? Oil security? Inflation? Widening income gaps? Government spending. Social Security? Judicial reform? I could go on and on... but your "issues" are your issues, Ed. We each have our own hierarchy of priorities. (*SMILE*)

As to illegal immigration... I'm with you... but to back up my natural viewpoint on the subject I've been doing quite a bit of reading on the subject. Things are far worse than you probably know, Ed. You really should start out with Buchanan's book. (*WINK*)

Finally... I hope you don't mind that on the issue of the Republican Party I have to tell you... I TOLD YOU SO! (*GRIN*)

I get a kick out of how you and certain other blog hosts have "suddenly" come to the same conclusion I reached months and months ago - the nation would be better off with a "beleaguered" President Bush being forced to go back to his conservative roots in order to fight for IDEALS and IDEAS against a Democrat-controlled House and perhaps Senate.

BILL

EdMcGon said...

Bill,
The Foley scandal was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I have been questioning this Congress's integrity for several years, but the fact they would ignore warning signals of a congressman who is seeking to molest teenage boys is beyond the pale.

The GOP needs to be reformed, and that won't happen as long as they are in power.

I am not putting down the other issues you mentioned. They are important also. But some of them, such as North Korea, will not be truly impacted until the next presidential election. Congress has very limited effect on North Korea.

Unfortunately, Congress seems to have little impact on those things they CAN change. :P

Anonymous said...

We agree on Congress. (Or... less modestly... you've come to share my view.) (*HUGE FRIGG'N GRIN*)

We disagree that they - Congress... Denny Hastert and the Republican leadership in particular - "ignored warning signals of a congressman who was seeking to molest teenage boys."

There's absolutely NO proof or even any indication of that, Ed.

I won't recap everything I've written on the subject, but as far as I know there's no... absolutely no... evidence or even allegation that Foley molested any underage pages when they were underaged pages.

Whether Foley was SEEKING to MOLEST UNDERAGE PAGES... I can't say. Perhaps if the alleged drunken visit to the pages dorm actually happened that's some sort of smoking gun... but even there... I don't know what was in the guy's head or if his purpose (ASSUMING HE DID IT!) was any more nafarious than simply a drunk seeking to VISIT (not "molest") the pages he was inamered (sp?) with.

My God, Ed... you sound as if you have proof of (or even simply believe) that Foley was going out every night molesting pages with the full knowledge and consent of the Republican leadership. That's ridiculous.

BILL

EdMcGon said...

Bill,
All I had to hear was "overly friendly emails to pages".

Emails? Ok. Overly friendly? HIGHLY unlikely.

That is plenty of smoke to start an internal investigation (at the very least).

If Hastert had investigated it, and found nothing, I could forgive him for at least trying. He didn't even try.