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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


Registered: 10/31/04
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Foley Leaves In Hurry
#6117986 - 09/30/06 09:01 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Fox News
Former Rep. Mark Foley Leaves D.C. in Hurry After E-Mail Scandal Saturday, September 30, 2006
WASHINGTON — This time there were no tortured explanations, no heels dug in, no long, slow drip of revelation or fight for redemption.
Republican Rep. Mark Foley, of Florida, just up and quit after his e-mails expressing undue interest in a 16-year-old male page were exposed to the nation. Less than six weeks from a tough election for Republicans who control an already ethically tainted Congress, the more common stick-it-out approach to scandal was cast aside.
"Resigning leaves your attackers nowhere to go," said Eric Dezenhall, a crisis-management consultant. "If this had dragged on, it could have sucked Republicans into the vortex of scandal."
Foley, a moderate Republican whose work in Congress included protections for children against sexual predators, repeatedly e-mailed a boy working as a page in August 2005, asking for his picture, asking what he wanted for his birthday and making chatty comments about school and about another page who he said was "in really great shape."
The page told a colleague the e-mails "freaked me out" and were "sick," according to transcripts posted online by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
In the first blush after Foley's abrupt apology and resignation, Dezenhall said a typical reaction for those who want to survive scandal and preserve their career — "if you're guilty, repent, if you're innocent, attack" — would not work for the congressman.
"It's much harder to defend yourself against something like this than the garden variety sin such as adultery or murky campaign contributions," he said. "This is not garden variety. This creeps people out."
Florida Republicans planned to meet as soon as Monday to find a replacement in Foley's district, where he had been considered nearly a sure bet to win.
Foley had communicated with more than one page in a personal way, and ABC News reported Friday that he had sent sexually explicit instant messages to some of them.
Talk about Foley's behavior had circulated in political and legislative circles for months, including a House panel that quietly looked into the e-mails, but it was once they surfaced that Foley stepped down.
Others caught in unsavory behavior have had mixed success trying to hang on.
Former President Bill Clinton used contrition, counterattack and an artful definition of what constitutes sex in his ultimately successful defense against impeachment brought on by his relationship with an intern of legal age.
Democratic Rep. Barney Frank toughed it out after the House reprimanded him in 1989 for using his influence on behalf of prostitute Stephen L. Gobie. Frank admitted paying Gobie for sex, hiring him with his own money as an aide and writing a letter on congressional stationery on his behalf.
A repentant Frank faced constituents at a meeting until they ran out of questions, acknowledging, "I did not handle the pressures of having a public life, of being a closeted gay man, nearly as well as I should have." He has won their acceptance — and re-election ever since.
Foley's resignation follows an admission by Republican Rep. Bob Ney that he improperly accepted trips, meals, sports tickets and casino chips while trying to win favors for disgraced Washington influence-peddler Jack Abramoff and a foreign aviation company.
The six-term lawmaker went to a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse, a problem he disclosed when he agreed to plead guilty in the case, which grew from investigations into Abramoff's cozy dealings with scores of Republican lawmakers and some Democrats.
On the other side of the aisle, Democratic Rep. William Jefferson has been at the center of a federal bribery investigation that so far has cost him his seat on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Foley's troubles were of a far different nature than corrupt lobbying but part of a vivid history of sexual scandal in a capital where reality can be more bizarre than rumor.
In 1983, the House adopted a more severe measure than Frank's reprimand when it censured Reps. Gerry Studds and Daniel B. Crane for having sexual relations with pages.
Studds, a liberal Democrat who acknowledged having sex with a 17-year-old male page in 1973 and making sexual advances to two others, admitted an error in judgment but did not apologize. The first openly gay member of Congress went on to win re-election until his retirement in the mid-1990s.
Crane admitted having sex several times with a 17-year-old female page in 1980. He apologized to the House in a quavering voice "for the shame I have brought down on this institution." The conservative Republican was defeated a year later.
Rep. Donald "Buzz" Lukens, a Republican, was allowed to resign in 1990 rather than face expulsion on two sex-related cases: a conviction for having sex with an underage girl and a later allegation of fondling a female elevator operator in the Capitol.
Click here to read an exclusive 2003 Internet exchange between Congressman Foley and a former congressional page, according to the young man. Warning: sexually explicit language, reader discretion advised
http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/02-02-03b.pdf
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
Edited by LunarEclipse (09/30/06 09:15 AM)
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Vvellum
Stranger

Registered: 05/24/04
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good riddance. what a fucking weirdo.
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


Registered: 10/31/04
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Re: Foley Leaves In Hurry [Re: Vvellum]
#6118075 - 09/30/06 09:58 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Still, it will be hard to find a replacement with as much "first hand" experience in the field of child exploitation.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
Edited by LunarEclipse (09/30/06 10:13 AM)
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TheHateCamel
Research &Development -DBK
Registered: 01/31/03
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


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NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN JOINS WITH CONGRESSMAN FOLEY, SENATOR HATCH AND VICTIM FAMILIES TO ANNOUNCE TOUGHER SEX OFFENDER LEGISLATION
WASHINGTON, DC – May 18, 2005 – The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) applauds Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for introducing sweeping legislation that will overhaul our nation’s current sex offender registration and community notification law entitled the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Act of 1994.
“Today, there are more than a half million sex offenders that are “supposed” to be registered in the United States; however at least 100,000 of these offenders are actually “missing” from the system. This is a massive problem,” said NCMEC President and CEO Ernie Allen. “I commend Congressman Foley and Senator Hatch for recognizing that the current federal sex offender law needs to be revamped. This new legislation will help build a more comprehensive system for tracking sex offenders and better protect our nation’s children.”
NCMEC believes this legislation, “The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 2005” will increase and tighten tracking of sex offenders and provide standards for notifying the public about these predators. It will integrate more than twenty years of legislation into a more consistent way of governing how sex offenders are monitored and how communities are notified.
Highlights of this legislation:
Full Integration: The bill fully integrates the “Megan's Law” and "Lychner” amendments into the Wetterling Act.
Expands Covered Offenses against Children: The bill adds the "use of the Internet to facilitate or commit a crime against a minor" as one which could trigger registration.
etc...
Good thing you toughened up these laws against people who would prey on minors over the internet, Congressman Foley. I mean ex-Congressman Foley.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
Edited by LunarEclipse (09/30/06 01:34 PM)
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger


Registered: 03/12/02
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Quote:
TheHateCamel said:
That picture, following the context of the story and all it implies, is fucked up.
Seriously, that is spooky.
 Peace.
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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Vvellum
Stranger

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Quote:
LunarEclipse said: Still, it will be hard to find a replacement with as much "first hand" experience in the field of child exploitation.
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JonnyOnTheSpot
Sober Surfer


Registered: 01/27/02
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another case of leaked information or a whistleblower of some sort doing us all a great service. this time it exposed a pedophile pervert who apparently did work to protect children against sexual predators...so he's also a huge hypocrite as well as a general douche bag
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger


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Who would suspect the guy that is campaigning agansit the behavior being the one who is engaging in it? 
Do you think that turned him on even more?
 Peace.
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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JonnyOnTheSpot
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i imagine he was probably racked with guilt and in some small pathetic way he was trying to some how make amends. kind of makes you wonder about the rest of our elected officials though. i'm sure that plenty of them are scum bags harbouring all sorts of deep dark secrets, but i really wonder what the percentage is sometimes.
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LunarEclipse
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-01-foley-gop_x.htm
N.Y. lawmaker says he told Hastert about Foley scandal months ago Posted 10/1/2006 7:43 AM ET WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP leaders admit their offices have known for months that a Florida Republican congressman was sending inappropriate e-mails to a boy who had worked as a page in the House of Representatives. The office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who earlier said he'd learned about the e-mails only last week, acknowledged that aides referred the matter to the authorities last fall. They said they were only told the messages were "over-friendly."
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy.
Reynolds, R-N.Y., was told about e-mails sent by Rep. Mark Foley and is now defending himself from Democratic accusations that he did too little. Foley, R-Fla., resigned Friday after ABC News questioned him about the e-mails to a former congressional page and about sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages.
"The improper communications between Congressman Mark Foley and former House Congressional pages is unacceptable and abhorrent. It is an obscene breach of trust," Hastert, R-Ill., Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said in a written statement Saturday evening. "His immediate resignation must now be followed by the full weight of the criminal justice system."
The House leaders said it is their duty to ensure House pages are safe. They said they are creating a toll-free hotline for pages and their families to call to confidentially report any incidents, and will consider adopting new rules on communications between lawmakers and pages.
The boy who received the e-mails was 16 in the summer of 2005 when he worked in Congress as a page. After the boy returned to his Louisiana home, the congressman e-mailed him. The teenager thought the messages were inappropriate, particularly one in which Foley asked the teen to send a picture of himself.
The teen's family contacted their congressman, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who then discussed the problem with Reynolds sometime this spring.
"Rodney Alexander brought to my attention the existence of e-mails between Mark Foley and a former page of Mr. Alexander's," Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a written statement Saturday.
"Despite the fact that I had not seen the e-mails in question, and Mr. Alexander told me that the parents didn't want the matter pursued, I told the speaker of the conversation Mr. Alexander had with me," Reynolds said.
Hastert said he does not remember talking to Reynolds about the Foley e-mails, but did not dispute Reynolds' account.
"While the speaker does not explicitly recall this conversation, he has no reason to dispute Congressman Reynolds' recollection that he reported to him on the problem and its resolution," Hastert's aides said in a preliminary report on the matter issued Saturday.
On Friday night, Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said the top House Republican had not known about the allegations.
Saturday's report includes a lengthy timeline detailing when they first learned of the worrisome e-mail in the fall of 2005, after a staffer for Alexander told Hastert's office the family wanted Foley to stop contacting their son. Alexander's staffer did not share the contents of the e-mail, saying it was not sexual but "over-friendly," the report says.
Hastert's aides referred the matter to the Clerk of the House, and "mindful of the sensitivity of the parent's wishes to protect their child's privacy and believing that they had promptly reported what they knew to the proper authorities," they did not discuss it with others in Hastert's office — including, apparently, their boss.
After the issue was referred to the clerk, it was passed along to the congressman who oversees the page program, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill.
Shimkus has said he learned about the e-mail exchange in late 2005 and took immediate action to investigate.
He said Foley told him it was an innocent exchange. Shimkus said he warned Foley not to have any more contact with the teenager and to respect other pages.
Democrats charged Reynolds did far too little and said more digging should be done.
"Congressman Reynolds' inaction in the face of such a serious situation is very troubling, and raises important questions about whether there was an attempt to cover up criminal activity involving a minor to keep it from coming to light before Election Day," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney.
New York Democrats hoping to unseat Reynolds blasted the congressman, saying they call into question the Republican's values.
"Mr. Reynolds knew about these allegedly inappropriate e-mails from a fellow congressman to a minor for months and didn't lift a finger," said Blake Zeff, a spokesman for the state Democrats.
Isn't there a law saying that those in positions of authority have a DUTY to report suspected cases of child abuse to law enforcement? "Overly friendly" yea right...
This sounds just like the Catholic Church where it's all hush hush and "just don't do it again".
Now watch as no criminal charges will be filed against Mr. Foley.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
Edited by LunarEclipse (10/01/06 09:18 AM)
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole

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What got Foley out was not the e-mails that Hastert knew about, which were not obviously sexual, but a whole different series of Instant Messages, which nobody knew about.
There can be no criminal charges over the e-mails. The IMs are a different matter all together. And so is Hastert lieing.
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


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Re: Foley Leaves In Hurry [Re: zappaisgod]
#6120978 - 10/01/06 10:32 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
There can be no criminal charges over the e-mails. The IMs are a different matter all together. And so is Hastert lieing.
My guess is that no criminal charges will be filed for either Hastert or Foley. Dipomatic impunity.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
Edited by LunarEclipse (10/01/06 10:36 AM)
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole

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Hastert committed no crime and I'm not sure that the IMs Foley sent constitute a crime. Despicable behaviour, yes. Crime? I don't know.
You can see the actual e-mails here http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Congressman_accused_of_sending_sick_emails_0928.html
Pretty innocuous, if a little creepy. These are what Hastert and Reynolds knew about. I believe they or somebody else told him to stop e-mailing pages and he did. Then he found Instant Messaging, and those are the really creepy ones:Quote:
ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with current and former pages, all male. In one message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page, "Do I make you a little horny?"
In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip down and get relaxed."
Nobody knew about the IMs, so screaming about Hastert and Reynolds and Shimkus and everything else is just partisan flackery. I may have been to hasty above in saying Hastert lied. I can't find it. Just him and Reynolds bickering about who knew what when.
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


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Re: Foley Leaves In Hurry [Re: zappaisgod]
#6121156 - 10/01/06 12:22 PM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Hastert committed no crime and I'm not sure that the IMs Foley sent constitute a crime. Despicable behaviour, yes. Crime? I don't know.
Quote:
What got Foley out was not the e-mails that Hastert knew about, which were not obviously sexual, but a whole different series of Instant Messages, which nobody knew about.
There can be no criminal charges over the e-mails. The IMs are a different matter all together. And so is Hastert lieing.
That was some pretty fast backpedaling from your previous post. What happened to "The IMs are a different matter all together. And so is Hastert lieing?"
Hastert said he hadn't heard about the E-mails until a week ago and it turns out it was fall 2005. That might be a lie.
As for the IMs, if you don't think that's a crime, maybe you should re-read them. Pretty sexual and abusive when you are talking online about masturbating to the 16 years old Congressional page who works for you while you are masturbating, don't you think? Or is that just being "overly friendly" too?
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
Edited by LunarEclipse (10/01/06 12:40 PM)
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SirTripAlot
Semper Fidelis


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So much for "family values". What a fucking pulsating stain on the Republican party. Goes to show that NO side of the isle is fit, nor represents, the American populace.
-------------------- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole

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Quote:
LunarEclipse said:
Quote:
Hastert committed no crime and I'm not sure that the IMs Foley sent constitute a crime. Despicable behaviour, yes. Crime? I don't know.
Quote:
What got Foley out was not the e-mails that Hastert knew about, which were not obviously sexual, but a whole different series of Instant Messages, which nobody knew about.
There can be no criminal charges over the e-mails. The IMs are a different matter all together. And so is Hastert lieing.
That was some pretty fast backpedaling from your previous post. What happened to "The IMs are a different matter all together. And so is Hastert lieing?"
Hastert said he hadn't heard about the E-mails until a week ago and it turns out it was fall 2005. That might be a lie.
As for the IMs, if you don't think that's a crime, maybe you should re-read them. Pretty sexual and abusive when you are talking online about masturbating to the 16 years old Congressional page who works for you while you are masturbating, don't you think? Or is that just being "overly friendly" too?
Nonono. I think the guy is a complete scumbag and the IMs are pretty fucked up, although I couldn't find all of them to read. The e-mails are not much and that's all anybody knew about. I don't know if the IMs rise to the level of illegality though since the age of consent in DC is 16 and I've never heard of any busts until somebody actually tries to make physical contact. I am not defending this guy at all. Fuck him, he's toast and he's gone. It's the peripheral shit. Like blaming anybody else. My understanding of the story is this. The kids parents brought the e-mails to the attention of an aide to the guy he was interning for. He went to somebody else and the parents expressed a desire that this not be made a big deal but that it had to stop. Foley was spoken to and stopped the e-mails. Then he discovered IMs. All anybody in the leadership knew about were the e-mails. Then the IMs came out. Then he resigned. I see no malfeasance by the leadership, and I'm not sure the IMs reach the level of illegality for technical reasons. The certainly reach the level of reprehensible slug behaviour, but that isn't always illegal.
I backtracked on the Hastert lieing thing quickly because I got more information. Might be a lie? Yeah, or maybe he was told it was taken care of and just put it aside. My apologies to Hastert for being hasty.
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole

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Re: Foley Leaves In Hurry [Re: SirTripAlot]
#6122119 - 10/01/06 06:55 PM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
SirTripAlot said: So much for "family values". What a fucking pulsating stain on the Republican party. Goes to show that NO side of the isle is fit, nor represents, the American populace.
Unfortunately, this shows that they represent the American populace all too well.
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story


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Re: Foley Leaves In Hurry [Re: zappaisgod]
#6123705 - 10/02/06 08:23 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
I don't know if the IMs rise to the level of illegality though since the age of consent in DC is 16 and I've never heard of any busts until somebody actually tries to make physical contact.
Age of consent has nothing to do with this case, period. First of all, the age of consent in DC of 16 years old applies for marriage with both parents consent. Otherwise it is 18 years old. Regardless, age of consent is not the issue in this type of case, the issue is whether sex crimes over the internet have been committed by Mr. Foley. The "irony" of it is that ex-Congressman Foley helped author the bills that make internet sex with a minor a sex crime and a registerable offense. Physical contact doesn't have to be made.
The latest news is that Hastert just yesterday on a Sunday has decided he should call the FBI to investigate the case.
And Foley has just now decided that after all he is an alcoholic and has checked into rehab.
And the beat goes on...
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
Edited by LunarEclipse (10/02/06 08:30 AM)
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Trepiodos
Disgustipated


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GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001 [Re: LunarEclipse]
#6124293 - 10/02/06 12:37 PM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Check this out : GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001
How long have the 'deciders' in the leadership of the GOP (Grand Old Perverts) known about this? Did the party of Jesus Christ, bringers of love, peace, democracy and intermittent electricity to Baghdad cover up a pervert's actions directed at UNDER AGE BOYS? If so, why? Are their motivations purely keeping and increasing power? Have they no guiding moral principles? (We know they don't look to the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence for guidance.) Are sexual predations just another form of collateral damage in political warfare? Has DC (The District of Corruption) truly become 'Rome on The Potomac?' Can somebody please start regurgitating the GOP talking points on this matter before too many questions are asked?
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And as things fell apart, Nobody paid much attention... - David Byrne, '(Nothing But) Flowers' from the Talking Heads' album, 'Naked'
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