With the Democrats foaming at the mouth over Foley, nothing can touch this:
Via Snopes
“Claim: “An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate, then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate.
Status: True
Jessie Jackson has added former Chicago democratic congressman Mel Reynolds to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s payroll. Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused in President Clinton’s last-minute forgiveness spree. Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud & lies to the Federal Election Commission. He is more notorious; however, for concurrently serving five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.
This is a first in American politics: An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate, then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate.
His new job? Youth counselor.
Origins: We can’t say with absolute certainty that what’s described above is “a first in American politics,” since the sexual peccadilloes of American politicians were not always as widely publicized as they are now, but the gist of the piece is true (although it originally circulated back in 2001, so it now references events that occurred several years ago and not ones that happened just recently):
1995-1997: President Bill Clinton’s sexual escapades with Monica Lewinsky, then a 21-year-old unpaid White House intern working in the office of Leon Panetta, Clinton’s Chief of Staff, hardly need recounting to anyone who hasn’t spent the last eight years on Mars.
January 2001: The National Enquirer revealed that Jesse Jackson had been carrying on a four-year affair with Karin L. Stanford, a 39-year-old former aide with his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition staff, and that Jackson had fathered the child Stanford bore in May 1999. (Jackson has been married since 1963.)
January 2001: Just before leaving office, President Clinton (at the urging of Jesse Jackson, among others) commuted the sentence of former Illinois congressman Mel Reynolds, who had spent 30 months in a state prison for having sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer and was serving a five-year sentence in federal prison for lying to obtain loans and illegally diverting campaign money for personal use.
January 2001: The Chicago Sun-Times reported that former congressman Mel Reynolds would be working as the community development director of Salem Baptist Church in south-side Chicago, and as a consultant for Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, trying to decrease the number of young African-Americans going to prison. (Reynolds’ position would be more accurately characterized as that of an advisor on prison reform rather than a “Youth counselor,” however.)
People in glass houses……
No Response
Carol Johnson
October 2nd, 2006 at 2:14 pm
1Speechless.
Carol
btw…the attacks on Fox News continue also. Some former Clinton advisor tried the same thing on Shepard Smith that her boss tried on Chris Wallace, I think. I didn’t catch much but heard the shouting from the kitchen. Smith cut her off emphatically. She had this big stupid smirk on her face when they went to break.
What a bunch of arrogant, slimy a’holes!!
ivehadit
October 2nd, 2006 at 5:17 pm
2Michelle Malkin is making me sick regarding this issue. She is exactly what I despise about people who make money off both sides…
The republicans booted Mark out! What do the dems EVER DO?
clarice
October 2nd, 2006 at 5:56 pm
3October 02, 2006
Foley: The Democratic Playbook
It may not be as smooth as the Republicans’ Stirling engine, but the Democrats’ party committees are hitting on all cylinders today. They want candidates in each and every House and Senate race to push the Foley scandal to its hilt.
(Sample DSCC release: “Foley Sex Scandal Hits DeWine.” Sample WI Dem party release: “Foley Scandal: What Did Green Know and When Did He Know it?”)
Here’s Dems’ playbook:
1. Pay no heed to the distinction between the e-mails and IMs. There’s no evidence (yet) that any Republican leaders knew about Foley’s cybersex IMs. There’s plenty of evidence that they knew how uncomfortable the “overly friendly” e-mails made at least one page. So the Dems will press the GOP on what they knew about the former and will constantly, in their press releases, refer to the “GOP’s knowledge of the sexually explicit e-mails.”
2. Enlarge the wedge between House leaders. The tension this weekend between Speaker Dennis Hastert and NRCC chair Tom Reynolds was thick. Dems want it to suffocate the party and throw the Republicans even further off their game.
3. Be aggressive about how Dems will — and are — protecting children. Dems want to keep the issue poisonous in a way that’s clear and direct to middle America. (In other words: this ain’t earmarks.)
4. Choose unimpeachable spokespeople to be their public face. The DCCC has enlisted Patty Wetterling, its candidate for MN 06, to call for “a thorough investigation” of the House leadership over Foley. Wetterling’s son, Jacob, was kidnapped in 1989.
5. Deride the Republicans for incompetence. How can you possibly trust them with national security if you can’t trust them with your own children?
6. Bring up Terri Schiavo’s case and compare the heated GOP attention back then to their allegedly lax attention to the welfare of their pages.
7. Compare what the GOP leadership says about Foley with what Republicans said about Jack Abramoff.
8. Use the Foley cash. Already, the DSCC wonders why George Allen didn’t immediately return the Foley. The quotable Phil Singer: ‚ÄúIt is more than a little disturbing that Allen apparently sees nothing wrong with holding on to contributions he got from an adult who has been caught sending sexually explicit email to children.” Allen and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) will return the cash. But the NRCC already spent the $550K and won’t.
Here’s what the Democrats hope to accomplish:
1. Republicans will flinch before they try and use “values” as a cudgel. Can this NRCC ad against Brad Ellsworth be run in this environment?
2. Democrats now have a new way to respond to the Republicans when they go negative: “They’re just trying to distract you from the scandal.”
3. GOP candidates will be thrown on the defensive, generally.
4. Link House candidates — and not just Reynolds — to the sense that that the GOP was hesitant to investigate or even poke around into Foley’s life because they didn’t want to jeopardize their majority. That is, they craved power to the point where they ignored or suppressed warnings.
Posted at 04:00 PM
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/10/now_dems_try_to.html
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