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Mark Foley (R) Scandal vs. Tim Mahoney (D) Sex Scandal
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Mark Foley (R) Scandal vs. Tim Mahoney (D) Sex Scandal |
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threadbear Senior Member
since 2008-07-10
Posts 817Indy 
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Mark Foley (R) scandal vs. Tim Mahoney (D) scandal Remember the end of 2006, and every network started their broadcasts with the awful ‘Foley’ scandal? You couldn’t escape the story no matter where you went. What did Foley do? He wrote suggestive gay-oriented emails to pages. Did he actually have relations with any of these pages? No, just sent emails and a picture to a page. So what was the end result? He was voted out, indicted, and vindicated later due to ‘lack of evidence and statute of limitation.’ You didn’t hear that end-result did you? Naw....the media didn’t want you to know that part of it. Tim Mahoney, Democrat, was elected to replace Foley, largely based upon a platform that he will ‘clean up the office’ and ‘elect me unless you want further Republican scandals.’ There’s only one problem: 2 years later Mahoney fired his sex-mistress (he’s married), and the phone call firing her among other things, was taped! ABC played part of it last night. This story has been in the news for over a month, but no-one wanted to be the network to break the story since it would harm the Republicans. Boy, they sure didn’t show that kind of concern when Foley was indicted by the Press, or when Palin first entered the VP political scene. In addition, he agreed to pay $121,000 hush money to her after she threatened (are you ready for this?) A SEXUAL HARRASSMENT LAWSUIT.. The $121,000 is approximately the same amount of money that the Obama campaign donated to ACORN last year. If all things were equal, the Foley scandal that resulted in many Republicans like Denny Hasert not being elected, would get the same amount of press that the Tim Mahoney scandal should. But it won’t. I guarantee it. Why? Because it happened in a battleground state for Dem votes: Florida. This could conceivably change the election. I’m all for fairness in reporting, and obviously there is a skewed level to how much Democratic scandals will get press in the United States. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j8SjoKSFxLQVMVHRTLj6tq6DwgfgD93Q09200 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/us/politics/14mahoney.html?em |
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Balladeer
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA |
I'll second that guarantee... |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
I guess I'm confused. Your point seems to be that the press isn't covering it? Yet, you then link to two press sources that apparently are covering it? What am I missing here? |
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Mistletoe Angel 
since 2000-12-17
Posts 32816Portland, Oregon |
Apparently Florida's 16th Congressional District will forever be haunted, no matter who's elected there!  Sincerely, Noah Eaton "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other" Mother Teresa |
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Balladeer
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA |
Ron, the press is covering it....barely. When Foley was in the hot seat, the press had a field day with blaring front page headlines, special reports and every Democrat from Key West to Tallahassee screaming for his head. The democrats in congress, properly outraged, called for his immediate resignation. The evening local news tonight had a 15 second blurb about Mahoney asking his wife for forgiveness...that's it. Democrats have the same attitude Noah has displayed here....oh, well....so what? It's simply another case of the media and democrats going into a feeding frenzy whenever a Republican gets in hot water and a "Oh, no big deal.." whenever it happens to a Democrat. It is a huge case of media hypocracy. When it was Foley, every major news agency carried it as the headliner. How many major news agencies carried Mahoney as it's headliner? Not one.... We're used to it.... If members of congress are so outraged that a senator would engage in an illicit affair, why is it they have nothing to say when it's a democrat....but, then, we all know the answer to that one, don't we? |
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Mistletoe Angel
since 2000-12-17
Posts 32816Portland, Oregon |
Please don't mischaracterize how I feel about this scandal, Michael. What Mahoney has done is utterly hypocritical to the first degree, as he was running to replace the disgraced Foley's seat who, he himself, was mired in a scandal and Mahoney opted to restore integrity to Washington. My intent in my brief earlier post was just sarcasm, in that the 16th Congressional District must be jinxed so, no matter who is elected there, regardless of party, that candidate is doomed to repeat his/her predecessor's mistakes in office! And there's a little truth to that sarcasm I think, in that while politicians may fulfill or partially fulfill some of their promises some of the time, usually most promises never go answered, and this is just an umpteenth textbook case of that. Sincerely, Noah Eaton "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other" Mother Teresa |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
quote: Do we, Mike? I certainly don't, I'm afraid. Can someone explain it to me? |
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WTBAKELAR
since 2008-09-09
Posts 1089Utah, USA |
Correct me if I am wrong, But I believe it has something to do with the Repubican montra of High Moral Standards, and the Democrat montra of Anything Goes. So if it's a Republican, then it is a really bad thing and everybody must know, if it is a Democrat, then, who cares, it's expected. No harm, No foul. It all boils down to standards. Personaly, I will take the high road. The answer is always NO, Until the question is asked. |
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Balladeer
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA |
I think WYBAKELAR explained it pretty well, Ron...plus the fact that the liberal press dictates what gets the most attention and what doesn't. Isn't is fairly obvious whenever a Republican wrong gets news story leads and front page headlines and the same Democrat wrong gets a two minute blurb and can be found somewhere around page 12? ....and they wonder why they are losing their creditability. |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
quote: What? Republicans are moral and Democrats aren't? Please, guys. Spare me the histrionics? quote: So, the press is overwhelmingly Democratic and liberal, Mike? If true, is that a conspiracy, do you think, or a social trend? I find it hard to believe that Republicans and conservatives are all lousy writers, incapable of finding an audience. If you what you contend is valid, Mike, might that not just mean that Democrats and liberals are winning? quote: If that part were true, Mike, then it wouldn't matter much, would it?  |
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Balladeer
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA |
I find it hard to believe that Republicans and conservatives are all lousy writers, incapable of finding an audience. It has nothing to do with being lousy writers. It has everything to do with finding a network or newspaper chain who will allow it to be heard. Conservative writers don't get a lot of play in places like the New York Times or the major networks. When I say they are losing their creditability, I am referring to losing it with intelligent and decently informed people who can see the bias for what it is. That's one reason why FOX is the number one watched news program, Limbaugh is the number one radio program, with Hannity second and Glenn Beck third. Why else would they hold all the top ratings? This florida incident is a textbook example on how the major networks operate - or don't operate, in this case. |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
You're missing my point, Mike. If what you say is true, doesn't it tell us something pretty important? |
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Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
Pardon me, but what Rep Mahoney is doing is seriously not good. He is a short term member of congress, and his electorate will have a chance to judge him fairly quickly. Rep. Foley was a long term member of congress. Unless my memory is seriously flawed, complaints about his behavior were made to the higher up folks in the Republican congretional leadership. He held a seat on the committee for orientation of the congretional pages and was supposed to have a large role in counseling them and being a helper for them. Not only was he, like Rep. Mahoney, engaging in sexually dubious behavior, but his party higher ups were covering up for him, and he was supposed to be acting in the role of a mentor to people he was exploiting sexually. Whether any of this behavior was consumated in some physically explicit fashion, I don't know; but asking the sorts of inappropriate questions Mr. Foley was reported to have asked and (if my memory is accurate about meetings outside of work hours is correct) opening himself to the sorts of questions that seem to be natural extensions of Mr. Foley's behavior with these boys are both not the sort of thing that a man holding a position such as Rep. Foley's would be wise to do. It opens him up to exactly these kinds of questions, and Mr. Foley would be disingenuous in the extreme not to acknowledge this. Given his party's odd stance in regard to gay's in general, Mr. Foley is vastly more unwise than Mr. Mahoney in exposing his party and its elders to the potential downside of his behavior. And his behavior resulted in the sort of consequence that was in line with the vast hipocracy that Mr. Foley's lifestyle shoehorned him into, and which Mr. Foley's Republican allies had no idea of how to deal with in any sort of rational or humane fashion. In fact Mr. Foley's apparent sexual preferences, for boys under the age of consent, appears to have no place in our political system for expression at all at this time. And it is for their part in the cover-up of his apparent active pursuit of this lifestyle—I have no idea of his success—that seems to have gotten the Republican leadership in trouble with Rep. Foley as well. I find the difference between the behavior of Mr. Foley and the then Republican leadership, whose stated values around this sort of thing seem to be at least a little bit in variance with their concern for covering up and even facilitating Mr. Foley's behavior, and the reprehensible behavior of Rep. Mahoney to be fairly obvious in terms of duration, damage done to the institutions of the House, and damage done to the institutions of their respective parties. These things may not merit a difference in news coverage in Threadbear's eyes. I urge Threadbear to consider some of the issues I have raised here. For Rep. Mahoney's behavior itself, no excuses suffice. He will be judged by his constituents and his family. He already has my disapproval. Sincerely yours, Bob Kaven |
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