The more I think about it, the more I think Ramesh Ponnuru's point is central and devastating to La Cage aux Foley. (Thanks to Boyd at After the Levees for the heads up.)
About the initial emails that were brought to Rodney Alexander's attention, Ponnuru writes:
[There's this], which hasn't gotten much attention, from the former page to Rep. Alexander: "I talked to another page that was here during the school year and first part of summer. Kerianna (her name) said that there was a congressman that did hit on pages. She didn't know his name. . ."
Note: pages, plural. You've got one page reporting a level of contact he considered inappropriate, another page receiving attention that seems inappropriate, and a third page reporting that a congressman was "hit[ting] on pages." Alexander's staff nonetheless said that the only issue was their page's wish to have no further contact with Foley. Alexander's staff thought that their page's wish for privacy should be the overriding concern. So Hastert's staff didn't press even to see the content of the emails. Nor, apparently, did the former House clerk, Shimkus, or Shimkus's staff press to see it.
The initial emails weren't just "overly friendly" conversations from a Congressman, they were also a document containing multiple reports of inappropriate "attention" as well as alleged advances by a Congressman "hitting on" pages.
As Boyd Blundell rightly asks, "Multiple firsthand reports of inappropriate behavior and secondhand reports of it being a pattern, and [Alexander's and Hastert's] first instinct is to accede to the supposed wishes of one page's parents?"
Boyd also says that more questions need to be asked of Alexander. I would agree, but I see NO GOOD explanation for his decision to not ensure that there was a full investigation of the allegations contained in the initial emails which he brought to the GOP leadership's attention. What good is it to protect your page's family at the expense of all the others? That's moral cowardice. How many more disgusting emails and personal overtures was Foley responsible for after Alexander and Hastert evaded their responsibilities to protect the youths in the Congressional Page program? Were there other Reps misbehaving as well?
In 2004, Rodney Alexander switched parties and said he just felt more "comfortable" in the Republican party than the Democratic one.
Neither party should tolerate this fecklessness.
Rep. Alexander should resign.
