That is what many are saying now. Tonight Joe Scarborough and Lawrence O’Donnell echoed those very words. “I know Mark Foley and he is such a nice guy. I would have never known”. Now ask yourselves how many times you have heard that very statement. We hear it with rapists, pedophiles, murderers and even cult leaders. I have never heard of a mean and nasty priest, but I sure have heard of a lot of pedophile priests. So him being a nice guy has nothing to do with the story, unless you are talking about prevention.
With that said the focus of this scandal must not be on the how’s or why’s but on the who’s and when’s.
- Who knew about Foley and when did they know it?
This is the most important question. Republicans will try to spin this all they can between now and November 7th and try everything in their power to prevent the truth from coming out. It will be the same argument as the pre-war intelligence argument offered by Republican Senator Pat Roberts. “We won’t release an investigation that could alter the outcome of an election”. That right there is the very reason you should release such a report. That is the very reason for having a democracy.
The kind of information that is supplied within these reports is the information that is a prerequisite for Americans to choose their leaders. Voters must know the answer to that question so they can ask themselves the more important question – Do I feel the party in question has made enough changes worthy of my vote. That is democracy in action right there.
When the Republicans use these excuses of not releasing reports because of the adverse effect they have on elections is the same thing as saying they do not trust democracy. They do not want voters to know the facts. That is a dangerous game to our nation.
So to any Republican who may come by this blog and read this post, I want you to ask yourself. No matter how much you might not like the left side of politics, would you rather have them running the government or a party who wishes to cover up facts that are necessary for voters to base decisions upon? Remember when you think about this that our nation’s future lies in the hands of the people and a government trying to withhold vital information from the people is a government trying to cover-up something really bad.