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Originally Posted by shinerbock
Yeah, Foley resigned. He didn't run and win again, like Gerry. Also, Studds had an affair with the kid. I fail to see how its different, except that the situation with Studds was worse, and recieved less rebuke (standing ovation in his hometown).
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It's different not because of how Foley or Studds reacted, or that Studds had the good fortune (for him) to represent a liberal Massachusetts district rather than a conservative Florida district. It's different in how the leadership has reacted or, perhaps, failed to react.
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As for the wire tapping comments, I don't think we know what the GOP knew and when yet, I expect that to come out in coming weeks.
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You're right (except that the issue is not what the GOP knew, it's what the House leadership knew or didn't know). But so far, the infighting among House Republicans and the battling allegations certainly gives rise to a reasonable inference that someone knew something. As far as I can remember, and as best I can tell now, the same couldn't be said of the House leadership in 1983.
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I haven't seen any Republicans putting up Studds as a defense to the action of Foley. You know damn well that if he had come out and not resigned, there would have been more action than just a censure. I imagine the political pressure would be to the degree that he would eventually resign.
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Quite possibly so. Is that hypocrisy or is that the change in standards over 23 years?
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As for the "we never said we we had morals" or whatever comment, obviously nobody has said that. . . . You're saying you prefer a party that doesn't present values or hold up a moral standard, to one that does but has a few people who occasionally breach that message.
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I was responding to your statement that "Dems are now saying they're immune to things like this." That's what I haven't heard.
As for values, it's a matter of whose values and what values, and saying that "its easy to avoid hypocrisy when you don't hold yourself to any standard" is just plain silly. Just because the Democratic Party doesn't present the same values the Republican Party does doesn't mean it is without values. There are certainly "values issues" on which I disagree with the Democratic Party platform. But when I weigh both parties against my own religious (Christian) values, I have a harder time with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. I know plenty of other people who do as well, even if Ann Coulter doesn't know them.