jim, let me clue you in son, if i had been asked that very same question, by that very august body of perverts, i'd have told them to go f*ck themselves, it was none of their's, or the rest of the country's, freaking business.

then, i'd have raked every republican in congress, who voted for that $40m waste of money, over the coals, in public. i'd have hit every talk show, and named the pervert's names in public, nightly.

i'd have ruined them. by the time i got done, starr would have been a laughingstock (wait, he is a laughingstock!), gingrich would have fled the country, and the entire republican party would have been gone. this includes lieberman.

"No discipline will be forthcoming because "no rules appeared to be broken." What does that say about the need for the next Congress to implement meaningful rules -- starting with a mandatory reporting requirement when members learn about sexually inappropriate behavior?"

I agree, rules need to be created, yet, I seem to recall a certain Democrat President who first lied about his sexual inappropriate activity ("I never had sex with that woman") and later insisted that oral sex really wasn't sex. No rules seemed to be necessary when Bill was having sex in the White House and yet now, well we had better protect these young pages from "sexually suggestive advances."

Sexual advances = bad, unacceptable.
Oral sex with a copy girl = not sex, not adultry, simply forgiven.

From WaPo April 2006:

REP. ROBERT W. NEY (R-Ohio) has been implicated in accepting lavish trips and other gifts from Jack Abramoff in exchange for helping the lobbyist's clients. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has been caught up in the Abramoff net as well; yesterday his former deputy chief of staff pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges arising from his dealings with Mr. Abramoff. On the Democratic side, a former aide to Rep. William J. Jefferson (La.) has pleaded guilty to helping Mr. Jefferson try to obtain bribes for brokering telecommunications deals in Africa. And that's not even the whole roster of alleged ethical improprieties. Busy times for the House ethics committee, right?

If you answered yes, you don't know this ethics committee. Fifteen months into the 109th Congress, the panel managed on Thursday to have its first real meeting of the Congress. Members gathered behind closed doors for six hours and . . . drumroll . . . agreed to continue a previously launched investigation of Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) for distributing an intercepted cellphone call between House leaders in 1996. That's all.

This is the most over-hyped piece of ancient history that the wingnuts always cite, disregarding totally the fact that the page in the rethug scandal not only did not consent, but in fact reported it to the congressman who got him the position saying it was "sick", repeated 16 times.

And most ridiculous of all, OMG, that Studds was so courteous as to face the person speaking to him, perforce causing him to turn his back on others, is now been blown so far out of proportion as to be beyond silly.

Continue to parse, you're just delaying facing the truth and pedophiles will continue to get away with murder.  Violating a child sexually is like murder.  

Regressed pedophiles are incurable.  They're stuck.  My guess, Foley was raped at the same age as a child.  He needs help and I certainly hope he finds it behind bars someday, serving a life-long sentence.  Otherwise, there will be many, many more victims ahead for Mr Foley.  

The United States has had particular difficulties in ratifying the CRC due to strong opposition by conservatives to the treaty. The Bush administration has stated its opposition to the treaty:

    "The Convention on the Rights of the Child may be a positive tool for promoting child welfare for those countries that have adopted it. But we believe the text goes too far when it asserts entitlements based on economic, social and cultural rights. ... The human rights-based approach ... poses significant problems as used in this text."

they kept a pedophile in office because he was a good fundraiser. I hope criminal charges are files against them and that actual independent oversight will happen ... but I'm not holding my breath, just like I'm not holding my breath that ppj won't constantly attempt to hijack threads and some of us will fall for it.