The Congress

I guess I'd be remiss not to mention Mr. Foley, republican Florida.

1) I'm glad he is GONE from the halls of congress!!!

2) There is a major difference between IM (instant messages) and regular email. The instant messages were obscene, the emails were ambiguous.

3) The republican leadership knew about the ambiguous emails for about 2-3 years. So, I might add did the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While Foley was warned at the time, there was nothing there to warrant dismissal.

4) "Sombody" knew about the obscene instant messages for a little over two years and did not reveal this obscenity until right before election time. I wonder who would benefit by waiting for this opportune time... any guesses?

5) Who would want to let the [chillren] be exposed to these obscenities even one day more than necessary? Just how despicable is it to let the chillren be exposed for even one more minute than necessary.

6) Mr. Reynolds, Illinois - Melvin Jay "Mel" Reynolds (born January 8, 1952) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Illinois. Reynolds currently works for Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition.

Reynolds was born in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and he graduated from Roosevelt University and the University of Illinois. An academic achiever, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Lincoln College in the University of Oxford.

Reynolds was unsuccessful in his 1986, 1988 and 1990 campaigns against Congressman Gus Savage. However, Reynolds was able to defeat Savage in 1992. He served in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995.

In August of 1994, he was indicted for having sex with a sixteen-year-old campaign volunteer. Despite the charges, he continued his campaign and was re-elected in November of 2004. Reynolds initially denied the charges, which he claimed were racially motivated. On August 22, 1995 he was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. He resigned his seat on October 1, 1995.

Reynolds was sentenced to five years in prison and expected to be released in 1998. However, in April of 1997, he was convicted on fifteen unrelated counts of bank fraud and lying to SEC investigators. These charges resulted in an additional sentence of seventy-eight months in federal prison. Reynolds served all of his first sentence and served forty-two months in prison for the later charges. At that point, U.S. President Bill Clinton commuted the sentence for bank fraud. As a result, Reynolds was released from prison and served the remaining time in a half way house.

7) Gerry Studds - Studds is remembered chiefly for his role in the 1983 Congressional page sex scandal, when he and Representative Dan Crane were censured by the House of Representatives for separate sexual relationships with a minor – in Studs's case, a 1973 relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page. The relationship was consensual, but violated age of consent laws and presented ethical concerns relating to working relationships with subordinates.

During the course of the House Ethics Committee's investigation, Studds publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, a disclosure that, according to a Washington Post article, "apparently was not news to many of his constituents." Studds stated in an address to the House, "It is not a simple task for any of us to meet adequately the obligations of either public or private life, let alone both, but these challenges are made substantially more complex when one is, as I am, both an elected public official and gay."

As the House read their censure of him, Studds turned his back and ignored them. Later, at a press conference with the former page standing beside him, the two stated that what had happened between them was nobody's business but their own.

Back onboardr>
Studds was re-elected five more terms after the censure.

8) Bill Clinton - nuff said

In summary, read #1 again - then tell "ME" the republican party does not handle their dirty laundry a leetle bit different than the opposition.