Desperate To Stonewall

by digby

Everybody’s on to Hastert’s transparent ploy to shift attention from his own culpability in refusing to keep the disturbed congressmen away from the high school kids. It’s ballsy. But there is a more subtle intention. It’s also clear that he’s desperate to get a formal investigation going either in DC or Florida that will allow them to claim that law enforcement has asked that they not comment any further. The administration discovered with the Plame case that they can stonewall for months with that.

This could be quite different, however. The players in this case aren’t all DC insiders but rather kids from all over the country and their respective parents, friends and relatives who may be willing to talk to the press. And this is so juicy, the press is actually out looking for them. I don’t think it’s containable even if the entire FBI is investigating.

Still, I suspect we have a very few days, if that, before the entire GOP congress clams up because of the “pending investigation.” Hopefully the press will dog them constantly.

But there’s no reason their surrogates in the media, and they are legion, shouldn’t be asked to constantly speculate about the nature of the acts and the cover-up and be forced to explain to the public just why it is that the entire Republican government is collapsing under the accumulated weight of scandal, incompetence and lies. That’s why they get the big bucks. Now they are going to earn it.

Update: Fineman is not getting it on Hardball. He thinks that Hastert, by asking the FBI and the Florida authorities to look into these IMs, is going to provoke the kids who had them to come forward. That is not what Hastert’s doing at all. He’s trying to get the FBI to track the kids down and tell them NOT to come forward or comment “while the investigation is ongoing.” I wouldn’t be surprised if Alberto Gonzales himself advised him to do it. As I said, I don’t think it’s containable, but they are going to try to do what they can.

Update II: Speaking of surrogates in the media, this is simply unbelievable. John Amato pulled some clips from Drudge’s radio show this week-end and Jane transcribed them:

Clip #1: And if anything, these kids are less innocent – these 16 and 17 year-old beasts …and I’ve seen what they’re doing on YouTube and I’ve seen what they’re doing all over the internet – oh yeah – you just have to tune into any part of their pop culture. You’re not going to tell me these are innocent babies. Have you read the transcripts that ABC posted going into the weekend of these instant messages, back and forth? The kids are egging the Congressman on! The kids are trying to get this out of him. We haven’t got the whole story on this.

[…]

Clip #2: You could say “well Drudge, it’s abuse of power, a congressman abusing these impressionable, young 17 year-old beasts, talking about their sex lives with a grown man, on the internet.” Because you have to remember, those of us who have seen some of the transcripts of these nasty instant messages. This was two ways, ladies and gentlemen. These kids were playing Foley for everything he was worth. Oh yeah. Oh, I haven’t…they were talking about how many times they’d masturbated, how many times they’d done it with their girlfriends this weekend … all these things and these “innocent children.” And this “poor” congressman sitting there typing, “oh am I going to get any,” you know?

Yeah, maybe they were all just “blowing off steam.” These sexually deviant Republican radio mouthpieces like Drudge and Rush (who are feted like rock stars by the entire GOP establishment) give me the creepy feeling we have entered the last days of the Roman Empire.

Torture and sexual abuse of prisoners are just frat boy pranks, a congressman sexually stalking 16 year olds in the nations capital is actually a victim of young “beasts” who won’t leave the poor man alone. I’m beginning to realize why they were so freaked out by Bill Clinton having an extra-marital affair — it was so mainstream and predictable compared to their personal habits that they thought it was kinky.

This is your Republican party folks. Had enough?

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