John Hostettler is one of the candidates who probably has the most to lose because of the revelations that Republican leadership did nothing for months and maybe even years when evidence surfaced that Florida Republican Mark Foley was attempting to seduce underage, male Congressional pages. This is because Hostettler, more than most Representatives, runs on a platform that the Republican Party is the morally superior party. If that claim is seen to be a bunch of hoakum, particularly by the conservative Christian right, Hostettler is in big trouble. His campaigns rely heavily on a huge percentage of the Christian right mobilizing and voting for him.
So, some desperation from Hostettler is to be expected. But, stretching for a 33 year old Democratic sex scandal is a bit of a reach. At this point, the scandal itself, let along the people involved, are well beyond the age of majority. According to the story in the Evansville Courier Press, Hostettler castigated Foley, the disgraced Representative who abruptly resigned on his own initiative after ABC News confronted him with lurid communications between Foley and Congressional pages. That was the easy part. Then Hostettler, rather than going on to castigate Republican leadership that sat on the information for months or years, instead brought up a sex scandal from 1973 when Democrat Gerry Studd had sex with a 17 year old Congressional page. Wow. What’s next? Teapot Dome?
If that claim is seen to be a bunch of hoakum, particularly by the conservative Christian right, Hostettler is in big trouble
Correction: the Republican Party is in big trouble. The (R) after you name will not mean an automatic vote from many people anymore, but there are many Republicans that will be just fine. They are usually the ones like McCain.
Teapot dome would be bad form, that was a Republican scandal. BTW, literally as I write this, Mark Souder is outside our building’s door obstructing foot traffic. Anyone have anything I should go out and pester him about?
The Gerry Studds deal was in 1983, but still 23 years ago? I was 9 years old at the time, and I don’t think Hostettler was even out of high school.
Paul, ask Souder what he thinks about term limits.
And, I think the Studds thing actually happened in ’73 but the scandal didn’t break until ’83. Or something like that.
Doug, I didn’t catch him, sorry. I suppose he could take a leaf from one of the Ice Miller time zone petitions to the effect that “Well, now that I have had six terms to reflect on this issue I see that my earlier views on the subject simply weren’t fully informed ones . . .”.
Gas prices are going down ,so at least news is ‘fair and balanced’ for repubicans… if they use only their own sources.
Gerry Eastman Studds (born May 12, 1937) is a retired American politician, born in Mineola, New York. He served as a Democratic Congressman for Massachusetts from 1973 until 1997. He was the first openly homosexual member of the US Congress and, more generally, the first openly gay national politician in the US. In 1983, he admitted to having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male page in 1973 and was censured by the House of Representatives.
It was pointed out to me yesterday that the legal age in some states is higher than the age of sexual consent.I wasn’t aware of that,and I think this puts a different perspective on the matter.Moral and legal often are two different arguments,and perhaps that’s the case here.Im not sure if Congress has specific laws of consent and legality..But it may be that much more is seen as immoral than actually is illegal..