Is That Legal?

« Where's the ACLU When You Need Them? | Main | UPDATE - Americans as Unlawful Enemy Combatants »

October 1, 2006

Silence Card Is Golden, Again

oday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert formally requested that the Justice Department launch an investigation into the allegedly salacious emails of former House GOP Florida congressman Mark Foley to underage House pages -- underage pursuant to the federal criminal statute prohibiting the use of the internet to solicit sex from someone under age 16. (The White House and Democratic leaders likewise had asked for a criminal inquiry.)

Yesterday, House GOP leaders were scrambling after the Foley disclosure because of allegations that, in 2005, Hastert had actually seen some of the allegedly sexually-charged emails Foley had been sending. The response on both sides of the aisle has been a demand for an internal House investigation. No such investigation appears forthcoming, however.

Here's where the rubber hits the road.

If a DOJ investigation commences -- and, likely getting one based on preliminary reports of an FBI inquiry already underway -- House GOP leaders will be able to play the "silence card".

The "silence card" is the one that instruct politicians to say, "I can't comment on an ongoing criminal investigation." The White House repeatedly played it in the Libby/Rove investigation into the Plame leak.

A federal criminal investigation of Foley's activities would allow the House GOP leadership to remain silent with the media and, more important, resist any internal inquiry on the ground that doing so might interfere with the Justice Department's investigation. In other words, stonewall and push the story into next year.

With the election 6 weeks away, the House GOP leaders -- and of course Bush and Rove -- desperately want to be able to play the silence card now.

Posted by shertaugh at October 1, 2006 7:12 PM

Comments

Posted by: Salien at October 2, 2006 10:01 AM