Atonement

Sipping a rare afternoon cup of coffee, warmed up from this morning. It's Boca Java's South Beach Rhythm blend and it's tasty.

Today is Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. It is a day of atonement after the period of days from Rosh Hashana. The holy days are used for meditation and reflection with prayer.

This morning I attended the monthly meeting for my womens political group. As the elections are looming large, we had representatives from the campaigns of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Rep. John Culberson and our speaker was a member of the Houston City Council. Our speaker spoke to the issue of illegal immigration, among other subjects of local interest, and the press conference held yesterday afternoon with the mayor and police chief of Houston. They declared that Houston is not a sanctuary city and of revisions to city law enforcement policy in light of the previous week's tragic murder of a city police officer by a previously deported illegal immigrant who had come back to the city.

Our City Councilperson speaker was not the one from my district but of a neighboring district. She is the sister of Barbara Olson, who you may remember was murdered on the plane crashing into the Pentagon on 9/11. Barbara Olson was married to Ted Olson, the Solicitor General at the time. Barbara and her family are Houstonians, with her sister and brother still living here.

So, with the subject of atonement in the air today, I am listening with interest to the story that broke over the weekend of Rep Mark Foley of Florida and his text messaging to teenage boy pages in D.C. His actions are despicable and inexcusable, to be sure. It seems on the surface with what is being reported now that it was messaging and not actual physical action taken with the boys. There seem to be maybe three teens coming into the picture with concentration to one in particular. This, I am convinced more and more of as the facts come out, is an October surprise by the likes of Carville and Begala and those who play gutter politics. With the election so close and the balance of power posed to shift in the House, this was to be predicted. Usually this is saved for a higher profile election, such as presidential, but the House is in play and the stakes are high. Any seat the Dems can pick off is important. Foley was a sure winner in his district with no real Democratic opposition.

You will notice a difference, though in how the parties react to scandal. Here is an observation I have heard made and I tend to agree with : The Speaker of the House has called for the Justice Dept to investigate the allegations, and to investigate the possession of these text messages. These messages have been known to some outside of the leadership for some time now, apparently, and are only now being brought out into public knowledge. Just thirty days out from election time. No one on the Republican side is saying a word to discredit the young people involved. The parents of the main teen have asked for the process to not go forward and don't want their son involved publicly. No matter, it's out there and Foley has resigned and gone into treatment for alcoholism.

Remember when President Clinton was being investigated for abusing women? Carville is famous for making the remark during the Paula Jones investigation that she was trailer trash - you never know what you'll get when you drag a dollar bill through a trailer park. Nuts and sluts. It was common knowledge the Clinton campaigns retained Betsy Wright to corral the "bimbo eruptions" during his years running for Governor of Arkansas and then President. They had the game plan of humiliating the victims and thus scaring off others from coming forward with stories of what happened to them. But, you know, the feminists stood by their man and Hillary. It was hypocrisy at its highest level.

Rep. Foley was a champion of legislation to protect children from online predators. This is so sad and hard to understand. But for the Democrats to run forward and act as though this behavior is only in one party and that there is some big cover-up going on is just flat wrong. As far back as the 1980's pages to Capitol Hill were told to steer clear of members from both parties. One difference, though, can also be highlighted with the example of the Congress person from Massachusetts, a Democrat, who was caught in a page scandal and yet continued to be re-elected.

Don't read the transcripts on the internet if you haven't already. They will sicken you. I stopped midway through the first one. Adults have to be brought to justice if they refuse to act like adults. A man of 54 years has no business "being pals" with teenage boys, especially those who are subordinates.