Time for Corrupt Leadership to Go

Chris Smith has worked together in the House with Mark Foley for 12 years. During that time Smith served alongside Foley on the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus, formed 9 years ago, of which Mark Foley chaired. While Foley was visiting the pages’ dorm at night, offering rides in his BMW in 2000, 2002, and 2003, a supervisor in the Clerk’s office was telling pages to not read too much into Foley’s being friendly, warning them about him. Smith and the GOP leadership turned a blind eye. Chris Smith didn’t stop Mark Foley from preying on teenage pages, any more than Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert, Majority Leader John Boehner, or NRCC chair Tom Reynolds did.

Chris Smith should join me in calling for Speaker Hastert, Majority Leader Boehner and Chairman Reynolds to resign. Until Rep. Smith calls for the resignations of those in his Republican party leadership who knew about Foley’s conduct and encouraged Foley to run for another term in office, Smith is standing by his party and shirking his responsibility to hold accountable those who had a duty to report what they knew to law enforcement and to protect Congressional pages.

Smith is protecting a party which has seen the indictment of the previous majority leader (Tom DeLay), the indictment of the chair of the House administration committee (Bob Ney), the imprisonment of a member of the Appropriations Committee (Duke Cunningham) the federal investigation of the chair of the House Appropriations committee (Jerry Lewis) and, most recently, a federal investigation of a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee (Curt Weldon). Last week, President George W. Bush proclaimed “Character Counts Week” and went to campaign with a senator who uses racial slurs and a congressman who settled a civil lawsuit for abuse of his former mistress for an undisclosed amount.

At what point will Smith stop supporting his party, stand up to the corruption and criminality and call for the leadership to resign?