Now that's what I call moral values

Hallelujah!! Another sinner is being forced to repent my brothers and sisters!

Please open your hymnals to USA Today, hymn number 100206, "Mark Foley Is A Hypocritical Conservative Sleaze"!!

"You have to wonder what leaders of the House think is important. Whatever it is, sexual exploitation of teenagers by congressmen apparently is not high on the list.

How else can one explain the leadership's failure to even investigate the advances Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., made to a 16-year-old male House page? Foley resigned Friday after ABC News published sexually explicit e-mail exchanges he had had with the page.

Several House leaders had known about the matter at least since spring but failed to take appropriate action. Even accepting their insistence that they knew only of ambiguously "overfriendly" e-mail, rather than the unmistakable obscenities that have recently come to light, their reaction is disturbing.

(Foley will soon be running for Florida State Senate on the NAMBLA ticket.)

The slightest hint of a member of Congress making advances toward an underage page is a serious matter. More so because it has happened before, disgracing two congressmen in the 1980s. It speaks directly to the integrity of the institution and the safety of the teens who work for it. For that reason, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., had every obligation to investigate this matter fully.

Instead he and other Republican leaders maintained what could at best be termed a posture of willful ignorance. Hastert asserts that he only recently was apprised of the matter. Members of his staff and other leaders make no such claim.

Unless a better explanation appears, the one most likely to be accepted is of an effort to sweep an embarrassment under the rug.

Foley was co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus. He had positioned himself as one of the biggest defenders of children on Capitol Hill. His party presents itself as the one more in tune with family values. From a purely political standpoint, Republicans had little incentive to pry into his behavior during a tough election year.

But at least once in a while, integrity should trump politics.

When Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., the former employer of the page, came forward with his concerns about some e-mail he had seen, his actions should have prompted an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, or even the Capitol Police.

Instead, Hastert's aides merely referred Alexander to the clerk of the House, who notified Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the House Page Board. The two apparently spoke to Foley, who insisted that the e-mails were harmless.

That's not good enough, Hastert's belated call Sunday for an investigation aside. Unfortunately, placing politics over principle is what we have come to expect from Congress. From soaring budget deficits to outlays for bridges to nowhere, no other incident quite so vividly explains why."

Denny Hastert is preaching for retribution high from the mountaintop:

""Since the communications involved interstate communications there should be a complete investigation and prosecution of federal laws that have been violated," Hastert said.

"In addition, since the communications appear to have existed for three years, there should be an investigation into the extent there are persons who knew or had possession of these messages but did not report them to the appropriate authorities," Hastert wrote."

Someone should tell Brother Denny that the mountaintop is where the lightning strikes! He's known about this scandal since the SPRING of 2006!!