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<DIV class=timestamp>December 9, 2006</DIV>
<DIV class=kicker><NYT_KICKER>Editorial</NYT_KICKER></DIV>
<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Desperately Seeking Ethics
</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE type=" "
version="1.0"></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT></NYT_TEXT>
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<P>[NY Times Summary: <FONT size=2>Charged with finding out who knew about
Representative Mark Foley´s sexually predatory behavior with teenage House
pages, a bipartisan committee produced a report Friday that was a 91-page
exercise in cowardice.</FONT><FONT size=4>]</FONT></P>
<P>Watching our elected leaders in action, it’s not surprising that Americans
wonder if there is any limit to the crass misbehavior that members of Congress
are willing to tolerate from their colleagues to protect their privileges and
hold on to their own jobs. The House ethics committee answered that question
yesterday with a resounding “No.”</P>
<P>Sixty-four days after it promised to find out who knew about Representative
Mark Foley’s wildly inappropriate, sexually predatory behavior with teenage
House pages, and why they failed to stop it, the bipartisan committee produced a
report yesterday that was a 91-page exercise in cowardice. </P>
<P>The report’s authors were clearly more concerned about protecting the members
of the House than the young men and women under their charge in the page
program. And they made absolutely no effort to define the high standard of
behavior that should be required of all members of Congress and their
staffs.</P>
<P>The report concludes that evidence of Mr. Foley’s “creepy” interest in young
male pages dated back to 1999. One woman who worked with the pages took to
shadowing Mr. Foley when he was around them. The report makes clear that Mr.
Foley’s misconduct became known to an ever-widening circle of his colleagues and
their aides, including Speaker Dennis Hastert. But no one made any serious
attempt to stop Mr. Foley or reveal his misdeeds. A few urged him to cut it out,
for political reasons, but did not follow up.</P>
<P>The committee concluded that other people preferred to remain willfully
ignorant — to protect Mr. Foley’s secret homosexuality, to avoid partisan
embarrassment or for other political reasons. </P>
<P>But even after all that, the report said that none of this amounted to the
sort of behavior that might discredit the House of Representatives and thus
violate ethics rules. The committee, which never heard from Mr. Foley, did not
call for disciplinary action against current members of the House or their
staffs. The committee said those who have already left, like Mr. Foley, were no
longer its problem.</P>
<P>The panel’s justification for inaction is a breathtaking exercise in
sophistry: “the requirement that House members and staff act at all times in a
manner that reflects creditably on the House does not mean that every error in
judgment or failure to exercise greater oversight or diligence” is a
violation.</P>
<P><FONT color=#0000ff>No, not every error or failure should be a violation, but
certainly the ones that lead to an elected official’s sexually stalking teenage
boys while his colleagues turn a blind eye or cover it up should be. We’d set
the bar at least there. Apparently, it’s too high for the House.
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