I see another frame for the Foley scandal: he's just another fox guarding the henhouse - one of dozens put in place by this administration.
Putting Mark Foley in charge of the committee to protect our children from predators on the internet is just another example in a long line of many. For the past six years, the Administration has been putting lobbyists in charge of regulating their own industries.
The Bush administration has put pharmaceutical lobbyists in charge of decision making at the FDA and HHS; a lobbyist for the meat industry in a key position at USDA; a former utility company employee in charge of air pollution regulations at EPA; a timber industry lobbyist in charge of natural resources at the Agriculture Department; and an oil and gas lobbyist in a key position at the Department of the Interior. The administrator Bush appointed to be head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is a former researcher who received money from Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Exxon, Alcoa, GE and General Motors to produce industry-friendly cost-benefit analyses. His Mine Safety and Health Administration appointee managed mines with injury rates twice the national average. And to top it all off, his vice president, a former oil man, led a secret energy task force that met with industry representatives to draft our energy policies - and possibly our foreign policies as well.
Links: http://www.commondreams.org/...
http://www.corpwatch.org/...
http://www.defenders.org/...
http://thinkprogress.org/...
I have to credit a letter in today's Sacramento Bee for this idea.