How can a diary based on completely erroneous information and abject falsehoods get 200+ recommends and a place on the rec list on a site where people ought to be somewhat knowledgeable?? Do I have your attention? My rant, over the fold.
After the Mark Foley Ethics Committee press conference yesterday, this diary, Bombshell: Rep. Kolbe saw explicit Foley IM in 2001!!, was posted. The diary consists of the following:
Smoking gun. A page forwarded an explicit Foley IM to Republican Representative Kolbe in 2001.
They knew. They knew all along.
It's a disgrace that this evidence was buried until after the election.
See the report here:
http://www.house.gov/...
And go to page 27.
Bastards. Pages continued to be exploited by Foley for 5 more years.
The assertion that the evidence was buried until after the election is simply FALSE. On October 8th, Jim Kolbe's spokeswoman CONFIRMED that Kolbe had received the explicit IM from the Page back in 2000... ONE FULL MONTH BEFORE THE ELECTION.
This fact was printed in the Washington Post and probably every major news source in the country...
A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) confirmed yesterday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley (R-Fla.) was taking their e-mail relationship. Last week, when the Foley matter erupted, a Kolbe staff member suggested to the former page that he take the matter to the clerk of the House, Karen Haas, said Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline.
Heck it was diaried on this site!
This fact was no secret. But nobody bothered to question the diarist's assertion. The diarist erred, and no one bothered to fact check.
In addition, the diarist, by saying "They knew. They knew all along" does his readers a huge disservice. The clear inference here is that Republican Leadership knew, and that this is indicated in the report. IT IS NOT. Only Kolby knew of the message, according to the report. There is no "they". Kolbe's actions are suggestive of a man trying to keep the thing quiet for his own purposes: Kolbe had his own somewhat questionable dealings with pages, and was probably fearful that he himself might have been cast in a bad light by an investigation. Therefore, I believe it is highly unlikely that he shared the Foley IM with any other member of Congress.
The conspiracy theorists get 200 recommends, and not one person bothered to check an easily verifiable fact. VERY DISTURBING, if you ask me.
Whatever you think of the report, or Republican conduct after the scandal became public in September, THE TRUTH STILL MATTERS. Credibility matters. Why, in a time when there is so much real misconduct to be outraged about, are people willing to accept as fact without question the most suspect and false allegations???
I posted a diary stating basically these same things a few hour ago, and unfortunately, for whatever reason, this important correction of the record slid by without notice; it got 2 recommends and one comment. So I'm going to give it one more try, to correct what quite frankly is an embarassment to DailyKos. My apologies in advance for anyone who read my earlier diary and this duplicate one (there didn't seem to be too many of you).