It’s Official: Foley Report Sucked

The reviews are in on the House ethics committee report on the Foley scandal, and they aren’t good.

“[A] 91-page exercise in cowardice,” a New York Times editorial thundered.”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.”

“What, one has to wonder, would it take for the House ethics committee to hold a lawmaker or a staff member accountable?” asked the Washington Post in its editorial, “The Buck Just Stopped.” (The Wall Street Journal, however, pronounced the report “fair and sensible.”)

Even some GOPers are whispering that those who dodged a bullet only did so because the committee purposely fired above their heads. Roll Call‘s John Bresnahan quoted one unnamed “Republican insider” with ties to Hastert who called the report a “shrewd political document” that carefully criticized only members and staff who were leaving power.

“They kicked people who don’t care anymore,” the source told Bresnahan. “Hastert doesn’t care, and the other guys don’t care either. . . . This doesn’t hurt them at all.”