Purporting to have learned from Capitol Police about House pages' "cavort[ing]" naked, Cal Thomas's claims very similar to NewsMax report of pre-1983 conduct
During a panel discussion about the role of teenage congressional pages in the scandal surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) on the October 14 edition of Fox News Watch, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas declared that congressional pages "have been painted as some kind of virginal, hermetically sealed young people" by "the media," when if "[y]ou talk to the Capitol Police, as I do," the "untold story" is "there are a lot of these kids, including female pages, who undress in front of windows with the shades up and who -- who cavort in the pool topless and naked." Thomas added: "[T]here's been no media reporting on who all of these pages are."
When media writer Neal Gabler asked Thomas if he was "blam[ing] the victim," Thomas replied: "No. No. No. No. It's true. No. No." When pressed, Thomas added: "I'm just saying that -- that the way the media have portrayed the pages is that they're all little virginal, innocent people. That's not necessarily the case." Thomas later added: "I'm not excusing Foley. He was wrong. He was right to resign."
Thomas's assertions about the behavior of congressional pages recall an October 11 NewsMax.com article by Ronald Kessler. In that article, Kessler quoted former Capitol Police officers who claimed that pages had undressed in front of windows and gone swimming in the nude. However, those officers were recounting incidents that supposedly occurred before a 1983 scandal that led to changes in the congressional page program; those anecdotes did not involve current pages, as Thomas suggested. From the NewsMax.com article:
Media accounts of Foley's sordid instant messages inevitably have recounted the previous 1983 scandals involving Rep. Daniel B. Crane, R-Ill. and a 17-year-old female page, and Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass. and a 17-year-old male page.
But the stories rarely mention the reforms instituted after the 1983 scandals. Before the scandals, Congress appointed 14- and 15-year-olds and let them run loose in Washington without any supervision. Pages had no dormitory and no curfews. As long as the pages brought them coffee and delivered their messages, members of Congress did not seem to care if minors entrusted to them became corrupted.
For my book "Inside Congress," I interviewed Capitol Police officers, pages, and congressional staffers who described conditions back then. Most of the female pages lived in a four-story brick building that was formerly the Young Woman's Christian Home. It became known as "virgin village."
At the beginning of their shifts, Capitol Police officers would make it a practice to "stake out" the building at 235 2nd Street NE.
"It was nicknamed 'virgin village' because female pages undressed there without putting down their blinds," Terry Coons, a former Capitol Police officer, told me. "It was a gathering place for officers for the first hour."
"They left their blinds open, and undressed," said Wayne Beckett, another former Capitol Police officer. "The officers watched. They [the female pages] were teases. They knew what they were doing. We would shine flashlights at them, and they would leave the blinds open . . . They totally undressed and pranced around."
Another favorite pastime was swimming in the nude.
"In the fountains on the House side, you'd catch the pages, females and males, swimming bare-a**," said former Capitol Police officer George L. Holmes.
From the October 14 edition of Fox News Watch, during a panel discussion featuring Thomas, Gabler, Fox News Watch host Eric Burns, and Jane Hall, assistant professor in the school of communication at American University:
BURNS: Surely, Neal, there are other reasons than Mark Foley to decide what party you're going to vote for this November.
GABLER: Yeah, but you reap what you sow. I mean, after spending two years of attacking Bill Clinton for his sexual escapades, now the Republicans are in high dudgeon, because, you know, the -- the media wants to deal with another sexual situation.
THOMAS: Well, the guy resigned.
GABLER: This time a Republican.
THOMAS: He did resign. But look --
GABLER: Well.
THOMAS: -- here's the untold story that the media haven't covered. The pages have been painted as some kind of virginal, hermetically sealed young people. You talk to the Capitol Police, as I do, there are a lot of these kids, including female pages who undress in front of windows with the shades up and who -- who cavort in the pool --
GABLER: Is this known as Republican spin?
THOMAS: -- topless and naked.
[crosstalk]
GABLER: To blame the victim?
THOMAS: No. No. No. No. It's true. No. No.
GABLER: That's what we're getting here?
THOMAS: I -- I'm just saying that -- that the way the media have portrayed the pages is that they're all little virginal, innocent people. That's not necessarily the case --
[crosstalk]
GABLER: He got entrapped [unintelligible] --
THOMAS: No, I'm not saying that.
BURNS: It has nothing to do -- it also has nothing to do with what Foley himself did in these emails.
THOMAS: No, but the -- the setup of the story is that here is the predatory male -- the particular guy that they're after is 21, so we can get into --
HALL: Oh, Cal. Cal.
THOMAS: -- the whole consensual -- age of consent. I'm not excusing Foley. He was wrong. He was right to resign. If he hadn't been, he should have been thrown out. But I'm just saying that there's been no media reporting on who all of these pages are.
HALL: OK. Well I'm going to -- I don't think that's worthy -- worthy of discussing. I mean, to blame other pages --
THOMAS: I'm not blaming.
HALL: -- and say they were undressing. We need to be focused on -- I mean, we're talking about the election. There are races where this may be a factor. There are stories about individual races which are showing that there's outrage among some people. There's some concern among the Republicans that they may lose control over this. And there's a lot of spinning backwards. It's a legitimate story.
This guy poses as conservative. He is a charlatan. He is a Republican conservative excuser. He excuses everything they do with ridiculous and irrelevant statements. Nobody is saying that the pages are angels. Even if they still do those types of things today, that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Mark Foley. Cal is an ass. And, of course, not surprisingly at all, he conveniently leaves out the fact that those things happened more than 25 years ago. What Thomas said is totally irrelevant, as is basically anything and everything he says.
THANK YOU. njguy93@yahoo.com
Um, couldn't that be because the identity of minors is important to shield in cases of abuse?
Think back people, how mature were you when you were 16? Were you sexually mature enough to find grody old guys attractive? Were you mature enough to handle the sexual desires by authority figures?
Mr Thomas sinks pretty dang low to make excuses for Foley, no surprise he works for Faux "news". Sickos.
"As long as the pages brought them coffee and delivered their messages, members of Congress did not seem to care if the minors entrusted to them became corrupted."
Hm, maybe that's because that's the job of their PARENTS? Whatever happened to the "personal responsibility" the Repubs keep talking about?
As I wrote in an earlier post, this is how you can expect to be treated by those GOP scumbags to whom you pledge your loyalty. As long as it is in their selfish interests, they will throw you right under the bus, blaming you for their perversions. Stop and think about who you want to support as your national leaders. Do you think they really care about YOUR interests? Evidently not.
They are as big a joke as Cal Thomas
Can we get a real news source Cal?
I remember when Cal was a reporter at a local station here in Houston. Using real news sources has never been anything that Cal cares about. I mean he worked with Jerry Falwell for years. Enough said.
I would like to see Cal Thomas speak on the subject after his daughter or son is solicited by a ranking Congressman.
Then he can aspouse the character and behavior of children left in the protection of Congress.
Why is it a grown man, a "respected TV persona" should need to be reminded of this???
Think of the reaction 20 years ago if a pundit had made such comments while the Fairness Doctrine stil applied.
At what point does the noise the Right makes about the leftwing media's brutality going to come back to bite them.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
So, by Cal Thomas' logic, then perhaps it was really Monica's fault and not Bill Clinton's fault...
But then, why should we expect consistency from republicans?
How else do you explain the "I did the same thing he did but I'm not as bad because it was the alcohol" approach?
I'm just curious how many republican parents of republican pages looked their children in the eye and said "son/daughter, you really let me down leading our congressmen on like that."
Male and female teens prancing around naked, I imagine, has gone on for at least a couple of thousand years. There was nothing new in what Thomas said. It just shows you how desperate, and out of touch some people are. You got that scoop from the capital police? Hell . . . I just correctly assumed it. Get a grip Cal.
Alerted to an affront to decency and proper behavior, and a potential to more serious crimes like assault or rape, the Capitol Police -- no doubt wearing their badges and uniforms and packing pistols -- would congregate at the designated spot and WATCH the minors "cavort in the nude".
I don't suppose there is anything those cops could have done, or WANTED to do, to put an end to these peep shows. Instead, they set their watches and made SURE they were on the scene to observe any cavorting that went on.
I suppose the Capitol Police have a different slogan for their force: "To Serve and Protect -- and Leer and Gawk" ... Typical Rightwing Moral Authoritarians.
What exactly is Cal Thomas' point? Perhaps Cal feels that nubile young pages cavorting naked would be too mush temptataion for any Christian man.
Both of these guys who abandoned their roots and who have no reason for gratitude for civil rights affirmative action plans in terms of their success stories seem to have a strange idea of whether sexual harassment, sexual predators and sexual victims matter and if so, why ... Clarence Thomas's Anita Hill, Cal's tolerance of going after those awful fifteen year old teases. My question for both: maybe they are no one's "uncle," but are they kissing cousins?
I am truly sad of the state of hypocrisy of the the right wing element in the media. When they decide to attack the pages in order to cover Mr Foley's acts and the dereliction of duty by the Republicans leaders it is a shame. They are still using the old trick of attack the victim and take no responsibilty. They are constantly doing it with the Iraq situation and to people that opposses their position on any issue. It is a shame. But then, these people have no shame, they will do anything to stay in power. It is time for a change.