Bush on Hastert: let's let that play out

* from the gaggle via scout_prime:

"Q Just so we're clear, the President didn't bring up the resignation. What's the White House position on Hastert resigning at this point, absolutely not?

MS. PERINO: What I said is, you should look at what the President said, is that he wants to have all the facts; he would appreciate -- that Speaker Hastert wants to have all the facts. There's an investigation underway, so let's let that play out.

Q But that doesn't sound like you're backing Speaker Hastert a hundred percent against resigning.

MS. PERINO: I think you heard from the President today as a voice of support for Speaker Hastert and that there's an investigation underway, and we'll let that investigation play out. (emphasis S_P's)"

yummmmm. that doesn't sound like a vote of confidence.

* athenae:

"Which is all a smokescreen anyway, because the scandal is and has always been about Hastert and the abuse of power inherent in protecting somebody you know to be skeevy around kids. Somebody's molesting a kid, you don't send a memo, you bring down the wrath of God, and even the halfbright Bush voters get this, which is why Hastert's shitting bricks.

(Media aside: a sex scandal is like a weather story: news orgs push weather stories because you don't actaully need to know anything about anything to have an opinion on the weather. Sex, same deal, everybody understands how it works no matter if they have a PhD or never finished high school. It's relatable, to everybody, everywhere. Tab A into slot B or C is something everybody gets and can talk about at the hair salon.)

This scandal is also not, not really, about political gain. Other than demanding investigations, I haven't really seen anybody, not even John Laesch who could use some of your money, make a whole lot of needless hay out of this. It's too soon: the thing broke on Friday, we hardly know what this is yet. So far, all I've really seen is Democrats doing what Republicans should have done, which is ask why a guy who's into underage kids in his employ doesn't raise eyebrows on Capitol Hill. Again, with this: was it difficult to keep track of them all? The level of forgetfulness displayed on this subject would shock the corpse of Ronald Reagan.

So before we get all wrapped up in the stupid, arguing about who did what to who and for how many cookies, let's take a deep breath and realize what this is about. They knew he was screwing with kids and they did nothing. Ain't nothing Foley or Hastert can say that'll change that.

They knew he was screwing with kids and they did nothing.

That's all. That's it."

* cafferty:

"JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: How you doing John. Funny how things work out. Isn't it? President Bush can invade Iraq, lie about Weapons of Mass Destruction, spy on Americans without a warrant, change the Geneva Conventions and the War Powers act, hold detainees indefinitely with no access to a lawyer or a court or a trial. And after all of that it was still very much a tossup whether the Republicans stood to lose control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.

Then, all of a sudden, comes some instant messages from a degenerate Florida Congressman, Mark Foley, where he is making sexually inappropriate suggestions to a 16-year-old boy. Now it's not the first time a Congressman or a senator or a president or a governor has been found to have sexual proclivities that fall outside the generally accepted norm of human behavior in this country, but the 16- year-old Foley was hitting on was a congressional page, bingo."