Saturday, October 07, 2006

Say what?! Rep. Cannon about Foley

I'm still puzzled as to why Rep. Chris Cannon doesn't believe that he's blaming the victim.

From the Salt Lake Tribune comes:

"These kids are actually precocious kids," Cannon, R-Utah, told KSL
Radio's Nightside. "It looks like uh, maybe this one email is a prank where you
had a bunch of kids sitting [around] egging this guy on."


If this isn't blaming the victim, I'm not sure what is. Oh... he went on later to excuse himself by saying that parting should be taking responsibility for what their children see on the internet. I'd agree with him on that, but the case is one of an elected representative of the republican variety making advances to children. This isn't about parents protecting their children. This isn't about a precocious kid egging on someone. This is about someone who is in a position of power taking advantage of his position and propositioning a sixteen year-old. No matter how precocious or taunting the sixteen year old is, the responsibility is with the more, lots more, than twenty years old, person. The one who is an adult. If Cannon thought Foley was the type to be snookered by a sixteen year old into exchanging inappropriate e-mails then why were the republicans putting Foley in a place where he could interact with those kids. Whether those pages were egging on Foley is irrelevant. Whether or not those pages were precocious is beside the point. That Cannon made these statements reminds me of a historical incident where another elected representative was asked, "have you no shame, sir, have you no shame?"

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