White House Cavalierly Dismisses Foley Sexploitation Scandal As “Simply Naughty Emails”

Brian Zick

HuffPo has posted a portion of the transcript from this morning's broadcast of CNN's American Morning, with quote from Tony Snow. O'BRIEN: With Republicans dealing with the Mark Foley scandal and an unflattering book from Bob Woodward, there's certainly a lot to talk about with the White House press secretary, Tony Snow. He joins us from the White House this morning. It's nice to see you, Tony. Thanks for talking with us. TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good to see you Soledad, thanks. ----- O'BRIEN: I would assume everybody would want to know, including the president. I mean we're not talking about any old person, we're talking about the leadership of the Republicans in Congress. Why would he not hear something that's disturbing or his office? Over- friendly, when I see that word as a parent and I think any parent would say whoa, over-friendly? Any communication between a 16-year-old and a congressman why doesn't that raise red flags, major, massive red flags? SNOW: Look, I hate to tell you, but it's not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill and there have been other scandals as you know that have been more than simply naughty e-mails. You know look, again, I'll reiterate my point. I think it's important to protect these kids and make sure that they have a good experience and like you, I want to find out what happened. But before we prosecute let's figure out what all the facts are. That's probably the most important thing to do is to be fair to all parties.update: Think Progress has a video clip.

The text is from the poem “QUADRENNIAL” by Golden, reprinted with permission. It was first published in the Poetry Project. Inside front cover photo by Golden.
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