Tuesday, October 03, 2006

DId the GOP Take Foley Hush Money?

If true, then the biggest news so far.

From Crooks & Liars:

An MSNBC segment examines if Rep. Foley made a large contribution to the Republican Party in exchange for silence about sexual messages that Foley sent to House pages. Foley gave $100,000 to the GOP Campaign Committee in July. The large contribution came at same time when Republican House leadership ignored Foley's emails.

MSNBC Political Analyst Craig Crawford is suspicious of Foley's donation. Crawford says, "It's part of a pattern on Capitol Hill where member raise money not just for their own campaigns, but to give money to others, to their colleagues. So that's kind of a common practice in both parties. What was unusual here was how large this contribution was and when it was made. Tom Foley gave $100,000 to the campaign arm of the House Republicans, the National Republican Congressional Committee, at about the time when they were deciding to ignore these emails, this first round of emails they say. A couple of months after they knew about this, suddenly he gives this big donation. It raises the question, 'Did he buy their silence?'"