ROBERT PARRY
Editor of ConsortiumNews.com and a former investigative reporter for AP, Parry’s latest piece is “Why Capitol Pages Fear Retaliation,” in which he writes: “For generations, American parents have sent their high-school-age children to Washington to serve as Capitol Hill pages and to learn about the real world of politics. In the scandal surrounding Rep. Mark Foley’s salacious e-mails, it’s clear that one lesson the pages learned was to fear Republican retaliation.

“It now appears that one of the chief reasons why Foley’s e-mails remained secret for so long — and why some former pages still won’t speak publicly — is that they recognize that divulging what Foley did to them could kill their hopes for future careers in politics.” Parry’s latest book is Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.
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CRAIG HOLMAN
Holman is government ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen. He said today: “The Foley scandal is a reflection of this Congress, which is the most scandal-ridden in decades. The Jack Abramoff scandal is something that has only begun to play out. Back in January when Abramoff worked out his plea bargain, there was substantial momentum for meaningful lobbying reform, but that got scaled back and two weeks ago was quietly killed in committee. Had the Ney indictment and Doolittle investigation come early this year, there would have been a good chance for some reform this year.”

Wednesday evening at 9 p.m., PBS airs “Capitol Crimes,” a Bill Moyers special on the Abramoff scandal; see Moyers’ most recent article, “Lincoln Weeps,” at TomPaine.com.
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167