October 5, 2006
What’s his responsibility?
If Speaker of the House Hastert was but a chiropractor, counselor, day care worker, dentist, law enforcement officer, licensed practical nurse, medical examiner, mental health professional, physician, psychologist, registered nurse, school official, social worker or teacher he would be required by the laws of the District of Columbia (DC Code 2-1357) to report SUSPECTED child abuse or mistreatment. Failure to do so would put him at risk of fines or imprisonment.
Under the law “Child abuse and neglect is the intentional, physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment, or maltreatment of any child under the age of eighteen by a person who is responsible for the child’s welfare under circumstances which indicate the child’s health or welfare is harmed or threatened.” (DC Code 16-2301(9)(23))
Should the Speaker of the House, third in the line of Presidential succession, be held to a lower standard?
The issues raised by the recent revelations about Mark Foley are very straight forward.
Having been given information that Mr. Foley had initiated questionable, perhaps better described as predatory, communication with a child, should Speaker Hastert have done anything more than picked up the phone and made a report to the District’s hotline ((202) 671-SAFE (7233)) and allowed their investigators to do what they are expected to do, determine if their was any real abuse or if this was just stupid behavior on the part of an alcoholic.
But Speaker Hastert, Congressman Shimkus and their colleagues chose to do what any of the mandated reporters would never do, conduct their own investigation and handle the situation themselves. For this breach of responsibility, a childcare worker, a physician or a social worker risks a fine, imprisonment and certainly loss of his or her job and reputation.
The issue here is not whether or not they were correct in their assessment of what Foley did or did not do. The issue here is not even how quickly they responded. The only issue here is whether they acted properly and in the interest of the children at risk. And the answer is they did not.
This is a very important point. Our governmental leaders love to regulate everything and create all sorts of rules, but they never seem to feel they apply to them.
While Hastert is now saying he takes responsibility for the Foley mess, he does not seem to equate responsibility with accountability. The way he sees it, he and his fellow party leaders are responsible, but they’ve done nothing wrong. Thus despite their now admitted responsibility for the mess, they are of the mind that no one should suffer any sort of punishment for their failure to protect children from a predatory adult.