White House downplays Foley scandal as "simply naughty emails"

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, appearing on CNN this morning, downplayed the Foley scandal. Soledad later noted that Snow "tried really hard to minimize the impact and any kind of political fallout."

Soledad asks as "a parent" why any communication between a 16-year old page and a Member of Congress doesn't "raise red flags, major, massive red flags." Snow responds, "[I]t'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."

ThinkProgress has the video of the Bush White House defending a child sex predator.

"Simply naughty emails"? That's all they were says the Bush White House. Just naughty emails between a 52 year old member of Congress and some 16 and 17 year old childen. Just naughty emails when a grown man asks a sixteen year old boy to measure his penis. Just naughty emails when a member of Congress asks a child to describe how he masturbates.

That's why the GOP House leadership is scrambling. That's why they had to call in the FBI. That's why the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.



According to ABC, Foley was talking about the boy's penis.