Mullen: Blame creeps in Congress

[helderheid]

By Holly Mullen
Tribune Columnist
Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:10/08/2006 01:55:53 AM MDT

Blame the creeps in Congress, not parents

How much dizzier can Chris Cannon get?

Utah's 3rd District Republican congressman's comments last week regarding the congressional page scandal are outrageous. He hass now had the luxury of several spin cycles in the news media, but it still comes down to this: Cannon said what he meant, and he meant what he said.


He should be pressed and squeezed and hammered until he homes in on the real bull's-eye for blame: the adult men and women who work for us, and to whom we entrust those young people on Capitol Hill.


Thursday night, Cannon offered a KSL Radio "Nightside Project" reporter his view on the growing sex scandal:
"These kids are actually precocious kids," Cannon said of the 16- and 17-year-old pages who were victims of sex predator former Rep. Mark Foley. "Frankly, this is the responsibility of the parents. If you get online, you may find people who are creepy. There are creepy people out there who will do and say creepy things. Avoid them. That's what you have to do. And maybe we can say that a little more to the pages."


First thing Friday morning, I was on the telephone with Cannon. He had finished two interviews with KSL talk show hosts and had significantly softened his remarks. By the time we spoke, he was defending himself this way:
"I certainly did not mean 'precocious' the way it sounded. But these are not naive kids. They tend to be sophisticated and worldly," he said.


"Mark Foley did creepy things. He's a predator. Now you can't change the nature of mankind, but parents can prepare children for people in this world who are creepy.


"The first line of defense in something like this should be the parents and their children."


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[whistle]

1. Cannon is talking like a libertarian, is that what the republicans

...have become?

[Warpy]

2. HAHAHA! I love guys like Cannon

who blame everybody but the perpetrator! Now it's the PARENTS for raising slutty kids! You have to love that one.

I wonder how many parents out there who consider their kids the best and the brightest (like all of them) are going to buy that one.

Kiss the burbs goodbye, you fools!

[helderheid]

3. Support his opponent

http://www.burridgeforcongress.com/