The Ethics Scoreboard isn't going to waste much time or space ruminating about the character of a U.S. Representative who sponsors legislation to get tough on child sexual predators and then makes obscene e-mail overtures to a 16 year-old page. Six term Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley has resigned, as well he should, and the reasons why this is the proper move should be obvious. I suppose the Scoreboard may have to explain why he has no business being in Congress if there are sufficient protests from constituents that "he just made one mistake" ("Clinton Defense #8") or from man-boy love advocates that he is being unfairly pilloried because of his sexual orientation, when he was simply trying to date in the workplace. I fervently hope this is unnecessary, however.

Instead, the Scoreboard's focus is on his GOP colleagues Alexander, Reynolds and Hastert, all of whom apparently knew for months about Foley's sending unwanted love-notes to a male page, and chose to do nothing about it in the vain hope that it would never come to light. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) learned about the incident from the boy's parents, who are from his district. The Associated Press reports that he passed on the information, not to the Ethics Committee, but to Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Republican campaign organization. This was a Republican campaign crisis, you see! Must hold on to that Republican majority, even if it means re-electing a pedophile! Let's plot our strategy! Reynolds, it appears, did nothing to see that the matter was dealt with as House Rules require---as a disciplinary matter---and Alexander decided "not to pursue the matter" because the boy's parents, he says, wanted him to drop it.

Well, Representative Alexander doesn't take orders from the boy's parents. He is an elected official of the United States Government, and he had knowledge of inappropriate workplace conduct by a colleague that he had an obligation to stop, not hide. He had a duty to ensure that other pages would not be harassed; he had a duty to make sure that Foley got counseling and help, and he had a duty to see that Foley received appropriate discipline for conduct that flies in the face of House mandated ethics requirements as:

Members, officers, and employees of the House should:

• conduct themselves at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House;
• abide by the spirit as well as the letter of the House rules; and
• adhere to the broad ethical standards expressed in the Code of Ethics for Government Service.

Which include…

Any person in Government service should:

• …Put loyalty to the highest moral principals and to country above loyalty to Government persons, party, or department.
• …Uphold the Constitution, laws, and legal regulations of the United States and of all governments therein and never be a party to their evasion.
• …Uphold these principles, ever conscious that public office is a public trust.

He didn't fulfill these duties of his high office, and neither did Reynolds or House Speaker Denis Hastert, who was informed about the problem. Three elected Republican national office-holders neglected an essential obligation that every member of every organization has, which is to report significant misconduct by a colleague, friend or not, and make sure that proper procedures are followed to protect the institution or organization from harm. Instead, they weighed political consequences, they engaged in damage-control, they tried to protect a beloved colleague's career and reputation…who knows what their reasons were, and ethically, who cares? They are the lawmakers of the nation, and they must be held to the highest standards of conduct, for they are the ultimate role models. How can Congress call for corporate employees to be vigilant about preventing frauds and scams when its own members simply scramble to stonewall and delay when they learn about their colleagues' ethics violations? How dare they pretend that doing the right thing, the honest thing, is a simple, straightforward duty of honest employees when they don't have the integrity or courage to perform when the same duty falls to them?

It doesn't matter if Democrats would have handled the situation the same way; I am quite willing to believe many of them would. That is not an excuse. If this sort of unequivocally inappropriate and unbecoming conduct by a Congressman is not enough to provoke members of his party to act immediately to discipline him, regardless of the consequences at the ballot box in November, what other secrets are they hiding? Not only does this kind of abdication of oversight forfeit trust in Alexander, Reynolds and Hastert; it comes perilously close to vanquishing any reason to trust the entire Republican leadership in Congress. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the board that oversees the page program, also apparently learned about Foley's behavior long before it became public, and addressed it as an intern oversight issue rather than as the egregious member misconduct that it obviously was.

The Scoreboard will wait and see who else was involved in the effort to protect Rep. Foley from the just consequences of his own actions. After the dust clears, it may not just be a few Representatives but a whole majority party that fails the "Vote Ethics" test.