Stand By Your Man, Or Tim Johnson Circles The Wagons In House Underage Sex Scandal, Part IV

Just a reminder of where Tim Johnson was Thursday night:

(Via WurfWhile.)

Meanwhile, Hoosier reports that Johnson's taking the same tack with his constituents:

All I could quickly think of was to ask about the Foley scandal, to which he gave a fairly straightforward answer (paraphrasing here, I don’t have recording equipment on my home phone line):

The actions are disgusting, but I don’t want to pass any judgement on the House leadership until a full investigation of the facts of who knew what and when is conducted.

In other words, delay it until after the mid-terms and get it off the front page. Not suprising and very similar to what is being reported at Tim Johnson Watch.

It all sounds very reasonable, of course. Full investigation, due deliberation, etc., etc. Except that the GOP House Majority Leader has already told us that Hastert knew about Foley and told him the problem had been "taken care of". And except that the head of the GOP's House campaign also says he told Hastert months ago and Hastert did nothing. And except that Foley's Republican chief of staff testified under oath this week that he told Hastert's office years ago. For someone who was quick to suggest that the pages themselves should be the ones to suffer, Tim Johnson is remarkably reluctant to lay blame on the leaders who enabled Mark Foley. Deliberation has its place, but sometimes leaders must lead.