Jennings considers prominent NAMBLA member and activist Harry Hay a role model. That alone should oust Jennings.

"accused Jennings of "ignoring the sex abuse of a child" when he was a young schoolteacher. The charge is false, but of particular interest is the fact that King's office knows the charge is false, but made it anyway."

Is there no legal action he could take?

I live on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River, and Rep King is one of the reasons we refer to his district (Council Bluffs) as "Counciltucky."

the right wing in this country has declared total war.
they all think of themselves as dan burton and everything in the world looks like a watermelon.

This is a real test for Obama and his administration. If the president caves in on this, we can look forward to an endless parade of complete bullshit attacks on everyone in the executive branch. The Republicans will use this tactic to keep the administration tied up in personnel selection and vetting for the next 8 years--while hoping that doing so prevents any meaningful action on Obama's agenda.

Meanwhile, it will also send a powerful message to the electorate that Obama cannot and will not defend one of his own people against even the most false and scurrilous charges.

So. Maybe an interesting question for these representatives of the blame the government first crowd would be:

What do they think Jennings should have done? A 16 y/o confides in his teacher that he is in a sexual relationship. He is of legal age to chose to be in a sexual relationship. What is their proposal? What would be prudent behaviour for Jennings?

Its all fine & dandy to exploit the lingering controversy of "young" and "gay sexuality" when you can just trade in not quite outspoken innuendo. They want him to resign because they think he was irresponsible, because he didn't do... what exactly?

"the White House is ignoring the far-right cries"

So did Kerry vs the Swiftboaters. How'd THAT work out?

The inclusion of NAMBLA in Hary Hays life was not exactly clear to me . What was even less clear was the connection of Jennings to Hays .
So the way I read your comment is a reflexive disgust of this particular thing you don't wish to explain .

"You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? ..."
The Republicans have given a clear answer to Joseph Welch's famous question.

What Domage said. Someone needs to clue these republican assholes that this is not 2004 where you can trot out the Gay Boogyman and hope to get political mileage out of it. We have more important things to worry about. Fight back hard and tell them politely to Go Fuck Themselves.

More importantly, the young man did not have sex with the older man. Regardless of his age, there was no question of "sexual abuse of a child" because there was NO SEX. But there's no reason to let that stop a perfectly decent smear, is there?

Should Jennings sue King for slander? It seems pretty cut-and-dried.

Well hell after the silence on Van Jones and his subsequent resignation you didn't really think they would stop with him did you? This is just getting started.

Jennings considers prominent NAMBLA member and activist Harry Hay a role model. That alone should oust Jennings.

Um, over the course of his life Harry Hay did a lot for LGBT civil rights, which is all that Jennings has said and acknowledged, especially after Hay's death in 2002. Does that mean that Jennings agrees with Hay's personal stance on NAMBLA? No.

I am sure he was suitably outraged at the antics of Mark Foley, right?

How long before the revelation that Rep Steve King is very, very fond of young boys and small farm animals? Seems to always happen to the most vocal Republican moral crusaders.

Let's be clear, Republicans don't give a shit about public education accept to drown it in the proverbial bathtub. After all, a world where only rich children get an education and their rich parents don't have to also pay for the brown kids' school is a wonderful GOP dream to be sure. This "concern" about the department of education leadership is merely fodder for the base. Red juicy meat dripping with fat, that the hard-core fundies can lap up like the dogs they are.

What Little Miss Attila says is largely true. And, as usual, the Republicans are behind the times. A large and uneducated workforce was a Good Thing, circa 1900.

Today, circa 2000, the Republican 'Club for Growth' types need a highly educated workforce to staff their businesses.

More importantly, the young man did not have sex with the older man. Regardless of his age, there was no question of "sexual abuse of a child" because there was NO SEX. But there's no reason to let that stop a perfectly decent smear, is there?

That's because the far-right anti-gay crowd is obsessed with gay sex to the degree that it would embarrass the horniest adolescent, gay or straight. These folks have some serious issues.

Maybe we should bus gay and lesbian students to different schools than straight kids.

Remember how upset the right was over that video of the white kid getting his ass kicked by a black kid on a school bus? Remember how they screamed that this kind of intolerance is what you get in "Obama's America?"

"The ringleader of this lynch mob is Rep. Steve King, a right-wing Republican from Iowa, who yesterday accused Jennings of "ignoring the sex abuse of a child" when he was a young schoolteacher. The charge is false, but of particular interest is the fact that King's office knows the charge is false, but made it anyway."

Sounds like "reckless disregard for the truth," -- the case law definition of libel -- to me.

It's time the right-wing echo chamber was held accountable for repeating false statements. If libel is to have any meaning at all, the repeaters need to worry about their wallets once they have been told something is false. Then it's not s matter of free speech anymore.

Here's a thought, everytime one of these BS attack efforts starts up the DNC finds $5,000 to $10,000 for a PI to go out and dig up as much dirt as possible on the main attack dog, in this case King. It's called 'hard ball'. They all have so much to hide and it is all perfectly legal, in fact 'turn about is fair play'. This shit will stop in a heart beat.

The difference between libel and slander: libel is written; slander is verbal. Both involve a reckless disregard for the truth.

One of the most troubling aspects of a discussion about teen sexuality is the often implicit assumption that somehow the de-facto age of consent is 18, regardless of what law is on the books in a given state. Age of consent in Massachusetts is 16, which means that a 16-year-old can have sex with anyone older, and it is not illegal. Some European countries set the age of consent as low as 14.

But let's not let facts get in the way of a good smear in the right-wing culture war.

While Republican Mark Foley is no role model for anyone, and deserved exposure as the disgusting hypocrite he was, the truth of the situation is that congressional pages are all over 16, and the age of consent in Washington D.C. is 16. That means, technically, Foley did nothing illegal, and couldn't be prosecuted. However, the media described the willing pages, with whom he had his very explicit conversations, as "innocent children" despite their very active libidos, and unfettered access to net porn.

I fully expect that the brownshirt McCarthyites of the bible league will demand Democrat Jennings prove he isn't a NAMBLA member because he had at most a frank discussion with a teenager about a relationship the teenager had with an older person. This is beyond head-shaking stupidity.

It's time to fight this the "Chicago Way:"

"You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone! Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?"

It's time to direct the focus of this dispute towards why King is such a racist, homophobic scumbag.

A large and uneducated workforce was a Good Thing, circa 1900.

But it would be a death knell in the 21st Century. The GOP is the nation state suicide party.

Husker Blue,

As glad as I am King is on my wife's side of the Mo, we still have Boy Blunder Lee Terry on this side. Ugh.

Go Big Red

Well, did you notice what Obama said in his speech to the HRC last week?

"Nobody in America should be fired because they're gay, despite doing a great job and meeting their responsibilities. It's not fair. It's not right. We're going to put a stop to it. And it's for this reason that if any of my nominees are attacked not for what they believe but for who they are, I will not waver in my support, because I will not waver in my commitment to ending discrimination in all its forms."

Just as a matter of interest is there any aberant behavior that the left doesn't want the entire country to embrace?

Just asking.

Just as a matter of interest is there any aberant behavior that the left doesn't want the entire country to embrace?
Well, we would like Republicans to stop being nihilistic, fact-free, clueless, assholes.

Now is the time to just stop having anything to say to these people about anything. Their Faux Snooze reporters don't get press passes any more, anywhere (no just the White House), and the Democrats just let the gargoyles leap and shriek. Let them go crazy and just ignore them. They'll do the rest, making themselves into something no one with a brain wants to be part of.

It's far more important for Obama to support this gay man in the face of these crazed attacks than it is for him to try and be "civil" with people who have no idea what civility is.

Message to Steve King: stick it up your ass.

A word in defense of Harry Hay: he was NOT, and never had been, a member of NAMBLA. He had a 40+ year relationship with John Burnside, 4 years his junior, until his death in 2002.

Hay's so-called "involvement" in NAMBLA consisted of his protesting the group's exclusion from Pride parades and the like. This stance must be taken in context: Hay was a true radical, and regarded any act of exclusion by the gay community of any of its members as an act of betrayal and an imitation of the heterosexual world's oppression of gays. Hay argued for NAMBLA's right to exist and to have a voice in the community, not necessarily for its practices. One may agree or disagree with this viewpoint (I happen to disagree), but it was a stance he took on principle.

The attempt to tar Harry Hay as a card-carrying NAMBLA member is no less misleading than to tar Jennings by virtue of his stated admiration for Hay.

"This is a real test for Obama and his administration. If the president caves in on this, we can look forward to an endless parade of complete bullshit attacks on everyone in the executive branch. The Republicans will use this tactic to keep the administration tied up in personnel selection and vetting for the next 8 years--while hoping that doing so prevents any meaningful action on Obama's agenda."

Too late, that test came a while ago and Obama failed it with the "Beer Summit"

But still, some balls now would help, better late then never

"Just as a matter of interest is there any aberant behavior that the left doesn't want the entire country to embrace?"

Just out of curiosity, what "aberant behavior" do you notice the left embracing?

Apparently the "aberant behavior" t is referring to is the ability spell correctly (or use spell-check).

There's an alternative - Mike Denklau: http://www.denklauforcongress.com/