This OPED was published in January of 2007.  While it has to do with government, it is about the managers of our national legislature, and the standards of ethical management apply equally in these instances.  Bad management is never a good thing, but when it damages our children as this did, it is made more reprehensible. In this case evil.

Bulldog Reporter                                                                                                                                        Foley Follies

By: W.T. "Bill" McKibben

Last week’s report from the House Ethics Committee of the US Congress is beyond outrageous. They concluded that the members of the House who knew of the wildly improper sexual pursuit of teenage pages by Representative Mark Foley were “negligent”, but they broke no “rules.”

This bipartisan panel of two Republicans and two Democrats spent two months interviewing individuals and reviewing evidence. They put together a 91-page report that shows inexcusable lapses of common sense, decency, and a total disregard for the children entrusted to their care. And not by a few, but by dozens of those in positions of power. And not for a short period of time. Some individuals knew what Foley was up to for nearly a decade.

The only thing worse is the spin Republican apologists are putting on the affair. Their pitch is that Foley is just another Gay Guy, and that if he were a Democrat no one would think anything of it. There are a host of things wrong with that argument. Anyone –no matter their sexual orientation- who exhibits sexually inappropriate behavior when they are in a position of power, has crossed the line. Gay or straight, it is flat out wrong, and in many cases criminal.

Mary Foley is not just another Gay Guy. Mark Foley is a pedophile. His targets were teenage kids. Children entrusted to our highest legislative branch. These kids were there to learn how our government works. Instead they learned that sexual predators were free to attack them, protected by what the House Ethics Committee Report allows were “political considerations.”

The contention that Foley’s behavior resulted from alcoholism is an insult to drunks. Impaired driving skills are one thing, pounding on the door of the official House Page residence in the middle of the night is a totally different matter. 

According to the report, House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s chief counsel had been aware of Foley’s behavior for “nearly a decade.” It is hard to imagine that behavior this bizarre could go on for years without a lot of people, both Republicans and Democrats, knowing about it. It sounds like there was a bipartisan effort to turn a blind eye to this monster.

For those of us who deal with information, the lesson is simple. There are at least a couple levels of right and wrong. There is the legal line. A line the House Ethics Committee felt was not crossed by those who knew they had a serial pedophile among their brethren. And there is the ethical line. A line well above what you can get away with without violating the law. It is obvious that many, many people in and around the Congress went way beyond that line.

No one knows better than we how things can spiral out of control once you step past that ethical line onto the clichéd slippery slope. Think how much better it would have been had someone exposed Foley the first time he stepped out of line. Think how much better it would have been for all the children he damaged. Think of how much better it would have been for the Congress. Think how much better it would have been even for Foley.

CEO’s and others in carpet land are often occupied with other things. Accountants and lawyers are trained to look for the legal line. We are the front line troops when it comes to ethics. If it will cost you your job to sound the alarm, you are working for the wrong people. Ethics are the foundation of profitability and  the only job security.

Bill McKibben is a Senior Partner of the Buffalo New York Great Lakes Group with a focus on Integrity Communications.