When it comes to answering Republican pundits and freepers alike make sure you armed with our most potent weapon: the truth. My brother recently pointed out how some of his Republican leaning friends were pointing out how Reynolds was going to jail for having sex with a 16 year old campaign volunteer, but had received a pardon from Bill Clinton.
Here's a Republican blog with the following post about this supposed tragedy.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2006/10/mel_reynolds_wo.htmlReynolds was a liberal Democrat Congressman who actually did what Mark Foley--as far as we know--only talked about. The difference is that Mel Reynolds' "affair" with an underage girl got him a Presidential pardon and a job with Jesse Jackson.
Nice response to Foley, but it is false. The facts are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Reynolds (if you haven't noticed, I love Wiki).
In August 1994, he was indicted for having sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer. Despite the charges, he continued his campaign and was re-elected in November 1994. Reynolds initially denied the charges, which he claimed were racially motivated. On August 22, 1995 he was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. He resigned his seat on October 1, 1995.
Reynolds was sentenced to five years in prison and expected to be released in 1998. However, in April 1997, he was convicted on 15 unrelated counts of bank fraud and lying to SEC investigators. These charges resulted in an additional sentence of 78 months in federal prison. Reynolds served all of his first sentence and served forty-two months in prison for the later charges. At that point, U.S. President Bill Clinton commuted the sentence for bank fraud. As a result, Reynolds was released from prison and served the remaining time in a half way house.
1) Reynold did the crime, he did all the time for sexual assault, the first set of charges.
2) Clinton did not pardon him, he commuted the second sentence from time in jail to a halfway house.
3) Clinton commuted the sentence for the second set of charges of bank fraud. Reynolds still had already served 48 months of his second sentence and finished the rest of it in a halfway house.
Contrast this with Foley, DeLay, Ney, and the rest of the Republican Culture of Corruption whom have not served any time whatsoever.
Clarified the above post for freeper trolls who have difficulty understanding anything due to massive Fox/Drudge Kool Aid Consumption.