A senior congressional aide said Wednesday he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office in 2004 about worrisome conduct by former Rep. Mark Foley with teenage pages -- the earliest known alert to the GOP leadership.
Kirk Fordham told The Associated Press that when he was told about Foley's inappropriate behavior toward pages, he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene."
The conversations took place long before the e-mail scandal broke, Fordham said, and at least a year earlier than members of the House GOP leadership have acknowledged.
I defy anyone to tell me this is not a cover-up. Two years Hastert let this sexual predator run loose in the hallowed halls of our Capitol. Two years and he did nothing.The only question now is this: will Hastert resign before Friday at 5:00pm or after Friday at 5:00pm so as to lessen the news coverage over the weekend?
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Comments: 36
Don't you think that's a bit extreme? I would think a daily update would be sufficient.
Much as I understand your cynical view of the emphasis Republicans place on the timing of the release of negative revelations, in this case I think there may be cause to get this puppy out in the yard right away, in hopes of getting the stench down to a spinnable level for the customary weekend deodorizing.
George, this isn't about playing with pages to me. It is about the cover up, and the hypocrisy, and the need to nail their asses to the wall any chance we get.
Precisely.
I'm going to offer you what Randi Rhodes said earlier today when faced with this.
Considering the average mentality and motivations of today's average voter, which do you think will be more likely to stir voter action:
1. Iraq
2. NOLA
3. Environment
4. Pedophilia scandal involving a coverup by high level GOP politicians?
I'm not saying that the other issues aren't important, mind you. I'm just saying that, in terms of sheer voter impact, the only thing that matches something like Foleygate is war (which MAY well be Rove's October surprise yet...watch for potential talking points about Iran very soon).
"A Father, A Coach, A Teacher and A large unmade bed..."
Could never tell if this guy had ever really woke up and come up for air. He will not be missed (except by Rush Lintbalz and Faux News). I think we can do better than this for sure!
I doubt he goes without a push.... Oh, the spoiled bratwurst that will make! Look for Rove to do something slimy in the situation.
I am just saying once all the facts get out that this was broke by a liberal/demo backed group, and demos knew about it "TOO", several months or longer ago, I don't think there will be a lot of cookie points won here for either side. This should go down as a shot in the foot for every elected official in Congress that had any knowledge of it, to include demos.
This is not about the Democrats no matter how much you want it to be.
Just be a man and deal with it, instead of whining about what those bad old Democrats are doing to you. It was A REPUBLICAN WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE!
In 1983, Democratic congressman Gerry Studds was found to have sexually propositioned House pages and actually buggered a 17-year-old male page whom he took on a trip to Portugal. The 46-year-old Studds indignantly attacked those who criticized him for what he called a "mutually voluntary, private relationship between adults."
When the House censured Studds for his sex romp with a male page, Studds -- not one to be shy about presenting his backside to a large group of men -- defiantly turned his back on the House during the vote. He ran for re-election and was happily returned to office five more times by liberal Democratic voters in his Martha's Vineyard district.
No one demanded to know why the Democratic speaker of the House, Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, took one full decade to figure out that Studds was propositioning male pages.
But now, the same Democrats who are incensed that Bush's National Security Agency was listening in on al-Qaida phone calls are incensed that Republicans were not reading a gay congressman's instant messages.
Foley didn't claim he was the victim of a "witch-hunt." He didn't whine that he was a put-upon "gay American." He didn't stay in Congress and haughtily rebuke his critics. He didn't run for re-election. He certainly didn't claim he was "saving the Constitution." (Although his recent discovery that he has a drinking problem has a certain Democratic ring to it.)
It doesn't matter whether the whistle blower was DEM or GOP in either of these cases. What matters is that they were caught! Although I can say with reasonable certainty that if Foley was a DEM, all you people would be saying, "hey wait a minute, it's just e-mail talk, he didn't actually molest anyone!"
"Let's all go back in time a bit.............."
Why stop in 1983 ? Why not go back to ancient Greece, and say how perfectly normal what Mr. Foley and the House leaders did is? What is the point of this going back in time? It's very clear that you cannot resist evading the real world ramifications of what has happened in the here and now. Saying "they did it too" is clever avoidance, but it's still avoidance. The "Dems" of that era did not get into power by presenting themselves as an antidote to the decline of morality in a private sense. The current ruling party did. It is this glaringly obvious difference that threatens to undo the dominance of the Republican party on leadership.
They courted the vote of the morally incensed religious faction, and we are all well aware of the frequent use of the "hot button" Republicans push to keep that faction involved in politics. It's a sword they have lived by, and now it's time to complete the prophecy.
Would that it were Rumsfeld or Cheney or Negroponte or Cambone or Wolfowitz or Bolton or Gonzales...than the dream would be sweeter still.
What demos still don't get is,
Indiana Bob is on the right track. Not only did Studds have sexual relations with a page, he received a standing ovation from follow demos after only being sensored for it and was then elected to chairman of a committe by 280 demos. And, now these same people want to complain or hold some higher moral ground about Foley having sent emails? And, its not about going back to Rome, a lot of these same people are still in office.
No, the issue is if Foley had been a demo, the demos, mass-liberal media, ncaap, etc, etc, etc, would have been supporting Foley's free speech rights, screaming about how it was only emails, yelling dictator sensorship by Republicians, etc, etc, etc.
This whole thing is so politically transparent that only liberal demos don't see it.
Any other "woulda" misdeeds you want to plant in folks minds?