WP:GOP Leaders Knew :Fallout of Notes to Page Fractures Party

[cal04]

GOP Leaders Knew Of Foley's Messages
Fallout of Notes to Page Fractures Party

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week.

Hastert did not dispute the claims of Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), and his office confirmed that some of Hastert's top aides knew last year that Foley had been ordered to cease contact with the boy and to treat all pages respectfully.

Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, became the second senior House Republican to say that Hastert has known of Foley's contacts for months, prompting Democratic attacks about the GOP leadership's inaction. Foley abruptly resigned his seat Friday.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post on Friday that he had learned in late spring of inappropriate e-mails Foley sent to the page, a boy from Louisiana, and that he promptly told Hastert, who appeared to know already of the concerns. Hours later, Boehner contacted The Post to say he could not be sure he had spoken with Hastert.

Yesterday's developments revealed a rift at the highest echelons of House Republican ranks a month before the Nov. 7 elections, and they threatened to expand the scandal to a full-blown party dilemma.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093001265.html

[Olney Blue]

1. It's time to clean the House. And the Senate.

[Orlandodem]

2. Does anyone know exactly when those perverted IMs were sent

to the teen? And does anyone know when the House leadership learned of them?

[TahitiNut]

6. Supposedly in 2003 ... three years ago.

:shrug:

[napi21]

3. Having a little trouble keeping out lies straight, are we????

That's what happens when you decide to lie; those darn stories keep getting all screwed up!

I am really enjoyingwatching the show too!!!!!

[Erika]

4. It looks like the GOP simply didn't care if minors

were subjected to adult advances by powerful GOP members.

[TahitiNut]

8. I wonder how many GOP 'movers' with teen-aged sons stopped inviting Foley?

Even more interesting, how many continued?

[gratuitous]

9. The Elephant flies over everything

The Elephant flies above the Eagle; party is paramount over the nation. The Elephant flies above the Constitution and the law; party is paramount over following the law. And the Elephant flies above common decency and humanity; holding onto a seat in the House is more important than a congressman using his power and his position to proposition underage juveniles.

[TahitiNut]

5. Schadenfreude

From the party that just keeps on giving. :evilgrin:

[Erika]

7. But yet none of the GOP contacted authorities?

Not Hastert, Boehner, Reynolds, or anyone else. ABC could get ahold the messages but the GOP couldn't? The GOP didn't want to.

Anyone who votes Republican based on morals is stupid and ignorant beyone belief.