The Foley scandal is not about Foley, its about the Republican leaderships longtime knowledge and interaction, as well as similar actions by Hastert and others in the Repub. leadership
Republican leadership has long known Foley was gay and about sexually explicit emails to several pages and other contacts. But Foley wasn’t the only Repub. Congressman known to have engaged in sexually explicit and suggestive emails- so did House Speaker Hastert who also was involved in such emails with Foley.
Documentation on Republican leaders involved in Foleygate:
Ex-U.S. lawmaker Foley singled out "hot" boys
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Oct 22, 2006
Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley made friends with a wide circle of teenaged House of Representatives pages, then singled out "hot" boys to write to, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The newspaper said it had identified four more former pages who said they were sexually solicited by Foley, who has resigned since the scandal broke last month.
Washington Post Oct 9, 2006
Representative Tom Reynolds, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, has been incriminated in the Mark Foley scandal.
Statements from GOP legislators and staffers suggest Hastert’s office was informed of the Foley problem years earlier.
Representative Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican who is openly gay, confronted Foley in 2000 after a former page complained to Kolbe that Foley had sent him sexually explicit Internet messages. Some within the House Republican caucus were griping that the party had been done in by GOP gays on Capitol Hill who had supposedly covered for Foley for years. But responding to the effort to scapegoat them, gay Hill GOPers told reporters they had years ago warned Hastert's office about Foley.
Hastert directly implicated in knowledge that Foley was a pedophile and in sexually explicit messages himself:
Foley wasn’t the only Repub. Congressman involved in sexually explicit and suggestive emails:
Congressman Mark Foley and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert interacted in the past exchanging sexually explicit and suggestive emails that are on record and the Repub. Leadership were aware of:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/6/25857/3685http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/6/25857/3685On page 186 of Hastert's autobiography he brags that he has a good memory and remembers all. This hardly jibes with Hastert's bizarre story that he didn't remember Tom Reynolds or John Boehner or various aides warning him about Foley after it was apparent to anyone who didn't have his head up his ass that Foley was a dangerous child predator and a severe danger to the congressional page program.
Hastert Caught In Direct Falsehood About Foley in defense of his inactation in dealing with knowledge of Foley’s pedophile exploits
www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/oct/02/hastert_caught_in_fib_about_foley
USA TODAY, 10-12-06
The FBI has talked to Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who resigned and announced Hastert knew of page abuse at least 3 years ago. Fordham has said he told Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, about aspects of Foley's behavior sometime before 2004.
Two other House Republicans, Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York, have said they warned Hastert about Foley's attention to pages last spring. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., has said he told the House clerk's office in 2000 or 2001 about e-mails reported to his office by a page. Hastert has said he doesn't remember any of these conversations
Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., the head of the page board, will meet with the ethics committee today. Shimkus has said he confronted Foley last fall after Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., reported that parents of a former page he sponsored were concerned about messages Foley was sending their son. Shimkus took then-House clerk Jeff Trandahl to meet Foley but did not tell the other members of the page board.
GOP. Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) was apparently the first member of Congress to know about Foley's trolling for underage kids online. Alexander was the former boss of one of the pages who Foley chatted up. Alexander says that he then contacted the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (the body in charge of electing Republicans to the House), Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY). Reynold's chief of staff is Kirk Fordham, the former chief of staff and former campaign director to Mark Foley, who admits that he was aware of Foley’s actions.
Kirk Fordham, who worked as Foley's chief of staff for 10 years, returned to Foley's side to advise him during the past couple of days. In other words, Alexander wasn't interested in reporting this to the authorities, he was interested in helping Foley by approaching "friends of Foley"? Fordham is still Reynolds' chief of staff. Why is Reynolds' chief of staff now advising Foley on this mess? This simply adds to the inherent conflicts of interest that have dogged this "investigation" from the beginning. (Fordham has since resigned since his longtime involvement became highly embarrassing to Repub. Leadership)
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