Report: Hastert's office warned about Foley two years ago

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Hooboy. . . This just keeps gettin' better. . .

Does anyone REALLY think there wasn't a coverup on the part of Republican leaders to protect this guy? (and FWIW I'd be asking the same question if it were a Democratic pedophile scumbag instead of a Republican one in this instance. . .)

This whole sorry incident just proves two things:
(1) Politicans are scum and cannot be trusted.
(2) Politicans will protect (and if necessary, sacrifice) their own in the interest of preserving power and control.

Something is seriously effed up with the so-called "leadership" in this country. . . but we all know that already.



http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/04/foley.ap/index.html



Report: Hastert's office warned about Foley two years ago

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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.

Fordham resigned Wednesday as chief of staff to Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-New York.

Fordham spoke to the AP after ABC News quoted unidentified GOP sources as insinuating that he had intervened on behalf of Foley, his former boss, to prevent an inquiry into Foley's conduct.

"This is categorically false," Fordham said. "At no point ever did I ask anyone to block any inquiries into Foley's actions or behavior."

The longtime Capitol Hill aide said he would fully disclose to the FBI and the House ethics committee "any and all meetings and phone calls" regarding Foley's behavior that he had with senior staffers in the House leadership.

"The fact is even prior to the existence of the Foley e-mail exchanges I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley's inappropriate behavior," Fordham said.

Fordham said one staffer to whom he spoke remains employed by a senior House Republican leader. He would not identify the staffer.

"Rather than trying to shift the blame on me, those who are employed by these House leaders should acknowledge what they know about their action or inaction in response to the information they knew about Mr. Foley prior to 2005," Fordham said.

A Capitol Hill aide for more than a decade, Fordham said he resigned because he did not want his role in the Foley matter to harm his boss' re-election bid.

"I have no reason to state anything other than the facts. I have no congressman and no office to protect," Fordham said.
Justice Department launches investigation

Fordham's resignation comes as the Justice Department ordered House officials to "preserve all records" related to disgraced Rep. Mark Foley's electronic correspondence with teenagers, intensifying an investigation into a scandal rocking Republicans five weeks before midterm elections.

Republicans have been struggling to put the scandal behind them, but another member of the leadership, Rep Roy Blunt of Missouri, said pointedly during the day he would have handled the entire matter differently than Speaker Dennis Hastert did, had he known about the complaints when they were first raised last year.

"I think I could have given some good advice here, which is you have to be curious. You have to ask all the questions you can think of," Blunt said. "You absolutely can't decide not to look into activities because one individual's parents don't want you to."

Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Taylor for the District of Columbia sought protection of the records in a three-page letter to House counsel Geraldine Gennet, according to a Justice official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Such letters often are followed by search warrants and subpoenas, and signal that investigators are moving closer to a criminal investigation.

The request was aimed at averting a conflict with the House similar to a standoff in May when FBI agents raided Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson's office seeking information in a bribery investigation.
FBI interviews former pages

Meanwhile, FBI agents have begun interviewing participants in the House page program, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The official declined to say whether the interviews were limited to current pages or included former pages.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos stressed that the investigation is still preliminary. Also, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed that it has begun its own preliminary inquiry. Spokesman Tom Berlinger said the case is in its initial stages and is not a full-blown criminal inquiry.

Fordham played a key role in fast-developing events late last week. Initially, Foley was reported to have written overly friendly -- not sexually explicit -- e-mails to a former Capitol page. A day later, ABC news followed up with a report that said the Florida lawmaker had also sent sexually explicit instant messages to at least one other male page.

He said earlier this week he asked Foley about the sexually explicit instant messages, and the congressman confirmed they were probably his.

"Like so many, I feel betrayed by Mark Foley's indefensible behavior," he said. He blamed Democrats for seeking to make a political issue of the matter in Reynolds' re-election campaign, "and I will not let them do so."
McCain calls for independent investigation

There were signs of concern among Republicans, as well.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona called for a group of former senators and others to investigate how the House handled the affair.

"We need to move forward quickly and we need to reach conclusions and recommendations about who is responsible," McCain said during a campaign speech for Sen. Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island. "I think it needs to be addressed by people who are credible."

Some other Republicans rallied to the speaker. The chairmen of two coalitions of social and fiscal conservatives in Congress said he should not step down. "Speaker Hastert is a man of integrity," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, and Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pennsylvania, said in a joint statement. (GOP rallies around speaker)

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Louisiana, the congressman who sponsored the page at the heart of the furor, said Hastert "knew about the e-mails that we knew about," including one in which Foley asked the page to send his picture. But he quickly backed off that comment, saying he discussed the e-mails with Hastert's aides, not the speaker himself.

"I guess that's a poor choice of words that I made there," he told AP.

Hastert has insisted he not know about the e-mails that were discussed with his staff.
Representative says Hastert's staff knew about e-mail

Alexander said in an interview he first took up the matter after receiving press inquiries in November, when he told Hastert's staff and the parents of the 16-year-old boy who received the e-mails. The parents wanted the correspondence stopped but apparently did not want to take the matter further.

After a second round of press inquiries in the spring, Alexander said, he again notified the family and discussed the e-mails with the new majority leader, John Boehner of Ohio, on the House floor during a vote.

Alexander said Boehner turned first to Reynolds, the architect of the Republican midterm election strategy.

"I went to Boehner before Reynolds," Alexander told AP. "He sent Reynolds to me to talk about it. Within a minute Reynolds and I were talking."

Boehner and Reynolds have both said they had spoken with Hastert about a complaint concerning a former page from Louisiana last spring, after Alexander told them about it.

The uproar that followed Foley's resignation has enveloped Republicans who were already at risk at losing control of Congress in elections five weeks away.

Conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie was among those who called for Hastert to step down. "The fact that they just walked away from this, it sounds like they were trying to protect one of their own members rather than these young boys," Viguerie said on Fox News.

Hastert has he would not quit.

Alexander defended Hastert on Wednesday, as well as his own response.

"Hey, what else was I supposed to do?" Alexander asked. "I was very uncomfortable even talking to somebody in the speaker's office."

[Moneyguy1]

The sacrificing has just begun........

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by Moneyguy1
The sacrificing has just begun........

Good...and I hope it serves as precedent to all in public office. I also hope this tragedy serves as a cathardic moment for term limits. These people serve only for more power, both sides of the aisle.

We need a political Zamboni.

[Moneyguy1]

"We need a political Zamboni"

I like that image..........

Also a weedwacker, maybe a shredder or two and a large industrial vacuum to clean up the remains....

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by Moneyguy1
"We need a political Zamboni"

I like that image..........

Also a weedwacker, maybe a shredder or two and a large industrial vacuum to clean up the remains....

I'm in.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Quote of the month:

"we need a political Zamboni".

Absolutely. I say kick all the g-damn incumbent suckups out of office and immediately implement one-term limits. Period.

And make them unpaid, volunteer positions.

[dafischer]

If you listen carefully, you can hear the sounds of buttholes snapping shut in DC.

[Jim Richards]

Political zamboni's are cool.

[Rick Lee]

As bad as it looks, no one on the Hill is dumb enough to think they could keep something this salacious a secret for weeks or months, let alone years. I just don't buy it.

[Jim Richards]

Gee RL, how long did J.Edgar Hoover go with his little secret?

[Rick Lee]

Hoover didn't work on the Hill.

[Jim Richards]

OK.

[gaijindabe]

535 members of congress? I work with fairly pedestrian types and a good percentage of them get jammed up once in a while.. Do the math. If one percent are nut-jobs than you can expect about five and a third good incidents per year..

[hytem]

Another great one for the comedians to go to town with.
Politicians seem to provide comics with an endless stream of material.

This isn't a Republican or Democrat thing. Sex transcends political parties. Hastert's lack of action and his refusal to take real responsibility for his own inaction are the real political issues here. Not Foley.

The Republicans do not like to take responsibility for their mistakes, nor do they even admit to any. They are just too damn rigid and ideological. Loosen up, guys, and admit you're human.

[Tobra]

Originally posted by hytem
Another great one for the comedians to go to town with.
Politicians seem to provide comics with an endless stream of material.

This isn't a Republican or Democrat thing. Sex transcends political parties. Hastert's lack of action and his refusal to take real responsibility for his own inaction are the real political issues here. Not Foley.

The Republicans do not like to take responsibility for their mistakes, nor do they even admit to any. They are just too damn rigid and ideological. Loosen up, guys, and admit you're human.

No, when Republicans do somthing wrong and get caught they resign. Democrats say stuff like "I am a gay American" to distract from the crimes they committed, or turn their back on the speaker of the house as he publicly censures them for having a sexual relationship with at least one of the pages, to the cheers of the other democrat, or get caught with $100,000 dollars in their freezer and say it was a violation of the separation of powers for anyone to look in there.

If it were such huge thing that Hastert did not do, where is the criticism of the multiple, left leaning news organizations that had the same info as him at about the same time and did nothing for a year or two? The real salacious stuff has only been out recently, the guy resigns and the leadership gets law enforcement involved, pretty much immediately.

This is about a pervert, and the other side trying to make hay. If Foley had sex with the kid (who was above the age of consent in DC, BTW)lied about it, wagged his finger at the camera while doing it it would be a different story.

[Rodeo]

Originally posted by Tobra
No, when Republicans do somthing wrong and get caught they resign.

Did I miss it? Did the House leadership resign?

Because they provided cover for a sex predator, took his money, covered-up his sickening actions so they could stay in power, and they got caught.

Red-handed, as they say. They're even keeping Foley's 1/2 Million contribution to the House republican Committee.

Scum.

[Tim Hancock]

Hastert did not commit a crime that we know of yet (eg. he did not lie under oath like Clinton did over his sex scandal). Foley is a sick SOB, yet I am not sure whether he even technically committed a crime yet (age of consent etc).

If it was OK for Clinton to ACTUALLY have sex with a 19 yr old, then lie about it under oath yet remain in office, how can folks expect Hastert (who so far has not been accused of any crime) to voluntarily give up his position? (Foley is the sick SOB who technically has not even yet been charged with a crime, not Hastert)

This Hastert bashing is just pure political BS at this point. Rodeo, I am all for prosecuting child molestors to the fullest extent of the law, but we don't even know yet whether Foley (who did resign) has even broken the law. At this stage in the game, how can you make such harsh accusations about Hastert? I can understand and agree with a public bashing of Foley, but condeming Hastert over this is just partisan BS.


EDIT: Never mind, spending any time trying to discuss politics with you is a waste of MY time.

[Rodeo]

Lewinsky was not 19, she was 22 or 23.

Hastert did not commit a crime. If that is your standard, he should stay in office.

He hid Foley's predatory conduct for political gain and campaign $$. That violates my standard. He should go, as should the rest of the House leadership.

[Rodeo]

Did you happen to notice the title of this thread. Hastert was notified about Foley TWO YEARS AGO, but did nothing.

If you had a kid in the Page program, or a conscience, it would bother you that he did nothing.

[Nathans_Dad]

Originally posted by Rodeo
He hid Foley's predatory conduct for political gain and campaign $$. That violates my standard. He should go, as should the rest of the House leadership.

Ah, so by that standard Pelosi should resign for allowing William Jefferson (D- Louisiana) to remain in office despite taking a $100,000 bribe and hiding it in his freezer. That IS illegal, yet he is still in office. What say you, Rodeo? I say throw her out!