Tuesday, October 3: This post is closed to commenting.
Read and discuss Foleygate at this post, Message from a “Values Voter.”
And read this Washington Times editorial:
“On Friday, Mr. Hastert dissembled, to put it charitably, before conceding that he, too, learned about the e-mail messages sometime earlier this year. Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hastert insisted that he learned of the most flagrant instant-message exchange from 2003 only last Friday, when it was reported by ABC News. This is irrelevant. The original e-mail messages were warning enough that a predator — and, incredibly, the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children — could be prowling the halls of Congress. The matter wasn’t pursued aggressively. It was barely pursued at all. Moreover, all available evidence suggests that the Republican leadership did not share anything related to this matter with any Democrat.
“Now the scandal must unfold on the front pages of the newspapers and on the television screens, as transcripts of lewd messages emerge and doubts are rightly raised about the forthrightness of the Republican stewards of the 109th Congress. Some Democrats are attempting to make this “a Republican scandal,” and they shouldn’t; Democrats have contributed more than their share of characters in the tawdry history of congressional sexual scandals. Sexual predators come in all shapes, sizes and partisan hues, in institutions within and without government. When predators are found they must be dealt with, forcefully and swiftly. This time the offender is a Republican, and Republicans can’t simply “get ahead” of the scandal by competing to make the most noise in calls for a full investigation. The time for that is long past.
“House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week’s revelations — or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.”
Well, what do you know? The FBI knew about Foley’s e-mails in July.
Update (10/2) @ afternoon: Let’s play the “I did it because I’m an alcoholic” game!
Foley’s MySpace page? (Via Hit and Run). Not really a big deal (I have one, too), because there is nothing on it. I thought I’d link just in case…
Later…Oh, good grief. Foley tried to get one of the kids to meet him.
Drudge is reporting: “House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Monday that no Republican congressional leaders saw lurid Instant Message exchanges from Mark Foley to House pages.” (Source)
Whether or not the leadership saw “lurid” IMs is not quite the point. Members knew about Foley’s “overly friendly” e-mails to 16-year-old boys. From that they could have deduced he was up to no good, in my opinion. They should have investigated Foley’s conduct more thoroughly. That they didn’t know the extent of Foley’s “issues” is BS. I’m sorry, but this CYA stuff is not going to cut it.
A commenter wrote: “The issue is whether Hastert knew or should have known. I’m sorry, but if he covered his eyes and ears in a ‘hear no evil, see no evil’ routine that just doesn’t cut it. And frankly, I think it’s undeniable that at a minimum that’s what he did.”
Not really related: This is what happens when you try to censor bloggers. 
Even later…Michelle Malkin says, “There is a time and place for attacking the Dems and the MSM. Now is not that time. Parents need assurance that their kids are safe on Capitol Hill. If Beltway GOP elites can’t understand this, they are beyond hope.”
Little did I realize this post would be so linkworthy. Regardless, if the GOP suffers for this in November, so be it.
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This Foleygate story is shifting so quickly, I don’t know where to begin. But I’ll take a stab at it.
Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, you must resign your leadership position.
Here’s the backstory:
The deviant and reckless conduct of Congressman Mark Foley, who sent inappropriate e-mail and instant messages to teenagers working as pages on Capitol Hill, became public on Thursday. According to a timeline compiled by the liberal blog Think Progress, the scandal actually began 2001 (and likely before that).
Over the weekend, a former page named Matthew Loraditch from the 2001-2002 page class came forward and said a Republican page supervisor warned him and other pages about Foley. That means Foley’s conduct was known by at least one elected official as early as 2001.
Foley was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994, having served in the Florida legislature. Unbelievably, he was a member of House leadership, serving as Deputy Majority Whip. Ironically, he co-chaired the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus and may be charged with violating laws he helped pass.
In 2003, Foley sent this instant message (PDF) to a minor. In 2005, a former intern e-mailed someone about Foley’s e-mails (PDF). These e-mails were the subject of Thursday’s bombshell.
As the scandal unfolded, we learned that the teenage page’s sponsor, Louisiana Congressman Rodney Alexander, found out about the e-mails in September 2005. His chief of staff called the Speaker’s office. The Speaker’s deputy chief of staff called the House clerk to set up a meeting between the clerk and Alexander’s chief of staff. (Follow that?)
Late last year, after several he said/he said exchanges, Congressman John Shimkus, the Page Board chair, told Foley to stop sending e-mails to underaged pages.
Around February and March of 2006, Alexander told National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) chair Tom Reynolds about the e-mails. According to Reynolds, he told Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert about the e-mails. But according to Hastert’s statement, Hastert doesn’t remember Reynolds telling him about the Foley investigation but doesn’t dispute Reynolds’s account.
Congressman John Boehner, House Majority Leader, found out about Foley’s predilections last spring and told Hastert, who said he’d take care of it. Boehner has since denied telling Hastert anything.
After that, money exchanged hands between Reynolds’s personal political action committee and Foley, and between Foley and the NRCC, chaired by Reynolds.
This mess went public on Thursday, September 28.
I agree with Ed Morrissey (and GOPProgress.com). Hastert should resign (If Trent Lott had to resign over a toast at a private birthday party…come on!) from his leadership position.
Hastert’s actions (or inaction) were a stunning display of failure of leadership. Too little, too late. I don’t believe for one second that he didn’t know what sort of man Foley was or that the matter didn’t require his urgent attention and action. There’s a whole lot of backtracking, revising, and CYA activity going on, and the so-called leaders need to take the fall.
(Some bloggers called for Hastert’s resignation as speaker after this.)
That is, if the GOP is to have any credibility left.
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Bloggers: Blog P.I., Michelle Malkin, GOP Bloggers, Gateway Pundit, Mary Katharine Ham, Sister Toldjah, JustOneMinute…
Although I take issue with some of lefty blogger Glenn Greenwald’s assertions, I agree that Hastert’s letter requesting an investigation “advances the cover-up and worsens the scandal.” Nobody has to talk now, and Hastert didn’t ask the FBI to investigate the House leadership. Hastert writes:
As Speaker of the House, I hereby request that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation of Mr. Foley’s conduct with current and former House pages to determine to what extent any of his actions violated federal law…I also request that the Department undertake an investigation into who had specific knowledge of the content of any sexually explicit communications between Mr. Foley and any former or current House pages and what actions such individuals took.
Flopping Aces: Alterations to original e-mails?
News stories: Clarice Feldman, writing for The American Thinking, traces the intern e-mails to a “black ops” blog.
Two Narratives: the Politics of the Foley Scandal, Ex-page says he saw suggestive e-mails, FBI To Examine Foley’s E-mails, Former Pages Describe Foley as Caring Ally…
