House Speaker Hastert's act continues to get sideswiped by inconvenient testimony fronm those around him. from
today's Washington Post:
Quote:
Hastert maintains that he knew nothing of Foley's actions until last week, when the story first broke and Foley resigned. His stance contradicts that of House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), both of whom said they had informed Hastert this spring.
Palmer has resolutely said he had no earlier meeting with Foley, and other leadership aides have questioned the truthfulness of Fordham. Fordham quit his job as Reynolds's chief of staff last week after acknowledging that he had tried to persuade ABC News not to publish the salacious instant-message exchanges between Foley and two former pages.
Hastert's office contends that the first confrontation with Foley occurred in November 2005, when Shimkus, the head of the House Page Board, and then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl took Foley aside to discuss what they termed "over-friendly" e-mails that Foley had sent to a Louisiana boy. Fordham's account not only pushed the matter back at least two years but also indicated that alarms over Foley's behavior had gone well beyond bland e-mails.
Sources close to Fordham say Trandahl repeatedly urged the longtime aide and close family friend to confront Foley about his inappropriate advances on pages. Each time, Foley pledged to no longer socialize with the teenagers, but, weeks later, Trandahl would again alert Fordham about more contacts. Out of frustration, the sources said, Fordham contacted Palmer, hoping that an intervention from such a powerful figure in the House would persuade Foley to stop.
Now, a second House aide familiar with Foley and his actions told The Washington Post yesterday that "Scott Palmer had spoken to Foley prior to November 2005." The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is now the subject of a criminal investigation and the House ethics committee inquiry.
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a couple of things are clear from all of this: Foley really was a predator and everybody in Hastert's office knew it. Hastert, as a former Illinois high school teacher and coach, has had specific training (under Illinois law) in recognizing the signs and symptoms of a sex offender's behaviour and chose to ignore it.
and every wingnut out there trying to shift blame elsewhere for this whole mess would go ballistic if their kid's high school principal handled a sexually predatory teacher the way that Hastert & Co. dealt with Foley.
edit: also begging for further scrutiny are the actions of NY Congressman Tom Reynolds, who persuaded Foley to run again even after he was aware of his actions, or Congressman Shimkus, head of the Page program, also aware of Foley's fondness for the young boys for whom he was responsible.