US Rep Caught Sending Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors

[theknife]

Maf54 (8:08:31 PM): get a ruler and measure it for me

oh my.

[theknife]

House Speaker Hastert's act continues to get sideswiped by inconvenient testimony fronm those around him. from today's Washington Post:

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.

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.

[multi]

how come they get called 'pages' ?

[JackSpratts]

Longer Republican Cover-up

Foley Concerns Raised in 2000

House Speaker Hastert has suggested that e-mail awareness surfaced only last fall

Jonathan Weisman

A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications, according to an aide to the congressman.

Korenna Cline, a spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., confirmed Sunday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley, R-Fla., was taking their e-mail relationship.

The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's questionable behavior. A timeline issued by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., suggested the first lawmakers to know -- Rep. John Shimkus. R-Ill., the chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La. -- became aware of "over-friendly" e-mails only last fall. The new information also expands the universe of players in the drama beyond members either in leadership or on the page board.

A new poll by Newsweek found that more than half of Americans believe Hastert was aware of Foley's Internet communications with underage pages and tried to cover up Foley's actions.