It has been quiet most of the day then …
This has been re-posted and updated.
From CNN:
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. mo’
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Now this can’t be a good thing for pages or the Republican party.
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Update: From Talking Points Memo - Long before Mark Beck-Heyman ever came to this town in 1995 to work as a congressional page, Congress had revamped the program in hopes of preventing the sort of sex scandals that had disgraced two congressmen more than a decade earlier. “When I got there, I was warned about Foley from former pages and cloakroom Republican staffers,” said Beck-Heyman, who attended a Catholic high school at the time and was nominated for the page program by Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray, who then lived in Imperial Beach. “The warning was to watch out for him.”
Tyson Vivyan was a congressional page from 1996 to 1997. Now 26, he tells NBC News that he knew Fla. Rep. Mark Foley somewhat during his brief Washington stay, but not well. It wasn’t until after he finished the congressional program and returned home to Tennessee, he says, that Foley began reaching out to him. Vivyan says that he began receiving instant messages in 1997 from someone with the moniker “maf54,” and that the messages were almost immediately sexual in nature.
Dennis Hastert…
and the Democratic Double Standard.
New Gingrich has some interesting points on how the democrats seem to have this double standard against Republicans. When a scandal happens with Republicans it effects all Republicans, while when Bill Clinton got ora…
Yes Clinton did engage in, shall we say “nefarious activities,” but those activities didn’t involve pedophelia and preying on UNDERAGE BOYS! Oh, wait I guess it’s because of all of the “homosexuals, liberals, and democrats.” So instead of taking responsability all we are hearing is excuses and more blaming.
A couple of clarifications.
Pedophilia involves prepubescent kids, usually considered 12 and under.
Age of consent in DC is 16. The pages involved in the IM were reportedly 18 at the time although pages may be hired at a younger age. Anyway, still gross (would also be gross if hetero).
However, unlike Clinton, this guy hasn’t been accused of the “R” word on national TV.
I don’t think anybody’s condoning President Clinton’s behavior. At least I don’t think any Democrats are. The question here is did the GOP do everything it could protect the pages? That’s the question. You have a congressman, a man of power and influence preying on these teenagers. That’s the problem. The problem is the GOP leadership, didn’t care. If Congressman Foley had consensual sex with 18 and 19 year olds who were not working in the page system then who cares? I have a problem with the cover-up, the lying and the blatant disregard for the safety of pages.
ECT”I don’t think anybody’s condoning President Clinton’s behavior. At least I don’t think any Democrats are.”
No one is condoning Foley’s behavior or even defending Foley. The Dems did defend Clinton’s behavior.
ECT”The question here is did the GOP do everything it could protect the pages? That’s the question. You have a congressman, a man of power and influence preying on these teenagers. That’s the problem. The problem is the GOP leadership, didn’t care.”
“Everything” is more of a rhetorical question. Did the GOP do something? Yes, Talking Points infer that after the GOP took over the House in 94 some changes were made in the page program due to concerns about a previous sexual scandal.
Could more have been done? I think that they should have talked to more pages and determined the extent of Foley’s behavior sooner.
ECT”If Congressman Foley had consensual sex with 18 and 19 year olds who were not working in the page system then who cares?”
So far, no one has reported sex. The page (Vivyan) quoted in Talking Points was contacted by Foley after he left the page program and may have been 18 at the time.
ECT”I have a problem with the cover-up, the lying and the blatant disregard for the safety of pages. ”
What was cover-up? The press had known about Foley’s e-mail for several years. Blatant Disregard? As soon as the IM’s came out, Foley resigned. He didn’t have to resign.
The last Congressman who actually had sex with a 17 year old page didn’t resign and was re-elected for 5 more terms.
As for lying, what was the lie?
We all know what a lie is. So, if our leaders need a dictionary we can get him one.
Cover up? How about Hastert saying that no one told him but no less than 3 congressman have said that they told not his office but him.
Oh, and the best is where the R’s have began to blame the Democrats for this thang.
I’m sorry I don’t really care about when the press decided to publish this story. Instead, if there was a question e-mails and IM’s making pages uncomfortable then why wasn’t the FBI notified? If there was no case, let the FBI handle it and say we investigated and there was no case. Instead, the R’s tried to keep a lid on this for as long as they could.
BTW, you’re debating skills have not improved since college.