Foley Quits Amid Allegations of Email Sex Scandal

The Foley affair sure brings out inventivity in the insinuators, impliers and spinners among conservatives...

nimh wrote:

The Foley affair sure brings out inventivity in the insinuators, impliers and spinners among conservatives...

Oh, c'mon now, nimh; you know perfectly well that the spindustry is an equal-opportunity employer.

Panel Questions Republican on Page Board
(By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press, October 12, 2006)

WASHINGTON - The House ethics committee Thursday questioned a Republican member of the House page board, who said GOP leaders hid from her Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate approaches to teenage male pages.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's Democratic opponent in West Virginia has accused her of failing to protect the high schoolers in the page program.
Any such decision to keep Capito out of the loop would raise questions about whether other Republicans tried to tell as few people as possible about Foley as part of a cover up.

Capito is one of three members of Congress who serve on the page board. Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan, the lone Democrat, also said he was not told about Foley.

Capito's testimony preceded that of Foley's chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who was ready to directly question the truthfulness of Speaker Dennis Hastert's top aide.

Fordham said he could demonstrate that he warned Hastert chief of staff Scott Palmer about Foley's approaches to male pages in 2002 or 2003. Palmer has challenged Fordham's description of events.

Capito said she knew nothing about the allegations until Sept. 29, when Foley's conduct became a major Capitol Hill scandal.

"It disturbs me greatly. I am very upset about it and I think it is disgusting, quite frankly," Capito said in a West Virginia debate Wednesday after her opponent accused her of shirking her responsibility. She has called for more members on the page board, more training for those members, and peer counseling for the pages.

According to a timeline released by Hastert, the speaker's office was informed about an overly friendly e-mail that Foley sent in the fall of 2005. Subsequently, the clerk of the House and Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., head of the page board, met with Foley, who assures them he was only acting as a mentor to the boy. Shimkus ordered Foley to cease contact with the boy, apparently without notifying Kildee or Shimkus.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader John Boehner has been invited by the ethics panel to testify, but no date has been set.

Boehner has said he informed Hastert about Foley and was told the matter was being handled. Hastert has said he doesn't recall the conversation.

"Mr. Boehner has been invited to meet with the committee and he welcomes the opportunity ... to provide any information that might be helpful to their inquiry," said Boehner spokesman Kevin Madden.

Hastert's aides said they first learned of an overly friendly Foley e-mail to a former page in the fall of 2005 and never knew about sexually explicit messages to others until late last month when they became public.

The FBI is also investigating, trying to determine whether any crimes were committed by Foley.

Foley Case Snags House Incumbent in Ohio

Ex-aide expected to testify he warned about Foley

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An ex-congressional aide is expected to tell a House ethics panel Thursday that he delivered warnings about former Rep. Mark Foley to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's top aide years ago.

Kirk Fordham, who once was Foley's chief of staff, plans to testify under oath that he warned more than one congressional official several times about Foley's inappropriate behavior with pages, said a source familiar with Fordham's account.

Fordham, who arrived Thursday afternoon at the committee hearing, has said the warnings were earlier than Republican leaders have reported.

The ex-aide on Thursday declined to talk about his likely testimony but said he was "pretty comfortable" with providing details to the committee.

"I slept very well last night. I had a good night's sleep," Fordham told reporters outside his Washington home. "I talked to my family, and I am going to tell the truth."

The source said Fordham will say he notified Scott Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff, three or four years ago about a report that Foley had shown up drunk at the dormitory that houses the teenage messengers. (Watch how the scandal has affected Foley's district -- 1:23Video)

Two sources familiar with Fordham's account said that Fordham maintains he arranged a meeting between Foley and Palmer about that report and accounts of other behavior he found troubling.

In a statement last week, Palmer denied Fordham's version of events, insisting that "what Kirk Fordham said did not happen." Palmer has made no further comment.

Page board testifies

Also Thursday, the ethics committee questioned a member of the House Page Board, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia. At the time the scandal broke, Capito said that she was never consulted about Foley.

"I want to see this investigation go forth quickly and reach a conclusion," Capito said Thursday after about 90 minutes in the committee room.

The chairman of the page board, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Illinois, is scheduled to appear before the committee Friday.

Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned September 29 after sexually explicit instant messages from the six-term lawmaker to male pages became public. The House ethics panel and Justice Department are investigating how the House GOP leadership handled the matter, and FBI agents interviewed Fordham last week.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio asked House Clerk Karen Haas to investigate the dormitory allegation last week. Capitol Police are looking through files for any record of the incident, a spokeswoman said.

Another GOP lawmaker, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, said she conducted her own investigation two weeks ago and learned that Foley "showed up at the page dorm one night inebriated." Brown-Waite has not released any details.

Fordham resigned last week as chief of staff to Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-New York, after ABC News reported that he offered the network an exclusive on Foley's resignation if it agreed not to air transcripts of the most explicit messages.

After his resignation, he said he warned Hastert's office about Foley well before 2005, when the speaker's office says it first learned about nonexplicit but "overly friendly" e-mails between Foley and a Louisiana teen who had been a page earlier that year.

On Wednesday, the ethics committee heard from the supervisors of both Republican and Democratic pages. Next week, the Louisiana congressman who raised concerns in late 2005 and his top aide will appear before the committee.

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Louisiana, brought Foley's e-mails to a former page to House leaders' attention in 2005. His chief of staff, Royal Alexander, said he would testify on Monday, while the congressman will testify Wednesday.

Royal Alexander, who is not related to his boss, said. "We are happy to go voluntarily. Neither he nor I have retained attorneys yet, either."

The Louisiana lawmaker was the sponsor of a 16-year-old male who was a page, or messenger, on Capitol Hill. In November 2005, the teen reported receiving e-mail from Foley asking him what he wanted for his birthday and whether he would send Foley a picture of himself. The teen characterized the requests as "sick," but the e-mails were not sexually explicit.

Who knew what, when?

Rep. Alexander brought the e-mail from his constituent to the attention of Hastert's office, resulting in a private warning to Foley from then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl and Shimkus, the House Page Board chairman. Both Alexander and the teen's family have said that they did not want the issue made public and wanted the contact to stop.

Hastert and other top GOP lawmakers have said they were not previously aware of the sexually explicit instant messages between Foley and other pages. But sources familiar with the situation told CNN that Trandahl had raised alarms about Foley's contacts with the teens long before he resigned his post in November 2005.

And in a statement Tuesday, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Arizona, said that a young man he had appointed as a page told his office that he had received an e-mail from Foley "that made him uncomfortable." Kolbe's office said the complaint was from 2000 or 2001.

CNN's Kelli Arena, Ted Barrett and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.

Ex-aide gives lengthy Foley testimony to ethics committee
(CNN, October 12, 2006)

Ex-congressional aide Kirk Fordham spent more than four hours behind closed doors with members of the House ethics committee Thursday, testifying about his efforts to warn House leaders about former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate contacts with teenage pages.

Fordham went before the ethics committee early Thursday afternoon and remained there late into the day. He told reporters earlier that he was "pretty comfortable" with the testimony he was to deliver -- that he warned House Speaker Dennis Hastert's top aide about Foley's worrisome conduct years ago.

"I slept very well last night. I had a good night's sleep," he said. "I talked to my family, and I am going to tell the truth."

According to a source familiar with Fordham's account, Fordham told Hastert's office about complaints about Foley's behavior around the teenage messengers who work on Capitol Hill -- including a report that the disgraced congressman showed up drunk at the congressional page dormitory.

HOW ROVE TWISTED FOLEY'S ARM:
It seems increasingly clear that the GOP congressional leadership, eager for every safe incumbent in the House to run for re-election, looked the other way as evidence accumulated that Mark Foley had a thing for pages. Holding onto his seat became more important than confronting him over his extracurricular activities.

But there's more to the story of why Foley stood for re-election this year. Yesterday, a source close to Foley explained to THE NEW REPUBLIC that in early 2006 the congressman had all but decided to retire from the House and set up shop on K Street. "Mark's a friend of mine," says this source. "He told me, 'I'm thinking about getting out of it and becoming a lobbyist.'"

But when Foley's friend saw the Congressman again this spring, something had changed. To the source's surprise, Foley told him he would indeed be standing for re-election. What happened? Karl Rove intervened.

According to the source, Foley said he was being pressured by "the White House and Rove gang," who insisted that Foley run. If he didn't, Foley was told, it might impact his lobbying career.

"He said, 'The White House made it very clear I have to run,'" explains Foley's friend, adding that Foley told him that the White House promised that if Foley served for two more years it would "enhance his success" as a lobbyist. "I said, 'I thought you wanted out of this?' And he said, 'I do, but they're scared of losing the House and the thought of two years of Congressional hearings, so I have two more years of duty.'"

Online: Bush and Hastert rally the GOP - But new poll shows many voters disagree

And this is supposed to be news that the commu-nazi state of Illinois doesn't like Bush?

cjhsa wrote:

And this is supposed to be news that the commu-nazi state of Illinois doesn't like Bush?

If you had read the article, you would know what it is about.

nimh wrote:

The Foley affair sure brings out inventivity in the insinuators, impliers and spinners among conservatives...

Oh, c'mon now, nimh; you know perfectly well that the spindustry is an equal-opportunity employer.

And this is supposed to be news that the commu-nazi state of Illinois doesn't like Bush?

Black & White: Commies and Nazis = Democrats and Republicans.