The House page
scandal engulfing former congressman Mark Foley and House
Republicans persists as Speaker Dennis Hastert works to hold
on to his job and rank-and-file Republicans worry that
the pre-election drip-drip of damaging political news
isn't over yet. The daily disclosures about Foley's
salacious Internet exchanges with former teenage
congressional pages has GOP lawmakers and conservative
activists fearing the foibles of other politicians may
be exposed. ''People are very, very concerned,'' Rep.
Ray LaHood of Illinois acknowledged Tuesday night.
Republicans are increasingly nervous about their
November midterm election prospects, and Hastert is
working to contain the fallout and retain his job as
the scandal dominates the 24-hour news media and the
Internet blogosphere. ''I'm not going to do that,'' Hastert
said when asked Tuesday by conservative talk show host
Rush Limbaugh whether he would quit his post.
President Bush, speaking at a Stockton, Calif.,
elementary school on Tuesday, said he was disgusted by
the Foley revelations and voiced support for Hastert.
''I know that he wants all the facts to come out,''
the president said.
LaHood said Wednesday he is standing by Hastert
and predicted his fellow House Republicans will too.
It's not the speaker who should go, LaHood said, but
the ''antiquated'' page system that brings 15- and
16-year-olds to the Capitol and has resulted in
scandals in the past.
''Some members betray their trust by taking
advantage of them. We should not subject young men and
women to this kind of activity, this kind of
vulnerability,'' LaHood said in a CNN interview. He said the
program should be suspended, at least until its flaws
can be corrected.
Conservatives debated whether Hastert should
resign over his handling of the controversy. Activist
Richard A. Viguerie called for Hastert to step down.
''The fact that they just walked away from this--it
sounds like they were trying to protect one of their
own members rather than these young boys,'' Viguerie
said on Fox News.
Yet the Christian Coalition said it is standing
behind Hastert, and Arizona Republican representative
John Shadegg circulated a ''Dear Colleague'' letter in
support of Hastert, saying calls for the speaker to
resign were ''unwarranted and fundamentally unfair.''
Hastert says he first heard details of the Foley
matter last Friday when the story was breaking. The
number 2 House Republican, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio,
and House GOP campaign chair Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York
said they had spoken with Hastert about a complaint
concerning a former page from Louisiana last spring
after being told about it by Louisiana congressman
Rodney Alexander, who had sponsored the teen.
Hastert sought to blame Democrats for leaking
sexually explicit computer instant messages between
Foley and former pages from 2003. ''Democrats
have...put this thing forward to try to block us,'' Hastert
told Limbaugh.
''It's absolutely not true,'' countered House
minority leader Nancy Pelosi. ABC News, which first
reported on initial online exchanges from Foley that
were questionable but not graphic, says sexually explicit
messages reported last Friday were provided by former pages
after its initial report Thursday.
ABC News said Tuesday it had obtained additional
instant messages. ''Can I have a good kiss
goodnight,'' Foley was said to have messaged in one. A
boy responded with cyber symbols and ''kiss.''
In another message, Foley invited the teenager
to his Capitol Hill town house ''for a few drinks''
even though he knew the boy was under the legal
drinking age. ''We may need to drink at my house so we dont
get busted,'' Foley messaged.
Foley's attorney, David Roth, said at a news
conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday that
he had no reason to believe that Foley ''ever had
teenage boys at his house to have alcohol.''
Roth said Foley, 52, had himself been molested
between the ages of 13 and 15 by a clergyman but added
that Foley ''does not blame the trauma he sustained as
a young adolescent for his totally inappropriate e-mails''
and instant messages. ''He continues to offer no excuse
whatsoever for his conduct.''
Roth insisted Foley has never had sexual contact
with a minor. He said the former Florida congressman,
who had kept his sexual orientation private, now
wanted people to know that he is gay.
The House Ethics Committee, meanwhile, scheduled
its first meeting on Foley's actions for Thursday, in
closed session. The House voted last Friday to direct
the ethics panel to inquire into the matter.
Foley resigned abruptly on Friday after being
confronted with the 2003 instant message exchanges.
The FBI announced over the weekend it was opening a
preliminary investigation into the matter.
Separately, Kirk Fordham, a Reynolds aide who
was a longtime former aide to Foley, told the
Associated Press that he counseled Foley on
Friday on how to deal with the developing story. Fordham
said that when he learned the details of some of the
instant messages, he confronted Foley.
''I said, 'Are these authentic?' and he said,
'Probably,' and he confirmed that they were likely his
instant messages,'' Fordham said. Reynolds immediately
said Foley had to resign, and GOP campaign aides
drafted a resignation letter. (Andrew Taylor, AP)
