Posted by
Bruce Armstrong on Friday, September 29, 2006 8:03:18 PM
ABC's Brian Ross, blogging at ABC's The Blotter, has an exclusive report with details of Foley's instant messages with the page. Ross's investigative team also reveals that Foley's predilection for male pages was not unknown, quoting one (anonymous) page as saying that his class of pages was warned about Foley.
This goes way WAY beyond bad judgment. As Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent and now ABC News consultant, says in the above-linked story, "What it amounts to is serious - both state and federal violations that could potentially get you a number of years."
The San Francisco Chronicle's online story (via AP) about the resignation of Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) suggests the House leadership may have known about the problem nearly a year ago.
The page worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents. Alexander told the Ruston Daily Leader, "We also notified the House leadership that there might be a potential problem," a reference to the House's Republican leaders.
I hate to use an old Democrat line, but it's actually appropriate here: What did the Republican House leadership know and when did they know it? I don't for a moment think that Denny Hastert et al would cover for a child molester, but if they knew of rumors and reports and the complaint to Rep. Alexander, and did nothing, Rep. Foley's resignation should not be the only one being read by the clerk of the House.
Now, I'm not blind to the suspicious timing (less than two months before an important Congressional election), and I'm aware of the reputation of the AP / SF Chronicle / ABC News for being, shall we say, less than fair to Republicans. But there seems to be an awful lot of smoke in the room for there to be no fire.