BluegrassReport.org

Foley Panel: GOP Didn't Protect Pages

Just hitting the wire:

The House ethics committee reported Friday that Republican lawmakers and aides failed to protect young male pages from former Rep. Mark Foley's improper advances, concluding an investigation into a scandal that convulsed Congress and contributed to the GOP defeat in last month's elections.

The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct among many "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences" of Foley's sexually explicit computer messages.

ANOTHER Page Scandal?

Political Wire has this:

The rumor swirling through Washington, D.C. is that a midwestern Republican congressman close to House Speaker Dennis Hastert had an inappropriate relationship with a 16 year old female congressional page.

And then points to this post at ArchPundit:

Sometime, probably in the next 48 hours though I'm bettting sooner than later, an Illinois Congressional race is going topsy turvy. It's another pick-up for Dems. If you are observant around the net you'll find the information. Mobilization is already occurring around the state to get ground troops.

Thanks Republicans.

The party of moral and family values. Yeah, right. Frauds.

UPDATE (10:07 am): For what it's worth.

Ben Chandler

Good story in today's Danville Advocate-Messenger on Rep. Ben Chandler's (D) visit to the area and his thoughts on whether he'll run for governor next year and his take on the current political climate:

Chandler Visits Danville, Endorses Wilder
By ANN R. HARNEY, Danville Advocate-Messenger

Whether Rep. Ben Chandler runs for governor next year depends in large part on which party holds a majority in Congress.

[...]

Inside the courthouse, the congressman stopped to answer some questions. He said the Foley page scandal in the U.S. House of Representatives does not make it a certainty that the Democrats will gain enough seats to be in the majority in the next Congress.

"If we do take over the House, I'm unlikely to run for governor," he said. "If that doesn't happen, I'll make a decision after the election."

Shocked by scandal
Chandler lost the race for governor to current Gov. Ernie Fletcher in 2003 and then won the seat in the House that Fletcher left when he became governor.

Chandler is far from complimentary of the governor. "My grandfather said, 'The governor's office was no place for on-the-job training.'" That grandfather was the legendary A.B. "Happy" Chandler, who served two terms as Kentucky governor.

One of the reasons political observers think the Democrats might win a majority in the House is the Foley sex scandal.

Chandler said he was shocked by the scandal. "I had no idea. It hit me like a thunderbolt," he said of allegations that the Republican representative from Florida's 16th district had had inappropriate e-mail and instant messaging contact with young men serving as House pages.

"From the party of family values, we give you Mark Foley," Chandler said.

[...]

Asked how he thinks the scandal will affect the elections next month, Chandler said, "Obviously what it has done is it has stopped the momentum (of the Republican candidates.)"

Another issue facing the country is the nuclear weapons tests done recently by North Korea.

In a press conference Wednesday, President George W. Bush said one-on-one negotiations with North Korea do not work; therefore, his administration has preferred talks between North Korea and a team of negotiators.

"I think we ought to try every approach," Chandler said. "I don't see that there is anything to lose."

And he said it is dangerous to not hold talks with Iran. "Iran is a nation of 75 million people in a volatile region; it's a nation that cannot be ignored."

Feds Probe Trip That Kolbe Made With Pages (NBC News)

Is the Foley scandal spreading to another Republican congressman?

Feds Probe Trip That Kolbe Made With Pages
NBC exclusive: Congressman alleged to have been inappropriate in '96
By Jim Popkin, Aram Roston and the NBC News Investigative Unit

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News. NBC News first reported on the camping and rafting trip on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington said that the U.S. attorney in Arizona has started a "preliminary assessment" of the trip, after an unidentified source made allegations about the congressman's behavior on the expedition.

"The U.S. attorney is looking into allegations about the congressman taking a trip with the two pages," the spokesman said.

UPDATE: By the way, how pathetic is this?

House Majority Leader John Boehner today accused Democrats of endangering House pages for political gain.

Boehner, speaking at a campaign event for 3rd District Republican candidate Jeff Lamberti, said Democratic operatives have known about inappropriate e-mails sent by former Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, to young male pages for some time.

I think Josh Marshall nails it with his post:

Boehner: Dems should be punished at the polls for not reporting our GOP pedophilia sooner.

Desperate and pathetic, aren't they?

KY-02: The dumbest Democrat running for Congress (Daily Kos)

Kos takes aim at State Rep. Mike Weaver (D) who seems to share a trait with indicted Governor Fletcher (R): they both step on land mines in plain view. You may recall this one as well.

UPDATE (4:03 pm): Weaver responds, but unlike last time, he wisely does not go on the attack:

Foot in Mouth

Dear Readers,

Before today I had no idea what the Daily Kos even was. I thought it was coffee. My campaign staff tells me differently.

Apparently, Daily Kos has only reinforced something my family has been telling me for years: my sense of humor is lost on most people.

As we speak, my staff is removing my size 11 military boot from my mouth.

But seriously, by now, many Daily Kos readers have seen the story published in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

As many Democrats know, the work of one writer does not reflect the entirety of the conversation that transpires between an interviewer and interviewee. The reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader and I spoke after a Kentucky Educational Television publicly-broadcast debate in which my opponent, Ron Lewis, refused to even participate. During the course of our 30 minute interview we discussed everything from Iraq to healthcare to education to my opponent's neglect of the voters by refusing to debate. 

But, it's what I said in five minutes of the interview that seems to have caught everyone's attention. So, please let me clarify.   

The words "liberal" and "conservative" mean different things to different people.

In our fairly conservative Congressional District in Kentucky, "liberal" is often used as an attack on a person to label them as fiscally and morally irresponsible.

In his attack ad against me, Ron Lewis describes me as "liberal" in the hopes that voters in the 2nd Congressional District will hear the word "liberal" and interpret it the way he does; as lacking the moral values shared by many people in Kentucky. 

When I described the behavior of the Republican leadership in response to the Foley scandal as "liberal," I was making a poor attempt at sarcasm. I was trying to use the word "liberal" the way that Ron Lewis uses in his ads against me. Clearly, my futile attempts failed.

Both conservatives and liberals alike can lack morality. It is not fair to use the word "liberal" in a way that leads voters to believe that a person who is liberal lacks morality just like it's not fair to use the word "conservative" to connote cold-hearted and stingy.

I hope that Daily Kos readers understand that I made a mistake and there's a pretty damned good chance I'll make a few more in my lifetime. One mistake I won't make is looking for Daily Kos at Starbucks.

Sincerely,
Colonel Mike Weaver

Ky. Democrat Says Republicans Who Knew About Foley Are "Very Liberal" (Alessi/Stamper, Herald-Leader)

Just posted online:

Ky. Democrat Says Republicans Who Knew About Foley Are "Very Liberal"
By Ryan Alessi And John Stamper
HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU

Republican leaders who might have known about disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's explicit sexual messages to underage male pages "are very liberal people" because they did not expose Foley's actions, Democratic congressional candidate Mike Weaver said in an interview with the Herald-Leader on Monday night.

"They have tolerated things that they should not have tolerated," Weaver said. "And it is far worse than what Bill Clinton wanted to do with Don't Ask, Don't Tell because this has to do with 16-year-old boys. So they covered that up, and that showed a very liberal tendency from some of the leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives."

When asked to clarify whether he was equating predatory behavior toward children with being liberal, Weaver said that had Foley been a Democrat, the entire party would have been branded as liberals.

"I think that is despicable conduct and that if anybody in the Democratic Party had done that, it would be: 'Those damn liberals are doing it again. We can't trust them,'" he said.

At one point, his campaign manager, Robert Kellar, interrupted the interview to interject that Weaver was "not saying liberals are pedophiles."

Speaker Hastert and the Foley Scandal -- It's Deja Vu All Over Again...

Today in a press conference, Speaker Hastert (R) again defended his staff's handling of the Foley scandal, promising to hold his staff accountable if the acted improperly:

QUESTION: How satisfied are you with how your staff handled the scandal so far and whether anyone resign in your office?

HASTERT: I understood what my staff told me, and I think from that response, they’ve handled it as well as they should. However, in 20/20 hindsight, probably you could do everything a little bit better. If there is a problem, if there was a cover up, then we should find that out through the investigation process. They’ll be under oath and we’ll find out. If they did cover something up, they should not continue to have their jobs. But I — but I didn’t think anybody at any time in my office did anything wrong. I found out about these revelations last Friday. That was the first information I had about it.

Hmmm. Why does that ring a bell?

Oh yeah. Barely three years ago were these promises from the Bush administration on whether White House staff leaked information regarding CIA covert agent Valerie Plame:

September 29, 2003
McClellan: "If anyone in this administration was involved in it [the improper disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's identity], they would no longer be in this administration."

September 30, 2003
Bush: "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

POW!

Keep in mind that NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds (R) was considered "Solid GOP" a week ago.

Here's the latest from Political Wire:

In NY-26, Davis Pulls Away from Reynolds
In New York's 26th congressional district, a new Buffalo News/Zogby poll shows Jack Davis (D) "has opened a significant lead" over Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) in a contest "fueled by Reynolds' association with the Mark Foley sex scandal."

Davis now leads Reynolds 48% to 33%.

GOP Nightmare

Latest Newsweek poll results are out. What a nightmare for Republicans:

For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power.

[...]

Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new all-time low for the Newsweek poll: 33 percent, down from an already anemic 36 percent in August. Only 25 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, while 67 percent say they are not. Foley’s disgrace certainly plays a role in Republican unpopularity: 27 percent of registered voters say the scandal and how the Republican leadership in the House handled it makes them less likely to vote for a Republican Congressional candidate...

KY2: Rep. Ron Lewis (R) On Fox News

I just watched a live interview that Rep. Ron Lewis (R) did on Fox News regarding his decision to cancel an upcoming fundraiser with Speaker Hastert (R), and how the Foley scandal was affecting his race. The fact that they trotted out Lewis to address this matter tells me that they are concerned about how this will impact his race against State Rep. Mike Weaver (D).

Lewis seemed a little nervous and stumbled a few times, but so did Weaver when he got grilled by MSNBC's Tucker Carlson a week or two ago.

While polling shows Lewis with a high single-digit lead, it will be interesting to watch how the Foley scandal affects the very conservative electorate in the 2nd CD. After all, remember this nugget from an earlier post today:

But the Pew poll also "found that 57 percent of white evangelicals are inclined to vote for Republican congressional candidates in the midterm elections, a 21-point drop in support among this critical part of the GOP base."

UPDATE: A reader just forwarded the following to me:

Wanted to let you and your readers know that U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D. Delaware) will be at the Community Center in Taylorsville (Spencer County, for those geographically challenged) Saturday, Oct. 7th at 3:00 p.m. at the Community Center with Congressional Candidate Mike Weaver.  This is a free event being sponsored by the Spencer County Democratic Women's Club.  Anyone interested in attending are welcome.  The more the merrier!

Former Lewis Page Contacted By FBI In Foley Probe (Schreiner, AP)

Noteworthy?

Former Lewis Page Contacted By FBI In Foley Probe
BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The FBI has contacted a one-time congressional page from Kentucky as part of the investigation into the sex scandal involving former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, an aide to a Kentucky congressman said Thursday.

Daniel London, chief of staff to Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., said Lewis' Washington office was contacted Tuesday by the man, who served as a House page in 2001.

"He was calling as a courtesy to let us know that he had been contacted by the FBI regarding statements that had been made toward him by former U.S. Rep. Foley," London told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "He's cooperating with the FBI."

The former page had not previously told Lewis or his staff about any statements Foley, a Florida Republican, allegedly directed toward him, London said. London said he didn't know if the alleged comments were made through the Internet or in person.

[...]

Weaver spokeswoman Betsy Hart said members of Congress have a responsibility to protect pages.

"If his page was being preyed upon, perhaps he should have been more observant to that fact, or the leaders of his party and those who are responsible for the page program should have done more," Hart said.

[...]

It was the second straight day that Lewis was involved indirectly in the matter.

On Wednesday, Lewis canceled a fundraiser that was to feature House Speaker Dennis Hastert next week in Shelby County.

GOP Starts Effort To "Out" Their Own Gay Members And Staffers

I don't intend to go any further with this post, but I find it interesting that one of the powder-kegs that the Foley scandal has ignited is the apparent discontent within Republican ranks regarding their own "network of gay staffers and gay members" including (allegedly) within Senator McConnell's (R) office.

Now there appears to be an effort to "out" their own. I wonder whether those gay Republican staffers and members who are being targeted by their own party are seeing the same ugliness and hate that we witness from afar on a fairly regular basis by the GOP.

This came from David Corn's website:

There's a list going around. Those disseminating it call it "The List." It's a roster of top-level Republican congressional aides who are gay.

On CBS News on Tuesday, correspondent Gloria Borger reported that there's anger among House Republicans at what an unidentified House GOPer called a "network of gay staffers and gay members who protect each other and did the Speaker a disservice." The implication is that these gay Republicans somehow helped page-pursuing Mark Foley before his ugly (and possibly illegal) conduct was exposed. The List--drawn up by gay politicos--is a partial accounting of who on Capitol Hill might be in that network.

I have a copy. I'm not going to publish it. For one, I don't know for a fact that the men on the list are gay. And generally I don't fancy outing people--though I have not objected when others have outed gay Republicans, who, after all, work for a party that tries to limit the rights of gays and lesbians and that welcomes the support of those who demonize same-sexers.

What's interesting about The List--which includes nine chiefs of staffs, two press secretaries, and two directors of communications--is that (if it's acucurate) it shows that some of the religious right's favorite representatives and senators have gay staffers helping them advance their political careers and agendas. These include Representative Katherine Harris and Henry Hyde and Senators Bill Frist, George Allen, Mitch McConnell and Rick Santorum. Should we salute these legislators for being open-minded enough to have such tolerant hiring practices? After all, Santorum in a 2003 AP interview compared homosexuality to bestiality, incest and polygamy. It would be rather big of Santorum to employ a fellow who engages in activity akin to such horrors. That is, if Santorum knows about his orientation.

TIME Poll: The Foley Sex Scandal Has Hurt G.O.P. Election Prospects

Just posted on Time.com:

TIME Poll: The Foley Sex Scandal Has Hurt G.O.P. Election Prospects
Two-thirds of those aware of the scandal believe Republican leaders attempted a cover-up, according to a new survey
By TONY KARON, Time

Two-thirds of Americans aware of the congressional-page sex scandal believe Republican leaders tried to cover it up — and one quarter of them say the affair makes them less likely to vote for G.O.P. candidates in their districts come November. Those are among the findings of a new TIME poll conducted this week among 1,002 randomly-selected voting-age Americans.

...54% said they would be more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for Congress, compared with 39% who favored the Republican — a margin that has jumped by 11 points from a similar poll conducted in June. That increase may be fueled by the rolling scandal over sexually explicit e-mails sent to teenage pages by Republican Representative Mark Foley. Almost 80% of respondents were aware of the scandal, and only 16% approve of the Republicans' handling of it.

[...]

President Bush's overall approval rating, according to TIME's poll, now stands at just 36%, down from 38% in August.

GOP Missing The Boat...Badly

So, an earlier AP story on the Hastert/Foley issue began as follows:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert will ask former FBI director Louis Freeh to examine the congressional page system and make recommendations on how to improve the program...

Um, I don't think the problem is the page program. It's how to control their own members.

Once again, the GOP don't seem to have clue what the issue is here and it's precisely why the voters -- according to the GOP's own poll -- are furious at them.

UPDATE: While I usually just ignore the incoherent rants of the neocon lemmings, allow me an exception so that I can provide you an example of why few take the conservatives blogs in this state seriously.

The following was posted at 9:24 pm last night by Jessamine County Attorney Brian Goettl who writes Conservative Edge:

What I am not hearing from people, is talk about the Foley scandal. And, I have not heard anything for three days. When I finally broke down, and broached the subject with one non-politico the response was "We're talking about e-mails. There are more serious problems like the school shootings."

Usually, when there is a hot topic I hear chatter from numerous people. But in the case of Foley, people on Main Street apparently aren' that interested.

Nevermind that there's been live coverage all day about whether the Speaker of the House was going to resign over this matter and GOP polling have Republicans so freaked out that they're worried about a 50-seat loss...

Okay, back to ignoring them.

Hastert Press Conference

Speaker Hastert (R) simply said "I'm deeply sorry this happened" and "we're taking responsibility" by asking a criminal investigation and gave out a toll-free number. No mention of a Louis Freeh investigation.

In the Q & A Hastert did not back-off allegations that this was fueled by George Soros and Democrats. Says he only learned it was more than a minor problem and heard the explicit language last Friday and that no one told him or his staff years ago.

Says he's remaining as Speaker and plans to run for another term after the November elections.

Voters Say Scandals Will Affect Votes -- Voters Polled by AP Say Scandals Will Affect Whom They Choose in Midterm Elections (AP)

While we're waiting for Speaker Hastert's (R) press conference, just wanted to share this news:

Voters Say Scandals Will Affect Votes
Voters Polled by AP Say Scandals Will Affect Whom They Choose in Midterm Elections
By JIM KUHNHENN
The Associated Press

With midterm elections less than five weeks away, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that about half of likely voters say recent disclosures of corruption and scandal in Congress will be very or extremely important when they cast their vote next month.

More troubling for Republicans, the poll found that by a margin of nearly 2-to-1 likely voters says Democrats would be better at combatting political corruption than Republicans.

[...]

The poll also found that President Bush's efforts to depict the war in Iraq as part of a larger campaign against terrorism and to portray Democrats as weak on national security was not altering the political landscape.

Disapproval of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq was at 61 percent among likely voters

Hat tip to Political Wire.

GOP Poll: Shows Possible 50-Seat Loss In House If Hastert Stays On -- Hastert Calls 1PM Press Conference

Fox News right now is discussing some GOP polling data that has just come back since the Foley scandal broke last Friday which is, apparently, devastating if Speaker Hastert (R) refuses to resign. The discussion was that the data shows a likely 20-seat loss may turn out to be 50 seats if Hastert stays on.

The White House is currently not addressing speculation and Hastert has called a 1 pm press conference.

Everything seems to be pointing to Hastert resigning shortly.

UPDATE: AP is saying he won't resign. Press conference still has not happened (1:21 pm)

UPDATE #2: Hotline On-Call is reporting:

In a press conference scheduled for noon CT in Illinois, House Speaker Dennis Hastert plans to accept some measure of responsibility for failing to discover Rep. Mark Foley's misconduct with pages, a House official said this morning. " He is taking responsibility because the buck stops with him," the official said.

Hastert won't resign "because that would be giving into the Democrat party’s best wish," the official said.

He is expected to make several announcements, including one about revisions to the page program.

UPDATE #3 (1:50 pm): Hastert conference to take place in 30 minutes...

UPDATE #4 (1:55 pm): Updated AP story on what Hastert will say.

UPDATE #5: Here's the Fox News story which mentions what I wrote in the main post:

...the GOP source familiar with the polling data said that while most GOP lawmakers have stood by Hastert, pending a full airing of the facts in his handling of the Foley matter, this data now suggest that many voters have already made up their minds.

"The data suggests Americans have bailed on the speaker," the source told FOX News. "And the difference could be between a 20-seat loss and 50-seat loss."

Hastert: I'll Resign If It Helps The Republicans

So, Speaker Hastert won't resign because he mishandled and covered-up this scandal but only "if would be helpful to the Republicans maintaining the majority." Sad.

Embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has told conservative activist Paul Weyrich that he would resign if it would help the Republicans, Congressional Quarterly is reporting.

"He said if he thought that resigning would be helpful to the Republicans maintaining the majority, he would do it," Weyrich said in an interview. "But he did not think it would helpful for Republicans."

[...]

"[Hastert] said he thought his resignation would just lead to a feeding frenzy where they would go after (Majority Leader John A.) Boehner, then (Rep. Thomas M.) Reynolds, then (Rep. John) Shimkus. And he said we would have the story running right up to the election."

...

"The Speaker was ticked by that one involving Boehner," Weyrich said. "Boehner threw it in his lap, and said he warned him. The Speaker said no such warning ever came from Boehner."

...

Next in line behind Hastert is Boehner, who has provided only fuzzy public accounts of what he knew and when about e-mails sent by Foley to underage former congressional pages.

Boehner on Tuesday both defended Hastert in a letter to the Washington Times after the Times called for Hastert's resignation in its lead editorial and publicly distanced himself from the Speaker in an interview with a Cincinnati radio station.

UPDATE: The Left Coaster has the goods on what appears to be some untruthfulness or misinformation given out by the FBI regarding the Foley investigation.

Resignation?

What shocking new developments will we learn today in Foleygate?  TPMmuckraker has this chatter:

...we're hearing that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), who's been heaped with scorn and blame over the scandal, is planning a press conference in Chicago tomorrow morning. No word on what he'll say, although speculation abounds that he may announce he's quitting his leadership post -- either now or after the elections.

Longtime Republican Was Source Of E-Mails (The Hill)

Oh dear. The wingnuts are not going to be happy about this disclosure which blows a hole in their conspiracy theory that this all came from the Democrats...

Longtime Republican Was Source Of E-Mails
By Alexander Bolton (The Hill)

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, said the source, who showed The Hill public records supporting his claim.

The same source, who acted as an intermediary between the aide-turned-whistleblower and several news outlets, says the person who shared the documents is no longer employed in the House.

But the whistleblower was a paid GOP staffer when the documents were first given to the media.

[...]

Republicans say the timing of the scandal is evidence of a political dirty trick orchestrated by Democrats. They have drawn comparisons to negative reports about President Bush that surfaced before the 2000 and 2004 campaigns.

Thanks to a reader for catching this.

Also, Media Matters does a great job of tracking all the hypocritical double-talk coming out of the mouths of conservatives all across the country over this scandal. A great read.

Is Political Civil War Breaking Out?

Well, this is getting interesting...

"What Kirk Fordham said did not happen." -- Scott Palmer, Chief of Staff to Speaker Hastert

Click here if you forget who Fordham is.

Where's Anne?

A reader posted the following very important question:

In the wake of the Foley scandal, there was one Congressperson who chose not to comment: Anne Northup (R-KY3). Worse than silence, when asked about Foley, her office said they wouldn't comment on any of it. Yet the local paper doesn't think her silence is newsworthy. Join me in emailing the the Courier Journal to find out why a neutral stance on a child predator isn't news. Email kstewart@courier-journal.com, and join me in trying to find out where the media has gone...

An excellent question. How about it, Courier-Journal?

In case you didn't know, Geoff Davis (R) has returned Foley's $1,000 contribution. Ron Lewis (R) has canceled a fundraiser with Speaker Hastert (R). All we get from Northup is "no comment".

If Things Weren't Bad Enough

This hour, CNN has been interrupting "Foley breaking news" with "Iraq breaking news" -- if things weren't bad enough -- with the headline "Iraq Explodes With Violence, Forces Struggle To Contain It."

Specifically, 19 American soldiers have been killed in the past 4 days, and our military has just discovered that "death squads" have managed to infiltrate the Iraqi police force.

Also, this afternoon former Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "staying the course is not good enough because a course has to have an end." (per my notes).

Unraveling Fast

This Foley scandal is unraveling fast and I think Hastert's days are numbered.

Kirk Fordham, the chief of staff to NRCC Chief Tom Reynolds (R) has just told AP that he told Hastert's office of the e-mails three years ago and is firing back:

Fordham spoke to the AP after ABC News quoted unidentified GOP sources as insinuating that he had intervened on behalf of Foley, his former boss, to prevent an inquiry into Foley's conduct.

"This is categorically false," Fordham said. "At no point ever did I ask anyone to block any inquiries into Foley's actions or behavior."

The longtime Capitol Hill aide said he would fully disclose to the FBI and the House ethics committee "any and all meetings and phone calls" regarding Foley's behavior that he had with senior staffers in the House leadership.

"The fact is even prior to the existence of the Foley e-mail exchanges I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley's inappropriate behavior," Fordham said.

Also, former Rep. Ken Ken Lucas (D) weighs-in once again, while Rep. Geoff Davis (R) is hiding...

Ken Lucas Statement on the Resignation and Statement of the Chief of Staff to NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds

"The revelations today that Speaker Hastert's staff was alerted to Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate contact with House pages more than 2 years ago amounts to a smoking gun in the Washington, D.C. scandal.  The resignation and statement of Kirk Fordham, Chief of Staff to National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds, underscores the tragic consequences of the Speaker being asleep at the switch while young people were being threatened.  I, too, served with Speaker Hastert and believe him to be a good man.  However, these aren't ordinary times or ordinary circumstances and the lack of urgency in his response to this matter must have consequences. So, today, I am renewing my call for Geoff Davis to join me in asking for the Speaker's resignation.  While Mr. Davis and I disagree about many issues, we ought to be able to agree that the parents and grandparents of America deserve fresh, credible leadership in the House during this troubling time."

I wonder whether Hastert will be speaker for even another 48 hours...

KY2: Lewis Cancels With Hastert, Cites Foley (Beardsley, Courier-Journal)

Now the Kentucky wingnuts are fleeing Speaker Hastert:

Lewis Cancels With Hastert, Cites Foley
By Elisabeth J. Beardsley, The Courier-Journal

U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis has canceled an event next week with U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, citing the growing Capitol Hill sex scandal.

[...]

The Lewis campaign asked to cancel the fundraiser featuring Hastert that had been scheduled for Oct. 10 in Simpsonville, said Lewis spokesman Michael Dodge.

“The congressman takes the speaker for his word, but there’s more questions that need to be answered and until they are, it’s better that we don’t move forward with that event,” Dodge said.

What will Senator McConnell (R) have to say about this move, considering how unconcerned he sounded earlier?

UPDATE: Lewis' opponent, State Rep. Mike Weaver (D), has just put out this statement:

Statement on Congressman Lewis Canceling Fundraiser with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert

"I find it interesting that Congressman Lewis is choosing to distance himself from a man he agrees with 97% of the time.

"If Congressman Lewis takes the Speaker at his word, which he says he does, then why is he canceling the fundraiser? If Congressman Lewis truly believes Speaker Hastert is telling the truth, then there should be no reason to believe the event would have negative political consequences and the fundraiser should proceed.

"However, if Congress Lewis doubts the Speaker's honesty, I would ask him to join me in calling for his resignation along with the resignation of other members of the House who were aware of Foley's conduct and failed to act."

UPDATE #2 (6:15 pm): AP has a story:

Lewis, who voted to impeach Democratic President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, said he would be "just as hard on a Republican as I would be a Democrat" as the investigation proceeds.

"I don't know what happened with the speaker and our leadership and the information that they were provided," Lewis said. "I'm going to wait and see. But until I know the facts, I'm putting these things on hold."

Seems to me that Lewis is showing enough political smarts to get the hell away from Hastert and this story. It's more than I can say for Rep. Anne Northup (R-KY3) who pathetically continues to offer no comment.

FOX NEWS Identifies Foley As Democrat

Deliberate attempt to mislead or just a mistake?

UPDATE: And Fox News did it here too:

GOP Members Throwing Speaker Hastert Under the Bus?

Boy, it just keep getting worse and now it seems that it's look-out-for-yourself time among Republicans.

Check out the latest from Political Wire:

Congressman Says Hastert Knew
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), the congressman who sponsored the page at the heart of Mark Foley scandal, said House Speaker Dennis Hastert "knew about the e-mails that we knew about," including one in which Foley asked the page to send his picture, the AP reports.

Hastert insists his staff knew about Foley's activities, but that he didn't know.

Sadly, this scandal is certainly proving the old adage about political scandals involving either a dead girl or a live boy. So true.

UPDATE (2:19 pm): More craziness from ABC News:

Top GOP Staffer Forced Out for Role in Page Scandal
October 04, 2006 1:44 PM

The chief of staff for Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds, Kirk Fordham, resigned after questions were raised about his role in the handling of the congressional page scandal, according to Republican  sources on Capitol Hill.

[...]

People familiar with Fordham's side of the story, however, said Fordham was being used as a scapegoat by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

They said Fordham had repeatedly warned Hastert's staff about Foley's "problem" with pages, but little was done.

Had Enough?

Josh Marshall asks the question...

The First Political Ad Mentioning Mark Foley

The first political ad discussing the current House page scandal is now on the air in Minnesota. Pretty powerful stuff. Check it out.

The ad is being run by congressional candidate Patty Wetterling (D-MN6). According to the most recent polling, Wetterling trails Michele Bachmann (R) 46-43 in the race to succeed Rep. Mark Kennedy (R), who is running for senator.

More Foley Insanity

From Political Wire:

Robert Novak reports that "even after House GOP leaders knew that Foley had written an inappropriate e-mail to a 16-year-old former male page, they were still urging him to seek re-election."

Senator McConnell: Wishful Thinking or Delusional?

Let's do a point, counter-point regarding Senator McConnell's (R) comments in today's AP story on the events in Washington.

Item #1: Mark Foley

POINT: U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said several of this year's Senate races are close but he's not expecting Republican candidates to be negatively affected by the Internet scandal involving a former Florida congressman.

COUNTER-POINT: