By the GOP leaders in Congress, it was well known that he was gay, that he had sketchy interactions with minors (and minors who worked in Congress, specifically), and that he had used the internet to interact in suspicious ways with minors. That's actually quite a bit of evidence, without the benefit of the IMs.
"Congressman Foley asked about the former Page’s well-being after Hurricane Katrina and requested a photograph. When asked about the email exchange, Congressman Foley said he expressed concern about the Page’s well-being and wanted a photo to see that the former Page was alright." -- John Shimkus
Is there any FReeper that would be as retarded as Shimkus apparently is? I doubt it, and I doubt Shimkus is that retarded, either. Rep. Kildee was not told about this. If it was all so innocent and there was no suspicion, why keep this from him? He's the only Democrat on the board and he was made unaware that a guy who was known by most all on Capitol Hill to be interested in men was possibly interested in very young men, including those working inside Congress. John Boehner knew about his interactions with the page in question at least this past Spring, and if he didn't pass this along to Hastert and others, it would likely be because he didn't want them to have to worry about being involved in this mess-- but he knew it was a mess, because, again, he's not retarded.
Just look at this from the standpoint of these people having some sense about the real world, not that they are all 5 year old girls who believe in pixie dust and unicorns. It doesn't pass the smell test that anyone in Congress would have found out about the emails and thought they were perfectly innocent and reasonable communication.
"It doesn't pass the smell test that anyone in Congress would have found out about the emails and thought they were perfectly innocent and reasonable communication."
The original emails were creepy but not sexual and the media reports are that nothing else ever materialized that was sexual between the page and Foley. The reports are that there were OTHER pages who came forward with the sexual PM's after this story aired on thursday night.
I understand what you are saying, but if Foley was lying to Alexander and the parents of the page in question (regarding the first reported emails) did not want it public, perhaps that is why the dem on the committee did not get informed. I think there is alot of disinformation out there and there is much more to this story than meets the eye. The original website that all of the press contacted in regards to this story http://stopsexpredators.blogspot.com/
has no info verifying who all of these other emails are coming from and they started coming in to the site around September 12, 2006. The media has not made it clear that the IM's that are so disgusting were to the page in question regarding the Emails that were reported and looked into by the house committee responsible for the pages.
If Foley lied to them and the boys parents did not want to pursue the matter, what should Shimkus,Boehner, and Hastert have done?
How do we know that Hastert or others did not ask Foley to resign back then? WE DON'T! I am not sure how you go about removing a congressman from office but I'm pretty sure you have to do more than 'ask' them to go if they refuse.