In D.C. the page was of the age of consent.
But I ask you to focus on the facts and not which party is the most moral. (We know the answer to that one.)
The facts are that like the newspapers which first had and held the story, Hastert had nothing more than innocuous emails and could not pursue this further because the parents insisted the privacy of the complainant be respected. They asked only that Foley stop further contact, and that the Republican leaders demanded of him/
I'm not willing to let House leadership off that easily.
They knew that they had someone who crossed the line, and they just took him at his word that he hadn't done more? Why didn't they bother to investigate him? When kids are involved, certainly a cautious approach is justified.
If they had, these IMs would undoubtedly surfaced. The pages were being warned to stay away from this guy - this guy's preference wasn't exactly a secret around the Capitol.