Posted on 10/05/2006 10:43:32 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert will take responsibility for the unfolding page sex scandal but insist he will stay on as leader of House Republicans, a House GOP official said Thursday, as leaders of the ethics committee weighed what action to take.
At a news conference in his home district in Illinois, Hastert will also ask the Ethics Committee to consider new rules so that anyone making inappropriate contact with pages be disciplined. In the case of staff, they would be fired; lawmakers would be subject to expulsion, the official said.
As Hastert huddled with aides to write a statement to be delivered at the news conference, the ethics panel opened an investigation into the unfolding scandal over Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s come-ons to teenage congressional pages and accusations — even by some Republicans — that House leaders failed to protect the teens.
The committee, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, sat in closed session to take up a matter that imperils Hastert's leadership and has stirred extraordinary GOP infighting with midterm elections barely a month away.
Leaders of the ethics panel said they would speak publicly about the session in early afternoon.
Hastert telephoned Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and asked for an outside expert to study the page program and recommend changes. Still, the official said that Hastert will try to draw a contrast with Democrats in past scandals, asserting he forced Foley's resignation as soon as he became aware of his contacts with young pages.
A former House aide said Wednesday that he alerted the speaker's staff more than three years ago that Foley's conduct was a problem.
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert talks to reporters about Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) in the Capitol in Washington October 2, 2006. The FBI is assessing whether Foley broke any laws when he sent sexually explicit e-mails to a male teen-age congressional page and leaders of both parties demanded full-scale investigations into another untimely scandal for the Republicans. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES)
Great Article from the American Thinker:
Worst October Surprise, EVER
October 5th, 2006
It had all the earmarks of a classic Democratic Party plan to depress Republican turnout. Take a barely disguised homosexual Republican Congressman, add salacious electronic messages that included masturbation, sex and other lurid flourishes, push the story to their eager and willing accomplices in the media right before an election, and as quick as you can say LBJ an instant scandal is created.
The only problem, it seems, is that in today’s world of media, with data available to the whole world that was heretofore available only to a select few, the plan didn’t work out quite the way they had expected. Enterprising bloggers have done the elemental detective work and discovered that the entire incident is nearly exactly the opposite of what was first reported.
Rather than a case of a pedophile Congressman stalking young men in the corridors of power, it instead turns out to be a case of a closeted homosexual nurturing a relationship with a young man, and making sexual advances once he became an adult. A relationship by the way that the young man, if he felt threatened or chose not to continue, could have ended at any time.
An older homosexual man seeking a relationship with a young man? Who would have thought such a thing would ever happen?
Rather than the Pedophile Politician script we were first being fed, we now know that the real story is far less than we have been lead to believe.
As it turns out, although the young man in question was indeed a Page, was indeed befriended by Congressman Foley and did have sexual discussions with him. But it seems everything was perfectly legal, if nevertheless repellant to many, including a good chunk of the GOP base whose turnout is vital in the forthcoming election. As a signatory of a Bill outlawing Internet sex between adults and minors, Foley was perfectly aware of the legal boundaries and seems to have taken great care to not cross that fine line until the young man became a legal adult.
While angry values voters fulminate over Hastert’s failure to do something before the IMs came to light, all I can remember is the Democrats’ mantra.
That the troglodyte Republicans were obsessed by sex between consenting adults.
That homosexuals in close working relationships with young people, especially young men, is a good and healthy thing.
That some forms of sex, aren’t sex.
That what two consenting adults do or say behind closed doors is their business.
That intercepting and reading electronic communications between anyone in the US, especially those between two citizens, is never to be tolerated.
And most of all, never be judgmental.
So in the end, what do we end up with?
A pedophile that wasn’t.
A child that was actually an adult.
The disclosure of personal electronic communications of a highly personal nature between two consenting adults revealed.
A sex scandal between a couple who never had sex.
That Democrat Congressmen can have sex with 17 year olds and get re-elected, but Republicans that talk about sex are forced to resign.
ABC news is made to look like a fool, hyping a story beyond the facts at hand.
Along with the infamous Texas Air National Guard documents of 2002, this latest attempt by the Democrats is not going according to plan, and I suspect it will have the same result at the Polls in November. Almost four weeks are left to digest the affair. Much remains to be discovered, but one thing is clear.
It is, without a doubt, the worst October Surprise, EVER.
Patrick Godfrey
This is all a load of crap...the 'minor ' was 18. FOUL!!!
i"M so enjoying watching Chris Matthews, Pat buchanan and a Wash Post reporter ramble on and on and on, dissecting Hastart without seeming to know anything about Hastert appointing Louis Freeh to investigate.
FOX NEwss has scoooped the poop on MSNBC again. Loving it!!!
isn't hastert like the capt. of a ship-he's the focus point of responsibility for the garbage we're witnessing-he needs to be sacrificed to demonstrate propriety, NOW.
That looks like a piece that Rush mentioned earlier. Thanks!
After that same aid, Fordham, had said the day before that he didn't have an "inkling" of Foley's problems with pages. An excerpt from another AP story:
Reynolds' chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, a past aide to former GOP Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, described his role in advising Foley as the scandal unfolded, but insisted he had “no inkling” of any sexual come-ons Foley made to teenage boys - and said Foley quickly admitted to him the messages were “probably” his.
Seems neither Fordham nor AP can get its story straight. What happened between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning that caused Fordham to change his story completely around?
No he doesn't ! We have buckled under the Democrats telling us who in our party must resign and when they must resign. We have emboldened them.
He needs to go out there and ask every congressman to turn over their email records. That would make this whole thing disappear instantly.
Uh...ok. Pretty sure there were quite a few more involde than just the one 'minor.'
I don't get it...are you an apologist for Foley? It appears you are, by calling this whole thing 'crap.'
I hope you took a shower after typing that.
I have a better idea. The Republicans shout out all of the Democrats who are porking pages. Out them all.
shout=should
If he had any b****, that's exactly what he would do.
Why didn't you post this story on the Live Thread?
(Just kidding. Thanks for posting.)
When will these politicians quit letting the MSM tell them what the public thinks????????
- Update - new ap title after Hastert spoke
Hastert apologizes but refuses to resign
WASHINGTON - The House ethics committee opened an expansive investigation into the unfolding page sex scandal Thursday by approving four dozen subpoenas for witnesses and documents, as the House Republican leader held his ground against pressure to resign.
"I'm deeply sorry this has happened and the bottom line is we're taking responsibility," Hastert said at a news conference outside his district office in Batavia, Ill.
"Ultimately, the buck stops here," the speaker said.
Hastert was abruptly changing the tactics he has followed since the scandal broke last week. As recently as Wednesday, he blamed Democrats for the scandal and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings (news, bio, voting record), R-Wash., said a newly formed subcommittee's investigation "will go wherever our evidence leads us."
Asked if embattled Hastert was among those subpoenaed, Hastings would not comment. Hastings said the subpoenas cover lawmakers and staff as well as appointed officers of the House.
The committee's senior Democrat, Rep. Howard Berman (news, bio, voting record) of California, said the investigation should take "weeks, not months."
Hastert praised the ethic committee's actions and said he would instruct his attorney to cooperate with the panel "in getting to the bottom of this."
"The committee is moving to get control of this situation and find answers to provide all of us peace of mind," he said in a statement earlier.
"Any person who is found guilty of improper conduct involving sexual contact or communication with a page should immediately resign, be fired, or subjected to a vote of expulsion," Hastert said.
A former Republican aide said Wednesday he had expressed concerns to top officials in Hastert's office about Foley's behavior with pages more than three years ago.
The ethics subcommittee will be made up of Hastings, Berman, Rep. Judy Biggert (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill., Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (news, bio, voting record), D-Ohio.
"We have ideological and philosophical differences," Berman acknowledged. "We are going to put those differences totally aside" for the investigation.
Hastert was said by officials in advance of the speaker's news conference to have planned to ask former FBI Director Louis Freeh to also examine the page system and make recommendations. But that did not immediately materialize, and Hastert did not broach the name at his news conference.
Republican and Democratic aides said Hastert called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to suggest Freeh, but that no decision was made.
U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert speaks about upcoming investigations into the sex scandal involving congessional pages and former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) during a news conference in Batavia, Illinois, October 5, 2006. REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)
U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert speaks about the sex scandal involving congressional pages and former U.S. Rep Mark Foley (R-FL) during a news conference in Batavia, Illinois, October 5, 2006. REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)
House Speaker Dennis Hastert resppnds to questions during a news conference outside his Bativia, Ill., office Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006. (AP Photos/Charles Rex Arbogast)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1714403/posts
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE MESSAGES WERE PAGE PRANK GONE AWRY
http://www.drudgereport.com/ ^
Posted on 10/05/2006 11:50:13 AM PDT by kcvl
Edited on 10/05/2006 12:10:43 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
>XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU OCT 5 2006 2:53:48 ET XXXXX
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE MESSAGES WERE PAGE PRANK GONE AWRY
**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**
According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.
According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats. This source, an ally of Edmund, also adamantly proclaims that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund.
The news come on the heels that former FBI Chief Louis Freeh has been named to investigate the mess.
Developing...
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