Staffer Cites Earlier Role by Hastert's Office

Washington Post ^ | 10/7/06 | Jonathan Weisman

[conservative in nyc]

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff confronted then-Rep. Mark Foley about his inappropriate social contact with male pages well before the speaker said aides in his office took any action, a current congressional staff member with personal knowledge of Foley and his behavior with pages said yesterday.

The staff member said Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, met with the Florida Republican at the Capitol to discuss complaints about Foley's behavior toward pages. The alleged meeting occurred long before Hastert says aides in his office dispatched Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.) and the clerk of the House in November 2005 to confront Foley about troubling e-mails he had sent to a Louisiana boy.

The staff member's account buttresses the position of Foley's onetime chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who said earlier this week that he had appealed to Palmer in 2003 or earlier to intervene, after Fordham's own efforts to stop Foley's behavior had failed. Fordham said Foley and Palmer, one of the most powerful figures in the House of Representatives, met within days to discuss the allegations.

Palmer said this week that the meeting Fordham described "did not happen." Timothy J. Heaphy, Fordham's attorney, said yesterday that Fordham is prepared to testify under oath that he had arranged the meeting and that both Foley and Palmer told him the meeting had taken place. Fordham spent more than three hours with the FBI on Thursday, and Heaphy said that on Friday he contacted the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to offer his client's cooperation.

"We are not preparing to cooperate. We are affirmatively seeking to," Heaphy said.

Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean declined to directly comment on the second House staff member's assertion, saying that it is a matter for a House ethics committee investigation.

[spatso]

"They are all gay ~ think of it as a lover's spat, but with 25 or 30 participants."

And, is it possible that there are real victims in this matter?

[mtntop3]

The Clintons and the Clintonites will, without conscience, coldly use people, including gays and lesbians, in anyway for their own ambitions.

[bray]

PravdABDNC Unnamed Source=Lies

Milk this for all your worth DNC, what does Bawney Fwank think of this Chickenhawk and are you for cutting taxes?

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[tobyhill]

drip, drip, drip,,,
If these anonymous sources plan on testifying honestly why would they have a problem disclosing their names now since their name will be known anyway? The more they keep this story going with the same old, same old the more people will be turned off of it knowing it's become just a lying political ploy by the MSM. Most people are aware of what happens in the work force when their is inappropriate conduct by an employee, legal or illegal, they get canned and that's what happened here nothing more nothing less.

[jwparkerjr]

Just look at all the grief the Boy Scouts of America organization has taken because they want to prevent admitted homosexual men from being scout masters. And it's the Lefties and the MSM that lead the charge to say how homophobic it is to consider a person's sexual preferences when it comes to being around young people. I would like to think this sudden interest in gay men and their access to younger boys means the Left and the MSM have had a change of heart and will now support the BSA's position. Dream on.

[muawiyah]

The straights who are cowed by feel-good PC stuff about gays might be considered victims, but only of themselves.

[spatso]

I don't believe for a moment that Foley has not compromised some under age kid along the way. That is what trolls do.

[muawiyah]

Well, whatever, but he was crusing for an older age group in all the instances we now know about. However, should we find him involved with children then we cut him into 20 pieces, right?

[spatso]

"However, should we find him involved with children then we cut him into 20 pieces, right?"

No, I would prefer to take one part and cut it into 20 pieces. I have to be careful, this is a subject for which I seem to have a lot of anger and I tend to overreact when people sound like they are trying to rationalize Folley's behavior or anyone else who may have tried to cover up for him

[Seattle Conservative]

"a current congressional staff member with personal knowledge of Foley and his behavior with pages said yesterday."
"Is this staff member Gay too? It seems that everybody involved in this scandal is Gay!"

Possibly. I'm wondering if they're a Dim - - the article just says 'current congressional staff member'. For all we know, they could be a staff member for Pelosi or Botox Babs - -btw I don't recall seeing or hearing from Babs in a while. She's usually very vocal when it comes to bashing Pubbies and, I may have missed it, but don't think she's been out on this.

[muawiyah]

We still need evidence before we move on to that "parts" business.

Some of what he was doing looks like he was trying to avoid what it is that we think he was really up to.

Kind of like the folks who shoplift for the thrill of it ~ then drop it off in a cart at the checkout register. He gets close but not too close ~ and there's gotta' be a name for that one!

I suspect some Dems with first class "gaydar" targeted this Foley guy to use him to harm the Republicans.

[SunkenCiv]

Bad news for the Lefties and MSM, you can't have it both ways! Either the House leadership ignored or didn't ignore Rep. Foley's penchant for comely pages. Having someone step forward and say that Foley was 'counseled' long before Hastert's office says they dealt with it the first time makes this a matter of how Foley was dealt with, not a matter of cover-up. Of course they will decry the gentle manner in which the situation was handled, but the truth is it was indeed addressed. Perhaps we could learn from the Democrats. Maybe they would be so kind as to point out an instance in which they dealt firmly and publicly with one of their members where 'everyone knew there was a problem."

Well put. Of course, having it both ways (i.e., heads they win tails we lose) is an option for them, ordinarily, because of the partisan media shills. I guarantee that the DNC agitprop apparatus will be barking on the Sunday shows. Most media folks however have learned a bit from RatherGate.

[spatso]

"He gets close but not too close"

Don't think so, if he was a perp he acted out. The only question is whether he has covered his tracks well enough to avoid short term detection. Usually, the more power they have the more sloppy they get. Also, the greater the risk the greater the sexual pleasure. So, they keep acting out with ever increasing risk and it is only a matter of time before it falls a part.

[top 2 toe red]

Where in this article did you read, "Scott Palmer's denial is changing" or "his memory is returning?"

Some UNIDENTIFIED staffer is blabbering that Palmer knew bla-bla-bla and Fordham and his ATTORNEY are yapping , he knew, bla-bla-bla... I found no where in this WP Hastert hit piece that it says Palmer is backpedaling.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping....alerting others.....

[muawiyah]

Let me state that again ~ BASED ON THE EVIDENCE we have, he simply didn't cross the line into gross illegality ~

That doesn't mean he never does so, just that we haven't caught him yet.

So, let's go a step further ~ Foley likes the young ones but he doesn't go after them directly all by himself. Instead, he finds a 17 or 18 year old to serve as his surrogate procurer.

Remember, even pedophiles were teenagers once upon a time.

Might be interesting to see what these young fellows he was chasing were into.

There was a murder in this area a few years back where an older pedophile (in his 40s) had compromised a 17 year old pedophile to track down and rape an 11 year old.

That 11 year old used to come over to this neighborhood from his own on his bicycle and ride up and down this very long cul d'sac BTW, so we knew the kid.

Anyway, the older boy caught and raped the younger boy, and then he and the older pedophile killed the kid and tossed his body into a lake in their own neighborhood.

I know this thesis doesn't get Gary Condit off the hook either, but may I suggest a thorough, indepth criminal investigation by experienced investigators may well find more nastiness in this case than anyone ever imagined.

That, BTW, will only get Nancy Pelosi and her gang of girl lesbian politicos into deeper trouble since the case could have been solved sooner if they hadn't played around with the evidence waiting for a campaign.

[spatso]

"Foley likes the young ones but he doesn't go after them directly all by himself. Instead, he finds a 17 or 18 year old to serve as his surrogate procurer."

You may be more suspicious than I am. Usually this kind of stuff is pretty transparent once it starts to fall apart. Once they get his hard drive, telephone calls and travel schedule they will put the full story together in days. When they start asking questions of staffers and pages they will already know the answers.

My guess is a bit less ambitious than yours. I think that Foley was trolling for adolescents and for the most part he kept it away from his work. In more recent years he increased the risk around Congress and the gay staffers around him panicked because he was putting them all at risk because of his behavior. So, my guess is, if there is a cover up it is by the gay staffers that knew what was going on but kept the key Congressmen out of the loop. As I say that is pure speculation on my part.

I feel sorry for Hastert, I do believe he was deceived, he did not know what was going on. Politically the President right from day one has set a clear tone that we should all consider fallowing. He and Tony Snow said something along the lines of "I am shocked, disappointed, disgusted, now we also need to talk about some other issues."

[OldFriend]

I called Pelosi's office yesterday. Said that I agreed completely that it was time for a woman to clean house and suggested that Congresswoman Pelosi begin at her good friend Gary Condit's house.

The media is afraid to bring Condit into this story because he sued and won several outlets for suggesting he was guilty of a crime.

But I am not afraid to suggest he might have been guilty of murdering Chandra Levy or having someone murder her for him.

Nancy Pelosi endorsed Condit for re-election.

[retMD]

I suspect some Dems with first class "gaydar" targeted this Foley guy to use him to harm the Republicans.

You seriously believe this was a strategy created in the late 1990's and held for just this midterm election? That dems somehow made Foley send these IMs to former pages? A bit far out there, no?

I have no doubt the dems are now happily pushing the stories along, screaming themselves hoarse and trying to create a situation beyond what might exist, but to say they caused the whole thing is absurd.

[Neverforget01]

Call me crazy, but I have a teenage son. I can just picture 16,17 and 18 year olds discovering Foley was gay and egging him on. I know it's mean, but these are not dumb kids being led astray--they were having a blast ripping on the guy. How on earth would Hastert have known?

Would Pelosi and crew do any better?--Heck they won't listen in on terrorists much less invade the privacy of anyone's emails. The whole thing is silly. Foley is gone as he should be--he's creepy. Fact is he didn't probably didn't do anything illegal, knows it was immoral, and resigned. I'm still waiting for any Democrat to resign over anything, they fight and Republicans resign.

Being from NJ I know all about Dem games and corruption. Kean just lost my vote in calling for Hastert's resignation-he did it not out of priciple, but political expediency. Makes no difference if it's Menedez or Kean.