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Staffer Cites Earlier Role by Hastert's Office
Washington Post ^ | 10/7/06 | Jonathan Weisman

Posted on 10/07/2006 1:16:07 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: foley; foleygate; fordham; hastert; shimkus; trandahl
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To: Elyse

Well, one of them is lying. Either Palmer or Fordage.
It looks like Trendaul was forced out as well.


41 posted on 10/07/2006 10:22:09 AM PDT by tennmountainman
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To: Cowboy Bob

"Is this staff member Gay too? It seems that everybody involved in this scandal is Gay!"

BINGO! Thats going to be the next story out of Washington. All these GOP gay staffers running around making decisions they have no business making.


42 posted on 10/07/2006 10:25:08 AM PDT by tennmountainman
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To: top 2 toe red

It's not a hit piece on Hasstert. It's a hit piece on the GOP Gay Staffer Cabal running around making decisions they have no business making.


43 posted on 10/07/2006 10:27:08 AM PDT by tennmountainman
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To: tennmountainman

"All these GOP gay staffers running around making decisions they have no business making."

I don't think it is the least bit homophobic or unfair to question whether key staffers may have witheld critical information or made decisions on issues that should have been referred to elected GOP leaders.


44 posted on 10/07/2006 10:37:51 AM PDT by spatso
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To: tennmountainman
Well, one of them is lying. Either Palmer or Fordage

I think Fordham is lying. He initially said that he didn't know anything about Foley's behavior. He changed his tune after ABC made public that he offered them an exclusive interview with Foley if they would not show the most elicit parts of the IMs. Then when the finger was pointed at him for trying to cover for Foley he was all but, but, but I told them about Foley a long time ago, yeah, uhhuh that's my story now, I warned them about Foley's behavior even though I said yesterday that I knew nothing about it. It was just all too convenient that he suddenly came clean when the monkey was on his back for his own unethical behavior.

45 posted on 10/07/2006 10:45:50 AM PDT by Elyse
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To: tennmountainman
It is most definitely a hit piece on Hastert.

Perhaps you need to read it again...and if after reading it again, you argue it reads otherwise, then you are just arguing SOMETHING you WANT the article to do, not what the article actually does do.

46 posted on 10/07/2006 10:53:58 AM PDT by top 2 toe red (To the enemy in Iraq..."Don't bet on American politics forcing my hand!" President Bush)
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To: spatso
Look, Foley is not your ordinary homosexual. Anybody heard of any of his little buddies being 30, 40, maybe 50 years of age?

How about any of his friends dieing of AIDS?

He likes the young crowd, but it's a very special young crowd ~ these guys like teenyboppers ~ eventually we are going to trace our route through one or more of the gay "kids" mixed up in this, and we will discover a bunch of 12 year olds at the end.

Ya' see, Foley didn't need to take this "to the Hill" ~ by contacting his targets only through ex-pages, he was able to make sure he had a wide variety of sources, all of which were NOT in the DC area.

47 posted on 10/07/2006 11:24:20 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: OldFriend

Maybe Pelosi did the hit herself.


48 posted on 10/07/2006 11:24:58 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: retMD

The IMs are of a much more recent vintange than the time/date stamps created for them. Try June of 2006.


49 posted on 10/07/2006 11:25:49 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: tennmountainman

All of them can be telling a slightly different "truth" and still not be lieing.


50 posted on 10/07/2006 11:26:59 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: tennmountainman
You know this same crowd was "detected" back during Richard Nixon's administration. These puffes were all over DC.

Ask Liddy who he thinks might have been among them ~ I'm sure he can name them ALL off, 1, 2, 3. Heckfar, I can name half a dozen!

That one kid who seems to have been the ringleader just hired a lawyer who'se ties go back to the Nixon Administration.

51 posted on 10/07/2006 11:29:18 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: top 2 toe red

I did read it again and you were right to point out that it is another unnamed source that says a meeting was held by Fordage and Hassterts aide.


52 posted on 10/07/2006 11:29:42 AM PDT by tennmountainman
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To: muawiyah

I suspect a set one with one of two scenarios. They were sexing up their contacts for a video or book and the other much more sinister......BLACKMAIL


53 posted on 10/07/2006 11:37:22 AM PDT by OldFriend (Should we wait for them to come and kill us again? President Karzai 9/26/06)
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To: top 2 toe red

This is a "sideways" hit piece on Hastert. That's because the intent is to "cover" for some homosexual friends of people at the WarshPost ~ maybe even one of them with links back to the Watergate scandal.


54 posted on 10/07/2006 11:37:35 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: OldFriend

OOOPSSSS. I suspect a SET UP


55 posted on 10/07/2006 11:38:10 AM PDT by OldFriend (Should we wait for them to come and kill us again? President Karzai 9/26/06)
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To: jwparkerjr

What if the intern had been a girl of similar age? Much of this is because Democrats want to rack publies for homophobia. Most of the heat comes because of the gay angle. Ironic coming from the homophiliac party. Hastert is being damned for going light on a closeted gay Republican who evidentally did not go beyond virtual sex, while Barney Franks is among their leadership?


56 posted on 10/07/2006 11:46:05 AM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: muawiyah
Anybody heard of any of his little buddies being 30, 40, maybe 50 years of age?

Howie Carr cited a story in the New York Daily News about a long-time partner of Foley's -- a dermatologist (I don't think many dermatologists are minors). I think I've seen a reference to other adult partners, but I don't recall where.

57 posted on 10/07/2006 11:53:29 AM PDT by maryz
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To: maryz

Interesting the MSM hasn't named "long term partner" ~ I think the guy's a loner with a special appetite, and it's not exactly older teenage boys, just their little friends they bring along with them.


58 posted on 10/07/2006 11:59:26 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
and it's not exactly older teenage boys, just their little friends they bring along with them.

Unless you have secret sources of info, you have no basis but your own fevered imagination for thinking that.

I did recall something, however, about adult partners. It was something saying that his neighbors knew he was gay (I don't know whether in PA or DC) because he always lived with a partner.

59 posted on 10/07/2006 1:32:19 PM PDT by maryz
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To: maryz

You missed the part where I knew of a similar situation right in this community ~


60 posted on 10/07/2006 1:37:04 PM PDT by muawiyah
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