Please read the
Roll Call story. Nancy Pelosi (as usual) is politicizing something that shouldn't be all that political, and the media reports are picking up on her
press release. So far, it has only been reported that the House knew about the creepy (but not sexually explicit) e-mails from Foley to Representative Alexander's page during Hurricane Katrina. They knew nothing about the sexually explicit IMs that were only made public today.
Basically, when Representative Alexander learned about the e-mails, he told the Clerk of the House, who is responsible for managing the Page program. The Clerk told Representative Shimkus, and they began an investigation. They ultimately told Foley to knock it off and stop contacting the page. According to Roll Call, Speaker Hastert himself knew nothing, although a Hastert staffer was told about it.
As previously reported, Congressman Alexander also told Representative Boehner.
Okay, reading that IF that is how it happened, that's believeable.
As for this:
At least four Republican House Members, one senior GOP aide and a former top officer of the House were aware of the allegations about Foley that prompted the initial reporting regarding his e-mail contacts with a 16-year-old House page. They include: Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) and Reps. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), as well as a senior aide to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and former Clerk of the House Jeff Trandahl.
UGH.