Before last week, Hastert only knew that Foley had written some e-mails to a former page, and the page got annoyed. The e-mails were not of a sexual nature, but the young man and his parents wanted Foley to quit writing, so they asked Hastert's office to intervene, Hastert told Foley to cut it out, and as far as he knew, Foley did.
Hastert didn't know about the Instant Messages which were apprarently from 2003, and which WERE explicit. When he learned of them, he talked again to Foley and Foley resigned.
Hastert is not the dorm mother for those men. He is not responsible for what they do in their private lives, but he did the right thing by asking Foley to resign, when he did find out what Foley had done, because it involved young men who had served in the Page program in the House.
Thanks SuziQ. You post #118 is right on.