Posted on 10/06/2006 8:59:51 AM PDT by stm
Calling the timing "suspicious," House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said the delay in disclosing former Rep. Mark Foley's improper messages to male pages has put kids at risk.
In an interview with NewsMax.com late Thursday, Hastert said anyone who knew of the sordid instant messages Foley was sending to congressional pages should have notified authorities immediately.
"If somebody knew of these messages and didn't come forward, they're putting kids in jeopardy -- for a year, for a month or for a day," the Illinois Republican said. Press reports indicate that several of Mark Foley's instant messages were three years old. Other media outlets have confirmed that one or more third parties were shopping a story about Foley's e-mail almost a year ago.
As evidence that Democrats were involved in the timing, Hastert said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had Foley's explicit electronic messages before Hastert did.
"The DCCC was ready to go," Hastert said. "We were told by sources that they had that information on a Thursday night before we did, or Wednesday. They were up ahead of us for a day before we ever knew it was going to happen [on Friday]."
Hastert said the messages came out "on the last day after Foley can't get his name off the ballot, and we're leaving for a national campaign, and then this thing falls. It's kind of an October surprise, I guess you'd call it."
When he saw the Washington Times editorial calling for his resignation, Hastert said he wondered what Tony Blankley, the editorial page editor, was thinking.
"Why didn't he talk to me?" Hastert asked. "I've known him for years. I could've told him a lot of things that he took for granted that weren't necessarily right. I'm not angry. I figure this is politics. I've learned that you don't get angry in this business, because if you do, you don't get too many things done."
If he resigned as speaker, Hastert said, "That would throw us in a whole speaker's race right in the middle of an election, which means we wouldn't get our message out. And I think that would be cataclysmic to the party, it'd be cataclysmic for our message, and would not be good, period, for anybody."
President Bush on Thursday called Hastert to thank him for the way he has handled the matter.
"The president thanked him for going out and making a clear public statement that said the House leadership takes responsibility and is accountable," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
Also yesterday, the House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to set up an investigative subcommittee to look into the scandal.
On Thursday in an appearance outside his district office in Batavia, Ill., Hastert said he and Republican House leaders were "taking responsibility" in the matter and that "the buck stops here." But he said he personally has not "done anything wrong,"
Most accounts in the mainstream press report that Hastert's office was told about Foley's more innocuous messages last fall. They usually do not add that his office took immediate action or that the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times saw the same messages and thought they were simply "friendly chit chat" and not worth a story.
In fact, after being told that the e-mails were "over-friendly" but not sexual, Hastert's office informed the clerk of the House, who contacted Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., the chairman of the Page Board. Shimkus and the clerk then met with Foley, a Florida Republican, and told him he should cease any communication with the page who had received the messages.
Hastert's office never saw the messages because of a desire by the page's mother to protect his privacy.
"You know, the press has its own values and where it wants to be," Hastert said. "The fact is I really didn't know any of this stuff until last Friday, almost a week ago. And when I did, Foley was gone within an hour."
Immediately following the disclosures of Foley's explicit messages last Friday, Hastert asked attorney general Alberto Gonzalez to begin a federal probe of Foley and the case.
Double Standard
That "didn't necessarily happen" with past scandals involving congressmen such as Republican Daniel B. Crane of Illinois and Democrat Gerry Studds of Massachusetts, Hastert said. "But we acted when we found out. So in that sense, there is a double standard [in the way the press has treated the current scandal and the Republican leadership]."
Hastert said he looked out the window of his home in Illinois last night and saw at least a dozen trucks.
"I thought I was in Folsom Prison with lights shining on my house and in the windows and in the bedroom," he said. "I thought. ‘Man, what's going on here?' That was at three o'clock in the morning. So the press is there, and they're feeding on this, and I don't think they have much more to talk about in Washington right now, so it's just full time. They're looking for a story, for sure."
As for claims by Kirk Fordham, a former aide to Foley, that he informed Hastert's office of problems with Foley and pages at least two years ago, Hastert said, "You know, people are making accusations that haven't been proven. We're going to have an investigation, we've got the FBI and the Justice Department and the attorney general in Florida doing investigations, plus the House ethics committee. I hope to get down to the bottom of this -- who knew when, where, whatever."
Referring to Fordham, Hastert said, "I know what he is saying now, and what he said two or three days ago, that he worked for the man for 10 years, and he [Foley] never did anything wrong. So there's a little discrepancy in the descriptions here."
Fordham's lawyer named Scott Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff, as one of the people Fordham allegedly talked with about Foley's inappropriate behavior with pages. Fordham said the discussion took place sometime between 2002 and 2004.
Palmer said, "What Kirk Fordham said did not happen."
Louis Freeh
Hastert said he talked with former FBI Director Louis Freeh about heading the investigation into the page scandal, but Freeh said he would have to have the agreement of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
"I ran that by her, and she just wasn't going to do anything," Hastert said.
Asked if he thinks the page program should be ended, Hastert said, "We've had the page program since 1822. A lot of people in politics today came through the page program and learned a lot from it. It's a huge chance in a lifetime to do something like that if a kid's interested in government. But on the other hand, I've asked that we bring a blue ribbon panel to make sure whatever we do in the future is safe. I think that's [ending the program] one of the alternatives we honestly have to look at. We're going to find the best people, and we're going to work at it."
Hastert said the scandal will have some effect in the November elections. But he said, "I think most of these races are local races, and they're going to vote on what their congressman says that he or she is going to do. But it does affect some people. What we need to do is turn it around, and I hope we can quickly."
No Ideas
Hastert said the Democrats will feed on the scandal because they have no ideas or substantive strategy for improving and protecting the country.
"What we try to do, and what we have done, is try to move forward on our border security issues; we've done that," Hastert said. "We also have taken on terrorism and passed a lot of legislation on that. We've got the best economy we've had in years, with the stock market as high as it's ever been in the history of the U.S."
In addition, "We've cut taxes and kept those tax cuts," he said. "So as a result, the economy's been great. And we've worked on energy independence, and we want to continue to work on that. So I think we have a good message to tell the American voter. I don't think the Democrats have a good message. So I think probably this whole issue of scandal just hits their agenda quite well.
Not yet. Nice try!
Agreed, but I would like to know why Pelosi et. al. refuse to testify under oath... (send 'em all subpoenas.)
Needs to be repeated. Shows the dramatic difference between how the two parties address this kind of nonsense.
and brew some coffee,...you'll be reading for awhile:
When he saw the Washington Times editorial calling for his resignation, Hastert said he wondered what Tony Blankley, the editorial page editor, was thinking.
"Why didn't he talk to me?" Hastert asked. "I've known him for years.
-----
Blankly never called and asked for an interview to get the facts of what Hassert knew before printing that attack ?
Thanks for another short and clear summary/reply:
"Needs to be repeated. Shows the dramatic difference between how the two parties address this kind of nonsense."
Kinda makes you wonder about 2008, doesn't it?
One thing we should NOT do is STOP talking about this in this forum. We need to get enraged over the Dems trying to use sexual predation on kids to take over the Congress.
That's why it's dangerous to go off half cocked like the conservative pundits have been doing the last few days. Hastert did this the RIGHT way, asking for a formal investigation immediately!
Pray tell what is that Rove is working on?Can you give the surprise away?
Actually he said this on the very first day, when he wrote the letter to the Attorney General asking for an investigation. That fact seems to have gotten lost in all the screaming for his head.
The Dems have no ideas, no plans, no answers, no solutions for anything. That is why they are talking 24/7 about Foley--they have nothing else to talk about! As long as everyone is talking about this, they aren't asking the Dems any questions. They figure they can just take over every seat up for election by sliding in on the slime trail of Foley. We are too intelligent to fall for this garbage, folks.
Mayor Street of Philadelphia is working hard to throw the Boy Scouts out of their digs here because they refuse to accept homosexual leaders. I'm wondering if Foley and his predatory friends have made attempts to infiltrate this organization. Mayor Street obviously would rather have underprivileged boys out on the street dodging bullets, and the death toll is horrendous out there, than being part of a wonderful organization for boys which does not allow homosexual leaders. The Supreme Court has already ruled on this issue in favor of the BSA. Makes me sick.
That thread I linked to might be the most resonable place to start...
This will have a major impact on the War On Terror if the DEMONICRATS Capture the House....which is what this is all about!
Don't look for that to happen,....do expect them to not talk much more about it.....
Not a clue. But if I know Rove, it should be decisive.
Hi Ernest, thanks for the link. I've been on some of the back room operation threads including the World Net Daily story about that a-hole gay activist. On some of them I just didn't make any comments though I did read the material. But yes, I was busy on these threads yesterday but I'm running out of interest on the story other than on any of the "back room operation" type stories that come out indicating this may have been a total hatchet job. Let me know if you find anything else that's interesting.
Foley Setup? - Part XIV - Putting it together
****************************AN EXCERPT *****************************
Bit h/t to the Commenters at Just One Minute. We bloggers owe our best work to their diligence and tenacity. The following is a complilation of some what they found so far, of what just may be the key to getting to the bottom of a Democratic conspiracy in the Foley Setup.
As I previously posted here, there apparently was a promise of a book deal to pages by a Robin Kasaros. Googling her name brought about useful information such as she hosted “House Parties” back in 2005. No, not where you sell Tupperware, but the kind that like to talk about things like, “Impeaching the President”. This was found on uber Moonbat, and Air America Host Randi Rhoades website:
“Hi. Randi, Ambassador Joe Wilson and Cong John Conyers are all participating in house parties on Saturday to talk about Downing Street and Rovegate. You can find a link to attend or host one of the house parties on therandirhodesshow.com.
More than 200 have already been planned everywhere from Buffalo to San Francisco, Sandpoint, Idaho to Rock Hill, South Carolina.Here’s the full list of house parties planned so far.
Listed at the bottom of the page:
Robin Katsaros 12900 Atherton Ct. Los Altos Hills CA 94022.
On a another post on the Alumni website (Google cached), her response to the progress of the book was posted:
“Hello all, Yes, the book is still in progress. Outline is complete. Four of the fifteen chapters are in rough draft form (the chapters with input from previous Pages has not been completed - this part will take the longest since I have to spend so much time interviewing people and I’ve left this part until the end, although I have received some input from a very few people.) I have an agent (my husband is a published author), but no publisher yet. I am also working with a company that let’s you self publish, sort of Print on Demand. And yes, you do get assigned an ISBN and it will be available at all the major book sellers. So I will do that if my agent can not get a publisher interested. Pictures have not been chosen, many more edits to go through. It’s a long process. I’ve had to squeeze it in with my other responsibilities, so it’s taking longer than I thought. But it IS going to happen, at some point in time. Thanks, Robin Katsaros
Now who is Robin? Well besides being supportive of the John Conyers agenda, you know “Get the majority, Impeach Bush”, her son is Christopher Karasos who was a congressional page who was appointed by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
From his bio page
“CHRISTOPHER KATSAROS is a sophomore at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He grew up in Los Altos Hills, CA–just outside of San Francisco. ***Christopher served his junior year of High School working as a Congressional Page by appointment of Nancy Pelosi, currently the Democratic House Leader***. In addition to politics, Chris also enjoys shopping, artichokes, the sun and summer in general. Next semester, Christopher will be going to Dakar, Senegal, where he will go to school and work for an NGO (as well as doing some work with the Peace Corps).
According to Chris’s My Space.com page, Chris lists his orientation as “Gay”.
It also lists this blurb he wrote about himself:
I am very open minded and active in the Democratic Party. My junior year of high school I was a Congressional Page.
According to his age, approximately 21 this would have put him in the congressional page assignment in 2003, or around the same time as Edmund.
As you remember from Drudge’s blockbuster yesterday, it was a “source” that stated they knew Edmund and that it all was a prank, an accusation that Edmund’s criminal attorney of course denies.
Now would all this be the reason that Madem Pelosi was so defensive about taking polygraphs? What did she know about Chris? When did she know it?
Much more to come!
UPDATE: On another thread, AJ Strata is ripping the veracity of CREW’s emails to shreds, shades of Dan Rather redux.
More too with Clarice Feldman at American Thinker, and here.
Politics News elections mark foley
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FIRST I HAVE HEARD OF A BOOK DEAL other than what Edmonds..(sp ) was trying to do....
And they'd have dug up his entire sexual history by now. Maybe we need to learn to play a little hardball like the Dems. do. But then, do I really want to sink to their level? Anyway, Ross was right to report that Foley may have had improper communications with a page. But he is dead wrong to not report on any of the mitigating information emerging including that the worst of the IMs was with an 18 year old, that they were egging on Foley for grins and that this stuff fell into the hands of Democratic operatives. Ross is refusing to admit his source on this is a partisan one which tells me Ross has been co-opted and is thus fair game for criticism. In addition, he continues to make unsupported claims about additional pages who have no evidence of what they allege. That's just yellow journalism.
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