Conservatives .. False Talking Point Defending Hastert’s Handling Of Foley

[struggle4progress]

Conservatives Propagate False Talking Point Defending Hastert’s Handling Of Foley Scandal

Conservatives Propagate False Talking Point Defending Hastert’s Handling Of Foley Scandal
Top conservatives have fanned out on television to defend House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s role in the Foley scandal.

A key talking point: when ABC made Foley’s sexually explicit communications public, Hastert “dealt with it immediately” by going to Foley and telling him, “Resign or be expelled.” Both Ken Mehlman and Ed Gillespie said Hastert’s bold ultimatum to Foley was something not seen “in thirty years in this town.”

In fact, their entire story is a fabrication. Hastert could not have issued an ultimatum to Foley after the sexually explicit instant messages were made public, because by that time, Foley had already resigned. ABC did not make Foley’s sexually explicit communications public until Friday, September 29, at 6pm ET. Foley had already resigned three hours earlier, at around 3pm ET.

As ABC producer Maddy Sauer has described, Foley decided to resign not after an ultimatum from Speaker Hastert, but after ABC called his office on Friday morning and read Foley staffers the instant messages they had obtained. According to Sauer, Foley’s office called ABC an hour later and said the congressman would be resigning ...

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/06/foley-lie/

[zoeb]

1. Hastert didn't deal with it soon enough

he should have started about 5 years ago.

[Erika]

2. Foley was like Newt & Livingston

He tucked his tail between his legs and ran like hell.

[philb]

3. Hastert directly implicated in knowledge that Foley was a pedophile

Hastert directly implicated in knowledge that Foley was a pedophile

Hastert Caught In Direct Falsehood About Foley in defense of his inactation in dealing with knowledge of Foley’s pedophile exploits
www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/oct/02/hastert_caught_in_fib_about_foley


USA TODAY, 10-12-06
The FBI has talked to Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who resigned and announced Hastert knew of page abuse at least 3 years ago. Fordham has said he told Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, about aspects of Foley's behavior sometime before 2004.
Two other House Republicans, Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York, have said they warned Hastert about Foley's attention to pages last spring. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., has said he told the House clerk's office in 2000 or 2001 about e-mails reported to his office by a page. Hastert has said he doesn't remember any of these conversations

Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., the head of the page board, will meet with the ethics committee today. Shimkus has said he confronted Foley last fall after Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., reported that parents of a former page he sponsored were concerned about messages Foley was sending their son. Shimkus took then-House clerk Jeff Trandahl to meet Foley but did not tell the other members of the page board.

GOP. Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) was apparently the first member of Congress to know about Foley's trolling for underage kids online. Alexander was the former boss of one of the pages who Foley chatted up. Alexander says that he then contacted the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (the body in charge of electing Republicans to the House), Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY). Reynold's chief of staff is Kirk Fordham, the former chief of staff and former campaign director to Mark Foley, who admits that he was aware of Foley’s actions.

Kirk Fordham, who worked as Foley's chief of staff for 10 years, returned to Foley's side to advise him during the past couple of days. In other words, Alexander wasn't interested in reporting this to the authorities, he was interested in helping Foley by approaching "friends of Foley"? Fordham is still Reynolds' chief of staff. Why is Reynolds' chief of staff now advising Foley on this mess? This simply adds to the inherent conflicts of interest that have dogged this "investigation" from the beginning. (Fordham has since resigned since his longtime involvement became highly embarrassing to Repub. Leadership)


On page 186 of Hastert's autobiography he brags that he has a good memory and remembers all. This hardly jibes with Hastert's bizarre story that he didn't remember Tom Reynolds or John Boehner or various aides warning him about Foley after it was apparent to anyone who didn't have his head up his ass that Foley was a dangerous child predator and a severe danger to the congressional page program.