TPM: "Big, big trouble" -Republican leadership knew for nearly a year

[Rose Siding]

Big. Big Trouble.

We caught wind of this and tried our damneddest to confirm it this afternoon. But we weren't able to. Rep. Alexander's office wasn't eager to return out calls.

But now the AP has the story. And here's why there may be a lot more fall out from the Rep. Foley (R-FL) story.

The page in question worked for Rep. Rodeny Alexander (R-LA). And the page brought the matter of his contacts with Foley to the congressman's attention via a staffer, who I'm told has since left Rep. Alexander's employ.

Here's the key passage from the AP article ...

The page worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents. Alexander told the Ruston Daily Leader, "We also notified the House leadership that there might be a potential problem," a reference to the House's Republican leaders.
I assume that passage doesn't need much unpacking. But let's do it anyway.

So Rep. Alexander knew about this 10 or 11 months ago. And he says he notified the House leadership. That means Hastert and (at the time) either Tom DeLay or Rep. Blunt (R-MO). We don't know it was either of those three men yet. But that's what Alexander means when he says he "notified the House leadership." They're the House leadership.

If I'm understanding this correctly, that means that the leaders of the House Republican caucus have known for almost a year that a member of their caucus was having cybersex with an underage congressional page. And apparently they did nothing about it.

I think this story is about to get a lot bigger.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010054.php

There's some discrepancy about whether it was House leadership or the NRCC that was alerted. Either way, systemic corruption abounds.

[MissWaverly]

1. and we're surprised, they are so used to hiding everything

there is no accountability at all, none, if a congressman robbed a bank at gunpoint, they
would say that he did not steal the money because the bank was just making a campaign
contribution

[Erika]

2. They ought to be prosecuted for purposely endangering a minor

It will also be interesting to see how John Walsh takes this. He worked closely with Foley on predator lists, etc.

[Oceansaway]

6. Walsh wont touch this....

his ass is so far up these repukes asses it makes me hurl....

[Erika]

7. If Walsh wants to remain credible, he will touch on this

Foley is the predator type he warns against.

[StClone]

37. I can not bring myself to e-mail Walsh

But If some one were to ask him to speak publicly on Foley and ALL the Republican pedophiles and child abusers, I'd commend them.

Foley is already a hot topic on America's Most Wanted board.

http://forums.prospero.com/foxamw/messages/?msg=10058.1

[DoYouEverWonder]

42. Want to make a bet?

Actually, that wouldn't be fair. See my post #40 for the answer.

[DoYouEverWonder]

40. John Walsh's Organization - "He will be missed"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2265696&mesg_id=2265696

[sweetheart]

3. K & R

The republican gay movement for underage sex has to be outed, all the congressional
and white house phone records should be made public so we can spy on these criminal louts
to make sure they've not stolen anything or fucked a child today... every day goes by,
its another republican pervert doin' some crimes off reservation. I#fve fucking had it
with that stuff, its not embarassing, its heinous, truly degenerate and criminal,
that the entire republican leadership has been covering up an underage sexual
perversion ring inside the congress.

Treason against american children could become a firing squad penalty, especially
for a public servant given priviledged trust. That they hid their perverts
shows that there's more to cover up, like abu grahib, its only the beginning,
there are other republicans who are in an organized pattern of abuse, and the RICO
statutes should be brought in to play to take down the republican gang.

[Dora]

26. And by following your line of thinking...

One could reasonably compare this to the systemic abuse and corruption within the Catholic Church.

[sweetheart]

34. Not that forgivable, i'm afraid

Here in the secular world, racketeers go down, pervert rings go down
and if the church of republican criminality sins against god, then
when an old testemant god crushes them with a big hammer, they'll expect it.

[StClone]

39. Are you saying

There ar MORE cases like this? Come on this is an isolated case! Show me the proof. If you do find more information I dare you to send it to Keith Olbermann. I dare you! :sarcasm: :evilgrin:

I can't believe the God Squad Born Aw-god-not-againers have hooked their wagon to a falling pedophile star party (along with a myriad of other faults).

Sex will be the one topic that WILL get the stupids step away from the CooCooCons.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. Who is Alexander's Democratic opponent, and will (s)he go negative?

[Greeby]

15. Gloria Williams Hearn is the name at The Green Papers

No website link and FEC report available.

Alexander was elected as a Dem in 02 and switched to being a Puke in August 04

[ProgressiveEconomist]

17. Pardon my naievete, but what are the "Green Papers"? Do you have

a Link?

[Greeby]

20. THe Green Papers is your friend

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/

I've been using it all year for information on Congressional races

[ProgressiveEconomist]

23. Thanks! Great website!

[ProgressiveEconomist]

25. Hastert's opponent, John Laesch, has an easy-to-remember websitename:

http://john06.com

[kestrel91316]

5. Isn't there some FEDERAL law requiring reporting of any even

suspected, let alone known, child abuse to be reported to the authorities (law enforcement, not political leaders) within a very short period of time??????

[Erika]

9. Some were saying there are laws that demand those who

know of child abuse to notify the authorities of the abuse. But this is a top ranking GOP official, so who knows. Whose leaders control the country. When it gets down to will any of them be prosecuted for the child abuse, who knows?

They are only child terrorists from within the GOP.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. There is such a law, but it relates to professionals

such as doctors, psychologists, social workers, teachers, etc. who come across suspected child abuse. I personally have had to make such reports, & I've had to insist that people I was supervising do so.

[Erika]

18. So a GOP Rep serving on the Ways & Means Committee

and the chairman of the exploited children group, is not a professional?

[Jackpine Radical]

27. There is a statutory list of professionals who are mandated to report.

The individual state's statutes would be the governing authority. Or I assume Federal law covering DC.

[StClone]

43. And further

What is the difference between pedophile Senator Mark Foley being the Chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children and an Oil Executive being head of Energy Policy?

A: None.

I think America is going to wake up to the long list of Republican pedophile/child sexual abusers as well as what Republicanism is behind the curtain..

[kestrel91316]

19. I am a veterinarian and IIRC I am one of those professionals that is

expected to report suspected child abuse. I have no idea how I am supposed to RECOGNIZE it as it's not my field of expertise. No idea who to report it to, either. LAPD would just laugh at me if I called them about it. Sheesh. I fix kitty booboos for a living.

[man4allcats]

45. If, as a CA resident, you ever suspect child abuse,

you may find this helpful. You can find almost anything with Google.

[SharonAnn]

36. Florida has a law that anyone who knows must report.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. I'll bet that when Republicans criminally conspire to cover up

child abuse, they get the same "Free Pass" that the Catholic Church heirarchy always gets. But I could be wrong.

[Erika]

12. True. Very similar situation

The pedophile priests and their leaders were largely given a pass.

[rodeodance]

11. How did they think they could cover something like this up. WHOW

[Erika]

13. Like they've covered up everything else

But this is a minor. You know the GOP care so much about children.

[AlCzervik]

14. and i bet that the boys parents have been waiting for the house

"Leadership" to step up and do something and when they saw they weren't going to they probably told Hastert they were going public and thats why this all coming out now. Instead of doing the right thing and by right i mean correct they did the "Right" thing and by that i mena the republican thing.

[A Brand New World]

16. I heard on Countdown that the pages were even warned to stay

away from Foley. Can't remember who said it though - if it was Keith or the other reporter he had on with the story. But to me that's damning in itself. Shows they clearly knew there was a problem and that was the extent of how they were going to deal with the problem. Just tell the kids to watch out for the perv! It must have been this summer's kids who received the warning. I'm assuming this kid involved was from the summer of 2005.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

21. I heard the same thing on ABC News Friday evening:

A page or former page was quoted as having said, 'his entire class was warned about Foley by people involved in the program"

[A Brand New World]

28. That maybe where I heard it too. Just couldn't remember. I

watched ABC Nightly news tonight since I knew they were the ones who broke the story. Normally I watch NBC. But that is just so disgusting trying to cover up the whole thing and even letting the pervert run for re-election. If they were serious about solving the problem they would have at least quietly told him to not run again - resign to spend more time with his family. The usual coverup story. Obviously they just didn't care enough to even get him out of his position of authority. Hopefully he'll be spending some time in jail. Who knows though given the Bizarro World we now live in.

[Erika]

22. Hastert and the bunch of the GOP needs to be tossed into jail

for their total ineptness and lack of caring for our kids, versus caring about their power. This is their stain on the blue dress.

[featherman]

24. tick...tock...tick...tock... will the media go after the REAL story here?

The cover up by the House leadership?

[Rose Siding]

29. Alexander says he told Boner, too! link-

snip>
The page worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents.

Alexander said he also notified House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio.

"I don't know what action (the House leadership) took," Alexander said.

Boehner could not be reached for comment Friday night.

Alexander said he believed the e-mails were inappropriate.

"It certainly wasn't something I would say to a young man or woman," Alexander said. "Obviously (the teenager) thought there was something wrong with it."

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060929/NEWS01/309290002/1075

Then Boner tosses it back to Hastert. From WP's write-up-

snip>
House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of some "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and that Hastert assured him "we're taking care of it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901574.html

[City Lights]

44. I love the liberty you took in spelling Boehner's name.

:evilgrin:

[meldroc]

30. Wow, this is huge!!! But...

Not just that Foley was molesting minors, but that the House was covering it up!

And despite all the Republican pressure, the media absolutely cannot resist a juicy sex scandal, and each outlet knows that if they don't get the scoop on the House coverup, someone else will.

It will be huge, and it may likely cost the Republicans control of Congress. It already cost them one seat.

I am afraid of one potentially very bad effect. The fundamentalist, conservative base of the Republican party does tend to get pedophilia confused with homosexuality, so the Republicans and people like Pat Robertson are likely to spin this incident to blame it on homosexuality, and spark all sorts of vicious attacks on the gay community, refusing to acknowledge that most gay relationships are between consenting adults.

[Straight Shooter]

31. Remember how Clinton was demonized for an affair with a "girl"?

Yes, the right wing referred to Monica constantly as a girl, even though she was a grown woman, and Clinton was demonized as some sort of dirty old man for messing with her.

How about that, lurking freepers? Makes your head just want to explode, doesn't it, what with all those chickens coming home to roost.

[Mr_Spock]

32. Don't you know? It's OK for Republicans to commit crimes and be perverts

They are "protecting" us after all...

:eyes:

[pa28]

33. Republicans enabling pedophiles.

Attention "Values voters" and rapture groupies. By biblical standards Republican Washington should be buried in hot sulphur balls.

Delay, Foley, Gingrich, Cunningham, Gannon, Abramhoff, Ney. These are just the ones that happened to slip out.

[AzDar]

35. So, Hastert was "CODDLING" a predator? n/t

[Lars39]

38. So the man third in line of succesion to be POTUS protected a pedophile.

For a year or more.

What did Cheney and Bush know, and when did they know it?

[pdxmom]

41. I'm going to guess that this is NOT the October Surprise Rove was

talking about.

[qanda]

46. When did Tom DeLay leave the leadership?

[G Hawes]

47. The guy is a pervert

The guy is a pervert, no question, and he should have been investigated and turfed back when this happened.

But this is a strnage excerpt from the AP story:

Alexander said the boy notified a staffer in his office about the e-mails. The congressman said he learned of it from a reporter 10 or 11 months ago and promptly called the boy's parents.

"My concern then was the young man's interests and the parents' interests," Alexander said Friday. "We weren't trying to protect anybody except the parents. ... They told me they were comfortable with it and didn't want to pursue anything, didn't want to talk about it anymore."

The parents were "comfortable with it"? WTF?

And even if they were, that doesn't mean that the party should have just stopped thinking about it. They should have turfed him.

[newyawker99]

48. Hi G Hawes!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[lonestarnot]

49. Stick it in and break the motherfucker off!

[Homer Wells]

50. I seem to recall hearing on CNN today that Hastert

claims he only just recently heard about Foley's situation, and was as surprised as anybody. Sumbich lies like a rug.
:wtf:

[bvar22]

51. The Republican Party

The Republican Party
Coddles Child Molesters
& Sexual Perverts

[WinkyDink]

52. I thought the Plame case would get a lot bigger, too.

Then there are the unaccounted-for visits to the WH by Jeff Gannon/Guckert.