A senior congressional aide
said Wednesday that he alerted House Speaker Dennis Hastert's
office two years ago about worrisome conduct by former Rep. Mark
Foley with teenage pages.
Kirk Fordham
told The Associated Press that when he was told about Foley's
inappropriate behavior toward pages, he had "more than one
conversation with senior staff at the highest level of theHouse of
Representativesasking them to
intervene."
The
conversations took place long before the e-mail scandal
broke,Fordhamsaid, and at least a year earlier than members of
the House GOP leadership have acknowledged.
Anearlier storyabout
Fordham's resignation that appeared on ABC's website said Fordham
"had urged Republican leaders last spring not to raise questionable
Foley e-mails with the full Congressional Page Board..." Clearly,
Fordham didn't want to be the fall guy. If he's telling the truth,
this just adds to the evidence that, at the very least, Hastert was
asleep at the switch. Time will only tell how much Hastert actually
knew, but the bottom line is that the more questions are raised,
the more stories like this come out, the less time will be
available for Republicans to get their message out on national
security in the crucial weeks ahead of the election.