GOP leaders admit their offices have known for months that a Florida Republican congressman was sending inappropriate e-mails to a boy who had worked as a page in the House of Representatives.Although the House has adjourned and we won't be seeing the faux outraged floor speeches from the Dems, I'm sure they'll do their best to get their views on the national talk shows. This certainly does, however, create questions about Dennis Hastert's leadership. Captain Ed reminds us that when Rep. William Jefferson's office (D-LA) was searched during the investigation into illegal monies he might have received, it was Hastert who jumped to his defense and seemed to be making the case that Congressmen were above the law. It wasn't a good showing for Hastert.
The office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who earlier said he'd learned about the e-mails only last week, acknowledged that aides referred the matter to the authorities last fall. They said they were only told the messages were "over-friendly."
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who heads the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow Republican lawmaker, Rep. Mark Foley, had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy.
Reynolds, a Republican from New York, is defending himself from Democrats who say he did too little to protect the boy.
Foley quit Congress on Friday after ABC News questioned him about the e-mails to a former congressional page and about sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages.
It would, however, have been especially ironic had Rep. Barney Frank spoken out condemning the GOP leadership, given that at one time he had a "roommate" who was running a male prostitution ring out of his house.
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