October 4, 2006 – Capitol Hill Blue

Page scandal heats up as key staff member resigns

October 4, 2006

By ANDREW TAYLOR and LARA JAKES JORDAN

The Justice Department ordered House officials to "preserve all records" related to disgraced Rep. Mark Foley’s electronic correspondence with teenagers, intensifying an investigation into a scandal rocking Republicans five weeks before midterm elections.

The development came as a congressional aide who counseled Foley to resign last week submitted his own resignation Wednesday. "I never attempted to prevent any inquiries or investigation," Kirk Fordham said in a statement.

Just a little old-fashioned karma coming round

October 4, 2006

It is fitting, truly fitting, that the political fortunes of a homophobic party may rest on the actions of a gay sexual predator in that party’s midst.

Call it some good old fashion karma coming round. When it comes to homosexuality, the hypocrisy of the GOP has been waiting in the closet, just waiting to come out and bring the party down.

Can the GOP survive a homosexual pedophilia scandal?

October 4, 2006

As revelations over former Republican Rep. Mark Foley’s bizarre behavior gets more and more lurid, the pressure on Speaker of the House Dennis J. Hastert to resign increases. In addition, Republicans say more disclosures involving other members of Congress may be coming.

Even Hastert’s staunchest supporters say the embattled Speaker mishandled the Foley affair and Republicans scramble to distance themselves from their leader with the same determination they use to avoid their unpopular President.

The Speaker tells different stories at different times. On Rush Limbaugh’s radion show, he claimed the told Foley to resign. He later told a reporter he didn’t. GOP strategists say Hastert’s growing credibility problems may be the final nail in the GOP’s political coffin with just 34 days to go until the critical November elections.

Watchdogs play key role

October 4, 2006

By LISA HOFFMAN

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay, ex-White House chief of staff Karl Rove, and now, Mark Foley, the Florida congressman who resigned Friday as a seamy sex scandal broke around him.

What these controversial public figures have in common is that they all have found themselves in the bull’s-eye of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, legal advocates leading the charge from the liberal side of the spectrum against government officials who, in their view, do wrong.

Political fallout increases

October 4, 2006

By MARA LEE

From one direction, embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert took it on the chin Tuesday when an influential conservative newspaper demanded his resignation for not intervening sooner in what has become the biggest sex scandal to rock Washington since the days of Monica Lewinsky.

FBI will interview pages

October 4, 2006

By THOMAS HARGROVE and AMIE PARNES

FBI agents plan to "authenticate" the widely distributed sexually explicit Internet transcripts between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and one-time House pages and will be interviewing the teenagers, a Department of Justice official said Tuesday.

Foleygate: The usual suspects

October 4, 2006

By THOMAS HARGROVE

Here is a cast of characters and memorable quotations in the rapidly expanding scandal around former Rep. Mark Foley, including other members of Congress and staffers caught in the fallout.

Foley blames his problems on pedophile priest

October 4, 2006

First it was alcoholism. Now disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley claims a pedophile priest is responsible for his problems.

Foley, who resigned amid disclosures of his inappropriate behavior with young male pages on Capitol Hill, now says a priest molested him when he was a young man.

Bush gets loud to try and drown out the latest scandal

October 4, 2006

President George W. Bush tried in vain Tuesday to turn attention away from the mushrooming scandal involving the GOP’s mishandling of the Rep. Mark Foley Scandal but his escalating rhetoric on familiar campaign themes fell short.

Bush’s frantic attempts showed the level of desperation that is sweeping through Republican camps as the party tries to recover from the latest scandal.

Time to vote a straight ticket

October 4, 2006

By LARRY SPOHN

Given that I am a passionate (some say crazed) liberal, people are surprised when I tell them I’ve probably voted for almost as many Republicans as Democrats.