I am behind in my schoolwork. Its the professor's fault for giving out homework. ;-)
Hastert blames Democrats, ABC News
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
Last Update: 11:48 AM ET Oct 5, 2006
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, resisting calls for his resignation by conservative groups over his handling of a sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley and teenage congressional pages, said Democrats and ABC News were fanning the controversy.
Hastert, R-Ill., told the Chicago Tribune in an interview published Thursday that he had no intention of resigning. Republican strategists fear that the Foley news will further undercut Republican efforts keep control of the House. Democrats need to make a net gain of 15 seats to gain a majority.
"Our members are supportive. I think that [resignation] is exactly what our opponents would like to have happen -- that I'd fold my tent and others would fold our tent and they would sweep the House," Hastert said.
Some conservative groups and the editorial page of the Washington Times have called on Hastert to resign. Critics contend that Hastert and top Republicans should have investigated Foley after they were made aware of an e-mail Foley sent a former congressional page in 2005. House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., both have said they discussed the matter with the speaker this spring.
While the e-mail wasn't sexually suggestive, the teenage boy and his parents found the tone of the message and Foley's request for a picture to be inappropriate. Foley was told to cease contact with the teenager, whose parents said they wanted the matter kept quiet.
Critics say the message should have raised alarm bells, prompting a deeper look at the activities of Foley, who chaired the House caucus on missing and exploited children. Hastert says he doesn't recall the conversations, but doesn't dispute that they took place.
Reynolds' chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, resigned Wednesday amid the ongoing scandal, telling news organizations that he had warned top staffers in Hastert's office about Foley's behavior toward pages three years ago. Fordham had previously served as Foley's top aide.
Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, issued a one-sentence denial Wednesday night: "What Kirk Fordham said did not happen,"
Foley resigned abruptly on Friday after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit Internet messages sent to other former pages.
Hastert said he was confident the party's conservative base would come around to support Republican candidates on Election Day. "I think the base has to realize after awhile, who knew about it? Who knew what, when? When the base finds out who's feeding this monster, they're not going to be happy. The people who want to see this thing blow up are ABC News and a lot of Democratic operatives, people funded by George Soros," Hastert said.
Meanwhile, The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, reported Thursday that the person that gave the news media Foley's suspect e-mails says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.
That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, the person told The Hill. The person also provided public records supporting his claim, the newspaper said.
Divisions continued to appear among top House Republicans over the handling of the matter. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, No. 3 in the House GOP leadership, said he would have handled the matter differently had he been made aware of the e-mail.
"I think I could have given some good advice here, which is, you have to be curious, you have to ask all the questions you can think of," Blunt told reporters. "You absolutely can't decide not to look into activities because one individual's parents don't want you to."
A day earlier, Boehner appeared to distance himself from Hastert, telling an Ohio radio station that he had been assured by Hastert last spring that the Foley matter had been handled.
On Wednesday, Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., who is in the midst of a tough re-election battle, cancelled an upcoming fundraising visit by Hastert.
"I'm taking the speaker's words at face value. I have no reason to doubt him. But until this is cleared up, I want to know the facts. If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong, then I will be the first in line to condemn it," Lewis told the Associated Press.
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