By the time the political world had learned of former Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) resignation, there was reason to believe the central point of the scandal was already over. We’d learn more details about Foley’s messages, and there’s a likely criminal investigation on the way (Foley personally sponsored legislation making it a felony to solicit sex online from a minor), but he had resigned in disgrace.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, the scandal may be significantly broader than just Foley. The next question is who knew about Foley’s problem, when did they know it, and what did they do<\/em> about it. The fallout could be far-reaching — and seriously damaging for the House Republican leadership.<\/p>\n About 10 or 11 months ago, the page, whose emails were first reported by ABC News on Thursday, alerted Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) to the creepy emails he had received from Foley. Alexander contacted the page’s parents — and then told the House GOP leadership<\/a> about the problem.<\/p>\n At this point, several key House Republicans are struggling to explain when they were notified of the problem and what, if anything, they did about it. * House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), whom Alexander reportedly spoke to directly about this, told<\/a> 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 Dennis Hastert, and that Hastert assured him “we’re taking care of it.”<\/p>\n * After Hastert denied having any knowledge<\/a> of the problem, Boehner backtracked<\/a> and said he hadn’t<\/i> told Hastert.<\/p>\n * Apparently worried about the implications, Boehner spoke to the WaPo again and said he could not remember<\/a> whether he talked to Hastert.<\/p>\n * Roll Call noted that Hastert’s office<\/i> was told<\/a>, but not the Speaker himself.<\/p>\n * When Alexander was getting the word out that Foley may have a problem, he also reportedly told the National Republican Campaign Committee<\/a>. It’s not clear if Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), the NRCC chairman, did anything in response.<\/p>\n There are more than a few unanswered questions, but it appears, based on what we know so far, that the several top House Republicans knew for many months that one its caucus members at pursued a teenaged boy. It does not appear that they did much of anything about it.<\/p>\n There’s one other point that warrants attention — there’s more than one teenaged boy involved here. The 16-year-old in Louisiana rebuffed Foley. What ultimately brought Foley down were the sexually-explicit IM messages<\/a> the congressman sent to a different<\/i> teenaged page in 2003.<\/p>\n In other words, circumstances suggest that Foley was something of a sexual predator, targeting teenaged boys. Some<\/i> GOP leaders in Congress knew something<\/i> about this. Did they keep it quiet to protect their majority? Did they assume they could get away with it, just as long as the pages stayed quiet?<\/p>\n
\n
\n* Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Page Board, discussed the situation<\/a> with Foley last year, but did not notify Democrats on the Board. Foley said he’d behave and Shimkus apparently let the matter drop.<\/p>\n