AP Revelation Means Trouble for Hastert

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House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) alibi for failing to address Mark Foley’s follies is toast, as Greg points out over at Election Central.

Kirk Fordham’s revelation that House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) staff was warned about the “worrisome conduct” of Mark Foley with teenage pages back in 2004 completely explodes Hastert’s explanation for why his office didn’t do more in the fall of 2005.

The House Speaker has argued that Foley’s emails that came to light in 2005 weren’t sufficiently explicit to warrant action — in stark contrast to the sexual IM conversations, the emails were merely “over-friendly.” But in the context of prior specific warnings about Foley, such an explanation seems even weaker — even dishonest.

Hastert, through his spokesman, has flatly denied Fordham’s accusations: “That never happened.”

But Fordham’s sticking by it, saying “Rather than trying to shift the blame on me, those who are employed by these House Leaders should acknowledge what they know about their action or inaction in response to the information they knew about Mr. Foley prior to 2005.”

Update: Fordham’s starting to name names, too. “Fordham. . . said that as far back as 2003, Hastert chief of staff Scott Palmer had been told that Foley was too friendly with pages,” ABC reports. “According to Fordham, Palmer spoke to Foley about the matter.” The network says it could not reach Palmer for comment.

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