Hmm. The FBI got copies of the “over friendly” emails that got Foleygate rolling way back in July. CREW, the good government group that turned over the emails, wants to know why they didn’t initiate an investigation.
And this sort of thing makes it seem as if the FBI doesn’t have a very good explanation.
Radioactivity watch: Another GOP rep cancels an event with Hastert.
Oh boy. It’s getting positively bicameral on Denny Hastert. Tom Kean, Jr., who’s running for senate from New Jersey, says Denny should pack it in.
27%.
That’s the number of Americans who think Denny Hastert should remain as Speaker, according to SurveyUSA.
63% think he resign.
43% think he should leave the House altogether.
Late Update: Number of Democratic strategists who think Denny Hastert should remain Speaker through November 7th. 100%. That’s my poll, not SurveyUSA. My methodology was to think about it for about 3 seconds. But I believe the margin of error is extremely low.
I think this may have been overlooked. That letter Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) sent to the House Clerk is bad news for former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl, the one who had the sit-down with Reps. Foley (R-FL) and Shimkus (R-IL).
When the House Republicans need a good liar to step up to the plate, no one better than Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA).
From CNN …
Faced with fending off the backlash from the Mark Foley scandal, House Republicans took the offensive Friday, asking Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats to testify about whether they engaged in partisan trickery by releasing Foley’s messages weeks before the midterm elections.
Top GOP leaders — including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, of Illinois, and Majority Leader John Boehner, of Ohio — have accused the Democrats of knowing about Foley’s correspondences with teen pages, and waiting to release them until it was politically advantageous.
As noted earlier, the reporters on the story know the claim is false and that Kingston et al. know it’s false. But they don’t share that with their readers and viewers.
Late Update: Sharp-eyed TPM Reader AA noticed this line down near the bottom of the article at CNN …
Top GOP leaders, including Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt, of Missouri, have rushed to Hastert’s defense. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, wrote a letter supporting Hastert, saying it was inappropriate to ask for the speaker’s resignation when similar scandals in the 1980s prompted a “dramatically different standard.”
Barton was referring to Democratic Reps. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts and Dan Crane of Illinois, both of whom were censured after having sexual relationships with 17-year-old pages. Crane lost his re-election bid, while Studds survived the scandal.
Yep, Democrat Dan Crane. Clearly a Democrat under the rule that Republicans who diddle congressional pages are transmogrified into Democrats. Like political transubstantiation.
One-time Social Security phase-out maven, Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) sends out a flyer accusing his opponent of wanting to deep six Social Security. Anything to change the subject from Foley, I guess.
Looks like Denny Hastert’s Chief of Staff, Scott Palmer, is in a heap of trouble.
Remember that Kirk Fordham, one-time Chief of Staff to Mark Foley (R-FL), resigned Wednesday as Rep. Tom Reynolds’ (R-NY) Chief of Staff and promptly announced that he had warned Hastert’s staff about Foley’s page problem as far back and 2003. Specifically, he said he repeatedly asked Hastert’s Chief of Staff, Scott Palmer, to take action to deal with Foley.
Palmer promptly denied it.
Now, according to the Post, another congressional staffer has come forward to say that Fordham is telling the truth and Palmer is lying.
And the piece in the Post also touches on this topic we discussed back on October 1st. Jeff Trandahl, you’ll remember, is the former House Clerk who, along with Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), had the sit-down with Foley in late 2005 …
Trandahl’s departure came within days of his confrontation with Foley over e-mails that the congressman had sent a former page. House aides say the circumstances of Trandahl’s exit were oddly quiet. The departure of a staff member of long standing, especially one as important as the House clerk, is usually marked with considerable fanfare, said Scott Lilly, a former Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. Debate is suspended in mid-afternoon to accommodate a stream of testimonials from lawmakers.
Trandahl’s departure was marked by a one-minute salute from Shimkus and a brief insert into the Congressional Record.
“My one-hour Special Order changed to a five-minute Special Order, now to a one-minute,” Shimkus said. “I just want to say thank you for the work you have done.”
Lilly said: “He seemed to suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke.”
Pretty clear a lotta this story has yet to unfold.
But I guess that’s what next week is for.