The Cesspit Vortex Around Mark Foley

In August 2004, the GOP House leadership, which included Speaker Dennis Hastert, then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt, took no action against Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida for his repeated salacious contact by email with underage male teens even though a heterosexually-married Republican congressman resigned over trolling gay web sites for "younger men." In August 2004, one-term Republican Rep. Ed Schrock of Virginia resigned after it became public that he was surfing gay and dating web sites in search of younger men for sex. Schrock, a political ally of his Virginia Beach constituent TV evangelist Pat Robertson and a retired U.S. Navy Captain, resigned after he was outed by a Washington, DC web site.

However, rather than dealing with Foley's sexual habits on the Web, the GOP leadership sank deeper into cover-up mode, burying the Foley matter lest it shine a light on other GOP gay hypocrites in Congress whose anti-gay agenda would embarrass the party a few months before a critical presidential and congressional election year.

It is now being reported that the House Page Board chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) actually enabled Foley to meet an underage pages for dinner dates after the House GOP leadership were aware of Foley's inappropriate communications with the teens. In fact, according to ABC News, Foley told the 2001-02 page class about them bidding for dinner with Foley:

FOLEY: John [one of the pages] was the highest bidder on lunch with Mark Foley. Maybe you all do not know this story, but John had paid considerable sums to dine with me. I had offered to take the winning bidder to lunch in the Members' dining room. Then I heard how much John Eunice paid. And I said, ``John, there is no way in the world after you committed so much money to have lunch with me that I would dare take you downstairs to eat in the Members' dining room.'' I said, ``Where do you want to go?'' He says, without reservation, ``Morton's.'' I said, ``Morton's? Like in Morton's Steakhouse?'' He said, ``Oh, would that be too much?'' I said, ``Oh, no, we'll go.'' I said, ``Call your mother, get permission, make sure she notifies the Clerk and we will go to Morton's.'' And so we proceeded to cruise down in my BMW to Morton's.

At the time Foley was auctioning himself off to pages for dinner dates, the House leadership was fully aware of his predatory behavior -- and may, in fact, have known about it since 1998, the same year Foley and his GOP House colleagues were railing against Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky and demanding his impeachment. It is doubtful that the pages' parents would have permitted contact between their sons and Foley had the House GOP leadership taken action to prevent any contact between Foley and pages.

The members of the House Page Board are currently its Chair, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Dale Kildee (D-MI). Although Shimkus knew about the Foley problem, Capito says she was never informed. Kildee, the only Democrat on the board, said he first heard about Foley when the news hit the media. Other Page Board members are Karen Haas, the House Clerk and former aide to Hastert, and Wilson Livingood, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House. The Page Program Coordinator position is currently vacant.

From 2002 to 2005, the Board members were Shimkus, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), Kildee, House Cleark Jeff Trandahl, and Livingood. The Page Program Coordinator was Grace Crews. From 2000 to 2001, the Page Board Chair was Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY) and members included Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) (inexplicably replaced as chairman by Kelly), Kildee, Trandahl, and Livingood. Crews was the program coordinator. From 1999 to 2000, the Chairman was Kolbe and members included Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), Kildee, Transdahl, and Livingood. The coordinator was Crews. From 1998 (when the allegations first reportedly surfaced about Foley), the Chair was Tillie Fowler (R-FL) and members were Kildee, Kolbe, House Clerk Robin Carle, and Livingood. The page coordinator was Hugh Addington. Foley became a congressman in 1995.

After leaving Congress in 2001 and joining the Holland & Knight law firm and working as an adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Tillie Fowler died from a sudden brain hemorrhage on March 2, 2005 at the age of 52.

In 2002, eleven House pages, all nominated by Republicans, were dismissed after they were found using marijuana in the Capitol Hill page dormitory. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is defending the GOP House leadership for their handling of the Foley matter, demanded in 1983 that Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds and GOP Rep. Dan Crane be expelled from the House for their sexual relationships with 17-year old male and female pages, respectively.

Source: http://waynemadsenreport.com/