Earlier today, Roll Call reported that the Speaker's office was "scrambling" to address the statement from Congressman Reynolds saying he told the Speaker about Foley earlier this year.
All that scrambling resulted in a statement from Hastert's on who in their office knew what when. They're trying to address the inconsistencies among the House GOP leaders who can't seem to get their stories straight. So, now we learn that the Speaker knew about Foley before he said he didn't know -- or something like that:
Congressman Tom Reynolds in a statement issued today indicates that many months later, in the spring of 2006, he was approached by Congressman Alexander who mentioned the Foley issue from the previous fall. During a meeting with the Speaker he says he noted the issue which had been raised by Alexander and told the Speaker that an investigation was conducted by the Clerk of the House and Shimkus. While the Speaker does not explicitly recall this conversation, he has no reason to dispute Congressman Reynold's recollection that he reported to him on the problem and its resolution.
There was no resolution until yesterday. The House GOP leadership essentially ignored the child sexual predator among them. Let's not forget this tidbit in this morning's The New York Times:
The page who received the first e-mail messages told ABC News that people in the program had warned his class to watch out for Mr. Foley. The page worked for Representative Rodney Alexander, Republican of Louisiana, and sent the messages to a colleague in the office with a note saying they had “freaked me out.”
So the kids were warned that Foley was trouble. And, the kid who got the e-mails was "freaked out." The teenage pages knew there was a problem. But, the adults who run Congress weren't worried.
Still no explanation of exactly when and why Alexander told the head of the the House Republican's campaign committee, Tom Reynolds -- beyond the obvious reason that the GOP is more worried about politics than protecting children.
