FOLEY GATE

Oct. 13 — Representative John Shimkus, who has been chairman of the Congressional page program since 2001, said Friday that he was unaware of previous complaints about Mark Foley.

Mr. Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, said that had he known of the complaints about Mr. Foley, he would have handled concerns about Mr. Foley’s e-mail messages to a page from Louisiana differently.

“There is stuff that everybody would have done differently,” Mr. Shimkus said after testifying under oath for more than three hours before the House ethics committee. “Having 20/20 hindsight, a lot of things would have been different.”

Mr. Shimkus said that he learned of concerns about Mr. Foley last fall and that he and the clerk of the House confronted Mr. Foley at a meeting in Mr. Foley’s office.

=--SOURCE

when actions like these are handled in secret

we have lost our democracy.

ATLANTA, Oct. 13 -- The imam of a northern Georgia mosque pleaded guilty to providing material support to the militant group Hamas in a case in which the agreement, charges and even the plea hearing were handled in secret.

--source

the party of family values

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News. NBC News first reported on the camping and rafting trip on Tuesday.

--msnbc

the party of family values?

that's a hoot.

Is a second GOP congressman getting drawn into the House page scandal? NBC reports:

Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News.
A spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington said that the U.S. attorney in Arizona has started a "preliminary assessment" of the trip, after an unidentified source made allegations about the congressman's behavior on the expedition. . . .

One participant, who requested anonymity, said he was uncomfortable with the attention Kolbe paid to one of the former pages. He was "creeped out by it," he said, adding that there was a lot of "fawning, petting and touching" on the teenager's arms, shoulders and back by Kolbe. . . .

Kolbe's office issued a statement to NBC News denying that anything improper had happened. "The rafting trip back in 1996 consisted of five current staff, two former pages, and his sister," a spokeswoman for Kolbe said. "There is absolutely no basis and no truth to any [allegations of] inappropriate behavior."

--story

it would be one thing if the participants were adults, but these were teenagers. what's more damaging is that republicans were always screaming about how OTHER's behavior was abhorrent in cases like this.

when do they start to call it corruption?

Five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, "appear to have perpetrated a fraud" on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Senate investigators said in a report issued yesterday.

--story

FOLEY GATE - TIMELINE

As early as 1997, Foley began sending sexually explicit messages to a page; other pages have come forward from the 1998, 2000, and 2002 classes saying that they also received explicit messages.

--continued

those fox family values?

Former LOS ANGELES TV reporter and LAPD officer and sometime CLEAR CHANNEL Talk KFI-A/LOS ANGELES fill-in host and guest ROD BERNSEN was arrested in LONG BEACH on SATURDAY on suspicion of molestation after an incident on board a cruise ship.

BERNSEN, 58, who is well-known in the market for his long run as a reporter for FOX O&O KTTV (TV) (FOX 11), was a fill-in for KFI from late last year through MAY, was on a cruise with his wife and sister; KFI, whose reporter ERIC LEONARD broke the story MONDAY afternoon, reports that the incident took place in the ship's sauna with two 12 year old boys.

--story

and what about pakistan's khan?

why hasn't bush been as forceful with musharraf on khan's activites as he banters about with north korea's underground test of a nuke? bush now drew a 'new line in the sand' about exporting the technology from north korea, but forgave pakistan for doing it. what a hypocrite.

why is this website still up?

http://cunningham.house.gov/

FOLEY GATE

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Even if former Rep. Mark Foley did not violate federal laws in sexually explicit Internet communications with underage boys, he still could find himself charged under state statutes.

Federal law generally requires a person to meet a minor for sex or at the very least, to attempt to meet, for a crime to have been committed. However, under laws in some states where the Florida Republican communicated with children, an attempt to seduce the victim might be enough for a criminal case.

Federal prosecutors investigating Foley's lurid communications are examining whether Florida authorities might be better positioned to bring criminal charges against Foley, since the state threshold for determining if a crime has been committed is less stringent than federal law, according to a senior Justice Department official who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity.

--STORY

FOLEY GATE

ABC's John Yang reports: A current House staffer has told ABC News that Scott Palmer, House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IL) chief of staff, met with disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) to discuss the time and attention he was giving House pages many months before the Speaker's office has said it became aware of the issue.

The staffer, who asked not be identified because of the ongoing FBI and House Ethics Committees invesgitations, told ABC News that the meeting between Palmer and Foley came to light in November 2005, around the time when Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), head of the House Page Board, and then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl, who was administrator of the page program, met with Foley about an e-mail exchange Foley had with a former page, sponsored by Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA).

"At that time, I became aware that there was a previous meeting" between Foley and Palmer, the staffer told ABC News.

This corroborates the account of Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff, who said he had gone to Palmer to seek the intervention of the Speaker's office to try to change Foley's behavior. Earlier, Palmer said that "what Kirk Fordham said happened didn't happen."

LINK: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2006/10/second_source_t.html

FOLEY GATE

Oct. 7, 2006 — Republicans had hoped House Speaker Dennis Hastert's "the buck stops here" speech last Thursday would ease some of the pressure on him, but the daily drip of the Mark Foley scandal continues to keep the focus on what Hastert and his staff knew and when did they know it.

Today, the Washington Post quoted an unnamed Congressional staffer who said Hastert Chief of Staff Scott Palmer, one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill, personally met with then-Rep. Foley, R-Fla., about his inappropriate contact with male pages. That meeting, the same source tells the Post, took place long before Hastert says his office was first alerted to "overly-friendly" e-mails Foley had sent to a Louisiana boy.

The New York Times also cites an anonymous Hill source who alleges Palmer was warned about Foley's troubling behavior well before Hastert has said his aides were first alerted in 2005.

Those two reports seem to back up former Foley Chief of Staff Kirk Fordham's account — first told to ABC News — that he warned Hastert's top aide about Foley's problems as far back as 2003.

Hastert's office is now declining to talk about specifics of the scandal, citing an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation, which was launched after Palmer denied Fordham's account.

A new Newsweek poll conducted since the Foley scandal broke seems to suggest the scandal is bad news for the GOP's prospects in next month's elections. The poll shows that 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress, including 10 percent of Republicans.

--STORY

the numbers

and if you're a GOPster, they're not pretty. on the otherhand, if you're a democrat, it gives you much needed exhilaration.

And that was the good news for the GOP. More worrisome still, the Foley fiasco is jeopardizing the party’s monopoly on faith and power. For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power. If the election were held today, 51 percent of likely voters would vote for the Democrat in their district versus 39 percent who would vote for the Republican. And while the race is closer among male voters (46 percent for the Democrats vs. 42 percent for the Republicans), the Democrats lead among women voters 56 to 34 percent.

--newsweek

pathetic excuses are running amok amongst the GOP

WASHINGTON - Rep. Chris Cannon today attempted to clarify public comments he made last night seeming to blame teen-age congressional pages in the unfolding scandal with disgraced ex-Rep. Mark Foley.
"These kids are actually precocious kids," Cannon, R-Utah, told KSL Radio's Nightside. "It looks like uh, maybe this one email is a prank where you had a bunch of kids sitting [around] egging this guy on."

--story

kean to hastert: resign you fool

WASHINGTON - New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. on Friday called for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign over the congressional page cybersex scandal, making him the first major candidate in his party to do so.

--story

GOP shenanigans

in tennessee

At least five apparently bogus voter registration forms were submitted to the Metro Nashville election commission by a worker with ties to the Republican National Committee, and up to 150 other registrations have been called into question, The Tennessean has learned.
--story

we're not the minority any more

YIPPPEEE

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Wall Street has shifted its allegiance in the 2006 election cycle by donating more to Democrats than Republicans who have been the investment banks' usual benefactors, U.S. Federal Election Commission data show.

Five leading firms Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bear Stearns Companies Inc.,Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. have contributed $6.2 million so far to candidates before the November elections, with about 52 percent going to Democrats.

--story

that's what happnes when you play politics

it cant' ALWAYS be what YOU want georgie.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's campaign strategy of painting Democrats as soft on terrorism has been stalled by a congressional sex scandal, jeopardizing Republican hopes of holding the House of Representatives, analysts say.

--story

bush's version of auschwitz

Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as common practice, a Marine sergeant said in a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press.

--story

bush's freedom on the move

BAGHDAD -- The cleric's young men fanned out across the neighborhood, moving from shop to shop, posting the new religious decrees.

Printed neatly on white-and-green fliers, the edicts banned vices like "music-filled parties and all kinds of singing." They proscribed celebratory gunfire at weddings and "the gathering of young men" in front of markets and girls' schools. Also forbidden were the "selling of liquor and narcotic drugs" and "wearing improper Western clothes."

But at the bottom of the list of prohibitions was a single command. Scrawled in green ink, it read simply: "Cut hair."

"I feel powerless," lamented Moataz Hussein, 22, a wiry, soft-voiced teacher seated in a hair salon on the main road of the Tobji neighborhood on Sunday. His long, stylish black hair was now a recent memory. "They are controlling my life."
--story

there's no evidence of arms coming from iran

ON THE IRAQ-IRAN BORDER -- Since late August, British commandos in the deserts of far southeastern Iraq have been testing one of the most serious charges leveled by the United States against Iran: that Iran is secretly supplying weapons, parts, funding and training for attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

A few hundred British troops living out of nothing more than their cut-down Land Rovers and light armored vehicles have taken to the desert in the start of what British officers said would be months of patrols aimed at finding the illicit weapons trafficking from Iran, or any sign of it.

There's just one thing.

"I suspect there's nothing out there," the commander, Lt. Col. David Labouchere, said last month, speaking at an overnight camp near the border. "And I intend to prove it."

--story

pretty much shuts down their arguement that this was started by democrats

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, said the source, who showed The Hill public records supporting his claim.

--story

FOLEY GATE

WASHINGTON - A top House Republican staff member charged Wednesday that he warned senior aides to House Speaker Dennis Hastert as far back as 2003 about former Florida Rep. Mark Foley's behavior toward underage congressional pages.

Hastert has said his aides were first alerted about Foley in fall 2005, and then only with ambiguous evidence. Foley resigned Friday after evidence became public that he had exchanged sexually explicit Internet messages with former male congressional pages for years.

Kirk Fordham -- who was Foley's chief of staff for a decade before holding the same post for Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee -- said he had told Hastert's aides about the behavior at least three years ago.

Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, flatly rejected Fordham's assertion: ``What Kirk Fordham said did not happen.''

--story

FOLEY GATE

it's now being traced back to 1997

A former congressional page said Thursday he received sexually suggestive messages from then-Rep. Mark Foley in 1997.

Tyson Vivyan's account appears to show the earliest exchange of suggestive messages reported so far between Foley and teens who had served in the Capitol page program. Previous accounts placed the earliest contacts in 2003.

Vivyan, 26, told The Associated Press that Foley began sending him instant messages about a month or two after his nine-month stint as a page ended in June 1997.

--story

FOLEY GATE

A longtime chief of staff to disgraced former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) approached House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's office three years ago, repeatedly imploring senior Republicans to help stop Foley's advances toward teenage male pages, the staff member said yesterday.

The account by Kirk Fordham, who resigned yesterday from his job with another senior lawmaker, pushed back to 2003 or earlier the time when Hastert's staff reportedly became aware of Foley's questionable behavior concerning teenagers working on Capitol Hill.

--STORY

FOLEY GATE

A close House ally of Speaker Dennis Hastert called Wednesday for temporary suspension of the congressional page program amid the uproar over former Rep. Mark Foley's Internet exchanges with former teenage pages and Hastert's handling of the problem. ...

"People are very, very concerned" about daily disclosures concerning Foley's salacious messages, said Rep. Ray LaHood, saying the program should be shut down at least for awhile.

Meanwhile, LaHood, who also is from Illinois, said that it's not the speaker who should go and said the page program should be shut down, at least temporarily. He questioned an "antiquated" congressional page system that brings 15- and 16-year-olds to the Capitol and has resulted in scandals in the past.

"Some members betray their trust by taking advantage of them. We should not subject young men and women to this kind of activity, this kind of vulnerability," LaHood said in a CNN interview. He said the program should be shut down until problems can be resolved.

--STORY

so, just because grown adult men can't resist their temptations, the children should suffer and have opportunities taken away? this could only be the agenda of the republicon leadership trying desperately to cover their assholes.

hopefully they'll be able to tell when drives have been scrubbed

because they've had plenty of time to get rid of any incriminating evidence that computers leave in the wake of criminal activity.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal investigators have asked the House of Representatives to keep computer records and papers from former Rep. Mark Foley's office, a senior Justice Department official said Wednesday.

The move is a sign that a criminal investigation into the congressman's correspondences with teen pages is imminent, perhaps within days, Justice Department officials said.

The investigation remains a preliminary inquiry, but a full criminal investigation will pave the way for subpoenas, searches and grand jury testimony, Justice Department officials said.

--story

someone asked me

is there no institution the GOP won't corrupt?

heh.

FOLEY GATE

Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages.

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.

--ABCNEWS

you just can NOT make this shit up.

FOLEY GATE

The chief of staff for Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds, Kirk Fordham, was reportedly fired today for his role in the handling of the congressional page scandal, according to Republican sources on Capitol Hill.
...
People familiar with Fordham's side of the story, however, said Fordham was being used as a scapegoat by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

They said Fordham had repeatedly warned Hastert's staff about Foley's "problem" with pages, but little was done.

--story

FOLEY WATCH

Tuesday night, Foley was the topic of conversation for the patrons at H.G. Roosters, a gay bar in West Palm Beach.

But Roth's announcement that Foley is gay wasn't news here. No, at Roosters, you could learn the name of Foley's current male companion in five minutes.

--STORY

FOLEY GATE

Reynolds, R-Clarence, held a news conference Monday evening, saying that there are two sets of e-mail and instant message correspondence, and he was aware of “overly friendly chit-chat” between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and a 16-year-old former page but didn’t know about the more explicit conversations.

Reynolds called the second set “despicable” and “disgusting,” and said he called for Foley’s immediate resignation once he read them on Friday.

--story

FOLEY GATE

Despite a call from a conservative newspaper for his resignation over his handling of a congressional sex scandal, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., intends to retain his leadership position.

"House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once," The Washington Times said, in an editorial in which it joined conservative leaders in calling for leadership resignations over the handling of the matter involving ex-Rep Mark Foley, R-Fla.

A written statement from Hastert's office said that wasn't going to happen. "The Speaker has and will lead the Republican conference to another majority in the 110th Congress," the statement said, adding, "Mark Foley has resigned his seat in dishonor, and the criminal investigation of this matter will continue. The Speaker is working every day on ensuring the House is a safe, productive environment for members, staff and all those who are employed by the institution."

--story

FOLEY WATCH

the after-effects of this scandal are resonating nationally.

A former male House page from Louisiana has received threats since reports surfaced Friday that former Rep. Mark Foley sent him inappropriate e-mails, another congressman said Monday night.

--story

FOLEY GATE

one thing that hasn't been mentioned (much by any paper/news organization that i've seen) is foley's history with gay boys. one doesn't jus all of a sudden decide to go after teenage boys over night! there has to be some historical concerns that haven't been brought to the forelight. there has to be some history on this guy either from the bars or other chat rooms. i think that's where the fbi should be contacted and directed to concentrate their efforts on. dig up whatever history there is on this guy and present the facts and findings to the American people - BEFORE THE ELECTION.

FOLEY GATE

Top Republicans are pointing the finger at Speaker Dennis Hastert for not doing more after learning of solicitous emails sent from Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) to a Congressional page.

Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) this morning switched his position on the leader's culpability, telling a radio interviewer, "I believe I talked to the Speaker and he told me it had been taken care of."

On Saturday, Boehner had denied speaking to Hastert about Foley this spring -- after initially telling The Washington Post that he had.

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), head of the House GOP's political arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, has also implicated Hastert. "I did what most people would do in a workplace," Reynolds said at a press conference last night, “I heard something, I took it to my supervisor.”

--tpm

ya cant believe a word they say any more

FOLEY GATE

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Monday that no Republican leaders saw lurid Internet exchanges from former Rep. Mark Foley to pages and that he would have demanded the Florida Republican's expulsion if he had known about them.

"As a parent and speaker of the House, I am disgusted," Hastert, R- Ill., told reporters after holding a meeting at the Capitol in the wake of the disclosure of the e-mails in 2003 to a page, which led to Foley's resignation last Friday. The page's home state was not immediately cited.

The speaker did not mention e-mail exchanges between Foley and another page, from Louisiana, in 2005. Other House Republicans said they told Hastert about those exchanges months ago. Hastert has not disputed those accounts.

"Congressman Foley duped a lot of people," Hastert said. "I've know him for all the years he has worked in this House and he deceived me, too."

--story

now he's crying the victim???

this can't be justification as to why repug leaders did nothing

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — At least two news organizations were tipped off to e-mail messages sent by Representative Mark Foley long before the story of his sexually explicit remarks to teenage pages broke last week and forced him to resign.

The St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald received copies of an e-mail exchange between Mr. Foley, Republican of Florida, and a teenager, but neither paper gathered enough solid material to publish a story, according to statements by the papers’ editors.

It was not until the exchanges were published online last week, first by an anonymous blogger, then on the ABC News Web site, that the story gained momentum and grew more damaging as other teenagers came forward.

The trickle of information about Mr. Foley’s messages, first made known to the news media almost a year ago, has raised questions not only for Congressional officials but also for news organizations about how to handle anonymous sources making explosive accusations in an election year.

--story

so, someone cant be investigated until some story makes a newspaper? my head is spinning out of control over the matter. that this has been going on for as long as it has been and nothing done about it just boggles the mind.

FOLEY GATE

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other GOP leaders are dismissing suggestions that they should have done more to investigate an e-mail from Rep. Mark Foley to a former teenage page that had raised a "red flag" with the boy's parents and his congressional sponsor.

Hastert rejected a call by a leading conservative newspaper that he resign, a spokesman said Tuesday.

"The speaker has and will lead the Republican conference to another majority in the 110th Congress," said Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean.

Hastert said his top aides and Rep. John Shimkus, a fellow Illinois Republican overseeing the page program, acted appropriately by trying to resolve the matter as an internal GOP problem rather than mounting a more formal investigation that would have involved Democrats.

--STORY

so there ya have it folks. hastert really knew about the emails and had tried to keep democrats from knowing by 'resolving' the issue 'internally' (whatever that means). but by keeping democrats in the dark about their steps to fix this, can only mean one thing: they did nothing to stop the congressman from enjoying more internet sex with teenage boys.

FOLEY GATE

a good roundup of what's happening on the foley case on cnn.

FOLEY GATE

WASHINGTON TIMES ON TUESDAY WILL CALL FOR SPEAKER HASTERT'S RESIGNATION, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE... DEVELOPING... Editorial titled: 'Resign, Mr. Speaker': 'House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once... Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance'... -- Washington Times, October 3, 2006...

--drudge

and while we're on the subject of children...

(AP) -- Since 2001, federal funding for a grant program that helps U.S. schools pay for programs to prevent substance abuse and violence has declined significantly.

Funding was $439.2 million in 2001 but has fallen to $346.5 million this year, with $310 million recommended for 2007.

The Bush administration has recommended eliminating the program, though Congress has repeatedly voted to retain it.

--story

records show tenet briefed rice on al-qaeda threat

so when rice says there was no meeting, she can chalk up another mark on her lie list. one would think there would be come record of the meeting so it shouldn't have been that hard to prove. or disprove. as it stands, rice is not telling the truth when she says she didn't know.

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 2 — A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman (Sean McCormack) said Monday.

--story

dr frist is emboldening the terrorists with his cut & run strategy

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan guerrilla war can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government.

The Tennessee Republican said he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military means.

frist is emboldening the terrorists with his cut & run strategy

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan guerrilla war can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government.

The Tennessee Republican said he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military means.

--story

FOLEY GATE

In addition to explicit sexual language, former Congressman Mark Foley's Internet messages also include repeated efforts to get the underage recipient to rendezvous with him at night.

"I would drive a few miles for a hot stud like you," Foley said in one message obtained by ABC News.

--SOURCE

they should be searching every computer that man has ever been on. and treat him like all the other common criminals who are sexual predators especially against minors. no mister nice guy just because he's a congressman. no siree.

FOLEY GATE

Appearing on CNN this morning, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow referred to the sexual and graphic emails sent by former Rep. Mark Foley to several teenage pages as "simply naughty e-mails."

Snow stated, "Look, I hate to tell you, but it's not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill and there have been other scandals as you know that have been more than simply naughty e-mails." He added that a full probe was needed to be "fair to all parties" who are being accused of not taking earlier action against Foley. Snow said to O'Brien, "What you are trying to do is pick fights here."

--story

Website of the Day

http://www.bornrich.org/entry/branson-reveals-spaceship-two-interiors/

FOLEY WATCH

In addition to explicit sexual language, former Congressman Mark Foley's Internet messages also include repeated efforts to get the underage recipient to rendezvous with him at night.

"I would drive a few miles for a hot stud like you," Foley said in one message obtained by ABC News.
--story

FOLEY WATCH

more cries for resignations

Centralia city councilman Danny L. Stover, the Democratic candidate for Illinois’s 19th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, demands that incumbent Representative John M. Shimkus resign immediately as Chairman of the Board of the House Page Program due to Shimkus’s failure to investigate diligently allegations about Florida Congressman Mark Foley’s inappropriate exchange of electronic mail and Internet messages with at least one former page. Stover insists that Rep. Shimkus was obviously the wrong choice to conduct an investigation a year ago, and is even more convinced that Speaker Hastert’s decision to ask Shimkus to investigate further is yet another error.
Rep. Shimkus neglected his specific duties as chairman, Stover complains, and Shimkus appeared to be more concerned about politics than protecting the well-being of the victim identified in the current news reports. The news reports suggest other victims may exist, and all victims were presumably minors when the alleged incidents occurred. Stover is concerned that the congressman failed to conduct even a modest investigation of potentially serious wrongdoing, Shimkus instead having simply accepted assurances of the accused that nothing inappropriate had taken place.

--story (link coming)