The Allen Almanac

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White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, appearing on CNN this morning, downplayed the Foley scandal. Soledad noted that Snow “tried really hard to minimize the impact and any kind of political fallout.” Snow said, “I hate to tell 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 emails.”

“Simply naughty emails.” That’s all they were says the Bush White House. Just naughty emails between a 52 year old member of Congress and some 16 and 17 year olds childen. Just naughty emails when a grown man asks a sixteen year old boy to measure his penis. Just naughty emails when a member of Congress asks a child to describe how he masturbates.

That’s why the GOP House leadership is scrambling. That’s why they had to call in the FBI. That’s why the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.

Have they even read these things? These are X-rated, explicit emails and IMs written to underage boys by a Congressman! If you haven’t seen the IMs from 2003, check them out. Now its coming out that as far back as 2001, the Republicans in Congress knew about Foley’s “naughty emails.”

A Republican staff member warned Congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page.

Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-2002 class, told ABC News he and other pages were warned about Foley by a supervisor.

Loraditch, the president of the Page Alumni Association, said the pages were told “don’t get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff.”

It has also come out that in 2002 (after the pages had been warned) GOP Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) let Foley spend “a lot of time” with pages, including private dinner with one.

It is unfathomable to me how the GOP could allow so many young boys to be in the presence of someone they knew had a problem.

DailyKos draws some interesting comparisons between Hastert and Cardinal Bernard Law.