by the Way . . .

Wouldn’t you know it? Now it comes out, with just 5 weeks before the election. Representative Mark Foley, co-chairman of the House caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, has been sending sexually explicit emails to teenage boys who worked as House Pages. The Republican leadership of the House was tipped off last year about at least one “over friendly” email but kept it confidential. That included Rodney Alexander, R. Louisiana, John Boehner, majority leader, Thomas Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. Their investigation failed to turn up any really nasty stuff, but ABC News did better and Friday confronted Mr. Foley, who promptly resigned. That left the House leaders to circle most of Saturday with staff and legal advisors to get the story straight and to contain any possible adverse political complications.

A statement released late Saturday made it clear that Speaker Hastert has no recollection of ever being told, but also that “he has no reason to dispute Congressman Reynolds’ recollection that he reported to him on the problem….” A joint statement by Mr. Hastert, Mr. Boehner, and the majority whip Roy Blunt called for specific rules about contacts between pages and lawmakers, and the creation of a toll-free number so pages and their parents could report untoward attentions. Other Representatives that serve on the board overseeing the page program were aware of the email problem, but refused comment because the matter had been referred to the ethics committee by a vote of the House.

Thus handled, the Republican leadership faces an even bigger challenge. The resignation of Mr. Foley leaves a Democrat challenger unopposed in the south Florida district previously considered “safe”. Who can they find pure enough to face the intense scrutiny that will obviously result? A priest maybe?

Hastert et al will get no help on this outing. ABC has posted the explicit IM messages on its own web site. Parental Discretion Advised. More keeps coming out. Stay tuned.