1 Boring Old Man

Mark Foley: A six term Congressman representing West Palm Beach Florida. He is a closeted gay man who has apparently operated as a sexual predator, hitting on the Congressional Pages, probably the whole time he’s been in office. He resigned last week when threatened with public exposure of his explicit sexual instant messages with the Pages and checked into an alcohol rehabilitation facility.

Kirk Fordham: He was Chief of Staff for Congressman Foley from 1995 to 2004. Fordham is also gay and a friend of Foley’s family. He says that he was told about Foley’s behavior with the Pages in 2003 by Jeff Trandahl, then Clerk of the House of Representatives and the person in charge of the Page program. After repeatedly confronting Foley himself, Forham reported Foley to Scott Palmer, Chief of Staff to Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House [R-Illinois]. He says that Palmer both told Hastert and spoke to Foley then. After leaving Foley’s staff [reason unspecified], Fordham worked in the private sector for a while, then joined the staff of Tom Reynolds [R-New York]. When this story broke, Fordham was sent to Foley with the message that he must resign. Fordham then went to Bryan Ross, ABC reporter with the story, and asked him to supress the more damning emails/instant messages, offering him an exclusive on Foley’s resignation in return. Ross refused. Forham resigned from Reynold’s staff yesterday. When he was accused of supressing the Foley story, he objected and revealed the 2003 events. He spent the day yesterday talking to the F.B.I.

Tom Reynolds: Reynolds [R-New York] is the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee [NRCC] that oversees Congressional Campaigns. In the late Spring, Representative Rodney Alexander [R-Louisiana] was told by a Page’s parents of Foley’s "overly familiar" emails to their son. Alexander contacted Hastert’s office, Tom Reynolds, and John Shimkus [R-Illinois][House Page Committee]. The Democratic Member of the House Page Committee was not contacted. Shimus and Jeff Trandahl, then Clerk of the House, spoke to Foley, who convinced them that the emails were innocent. Reynolds reorted that he passed the information on to Dennis Hastert [R-Illinois], Speaker of the House. When the story broke last week, Reynolds sent Kirk Fordham, his Chief of Staff, Foley friend, and former Foley Staffer, to tell Foley to resign.

John Boehner: The Republican [R-Ohio] Majority Leader also knew of the reported "overly familiar" conversations and reported them to Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House.

John Shimkus: Shimkus, a Member of the House Page Committee and Jeff Trandahl spoke to Foley about the report and were assured that the communications were "innocent."

Dennis Hastert: The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert [R-Illinois] has told several different stories. The first was that he only learned about the Foley story in the last week. When Reynolds and Boehner said they had told him in the Spring, he harumphed a bit and didn’t dispute their stories, allowing that maybe he’d heard something about it, or not, or …

Scott Palmer: Palmer is Hastert’s Chief of Staff and likely the most powerful non-elected official in the House of Representatives. Kirk Forham says that he told Palmer about Foley in 2003 and that Palmer both told Hastert and talked to Foley. Palmer and Hastert say that didn’t happen. Today’s Washington post reports that an un-named current staffer has confirmed Fordham’s story.

Mark Foley is a sexual predator who has been hitting on the Congressional Pages for his decade in the House of Representatives, while publicly championing child safety from the likes of him. In spite of repeated confrontations, he has continued this behavior unabated.

His friend and Chief of Staff, Kirk Fordham, learned of Foley’s daliances in 2003 from  Jeff Trandahl who was Clerk of the House and in charge of the Pages. Trandahl, himself, presumabely learned of it from the Pages. Fordham repeatedly confronted Foley, and in frustration went to Scott Palmer. Palmer alerted Hastert and talked to Foley. Fordham either resigned or was fired at that time.

In the Spring when Rodney Alexander was told by the parents, he called Hastert’s office and ultimately a meeting was scheduled with Trandahl and Shimkus, who spoke to Foley. Hastert, Reynolds, and Boehner were all in the loop at this time. It seems likely that they left out the whole House Page Committee to avoid scandal. In other words, it was handled ‘politically’ within the Republican Party leadership – Speaker of the House, Majority Leader, Chairman of the Congressional Committee – rather than by the House Committees. It’s likely that Trandahl knew too much and was whisked away to Fish and Game.