The fat lady was just seen, <a href="http://www.bluegrassreport.com/bluegrass_politics/2006/10/ky2_lewis_cance.html">entering Carnegie Hall</a>.............
I talked about Mr. Fordham earlier, in post #16
Quote:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics...home-headlines
Foley's Behavior Takes Down Aide
From Associated Press
2:36 PM PDT, October 4, 2006
Fordham spoke to the AP after ABC News quoted unidentified GOP sources as insinuating that he had intervened on behalf of Foley, his former boss, to prevent an inquiry into Foley's conduct.
"This is categorically false," Fordham said. "At no point ever did I ask anyone to block any inquiries into Foley's actions or behavior." <b>The longtime Capitol Hill aide said he would fully disclose to the FBI and the House ethics committee "any and all meetings and phone calls" regarding Foley's behavior that he had with senior staffers in the House leadership.</b>
"The fact is even prior to the existence of the Foley e-mail exchanges I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley's inappropriate behavior," Fordham said.
Fordham said one staffer to whom he spoke remains employed by a senior House Republican leader. He would not identify the staffer.....
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<b>...but then, Fordham starting naming names:</b>
Quote:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2527764&page=1
Hastert Was Warned About Foley Two Years Ago, GOP Aide Says
House Speaker's Spokesman Disputes Kirk Fordham's Claim That He Previously Alerted Hastert's Office About Foley's Behavior
Oct. 4, 2006 — Despite claims by senior congressional aide Kirk Fordham that he notified House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office more than two years ago about possible inappropriate contact between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and underage congressional pages, the Speaker's office is insisting it did nothing wrong in its handling of the situation.
"That never happened," Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean told ABC News about the report.
<b>But Fordham — a former chief of staff to Foley, who resigned as chief of staff to another member of the GOP leadership, Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y. — said that as far back as 2003, Hastert chief of staff Scott Palmer had been told that Foley was too friendly with pages. According to Fordham, Palmer spoke to Foley about the matter.</b>
Neither Foley nor Palmer could be reached for comment, yet Hastert's office disputes the account.
Fordham, who is openly gay, acknowledged helping Foley deal with the fallout from ABC News's story about obscene instant messages he had sent former congressional pages, but Fordham added he "did so as a friend of my former boss, not as Cong. Reynolds' chief of staff. I reached out to the Foley family, as any good friend would, because I was worried about their emotional well-being."
Fordham also contradicted stories circulating in Washington, DC, that he had tried to prevent an investigation by House leadership into any questionable contact between Foley and pages.
"I never attempted to prevent any inquiries or investigation of Foley's conduct by House officials or any other authorities," he said.
Fordham said he was resigning because "It is clear the Democrats are intent on making me a political issue in my boss's race, and I will not let them do so."
But the questions about Fordham's role were being raised just as often — if not, more so — by Republicans.
"Fordham had, for a while, had a good idea of the Foley situation, and he tried to suppress it," said one former House GOP leadership aide, who would only speak on condition of anonymity. This aide said he had "complete confidence that the Speaker and his senior people didn't know about Foley's prefatory issue with pages" until last Friday.......
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Update: Fordham's Full Statement:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15679438.htm
Let us not forget that Rep. Alexander took the page's parent complaint about inappropriate email to Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, Fordham's current boss, probably to "keep the problem in the faimly"....with someone closest to Foley, instead of to end the problem,,,,,,,the same reaction that was used by Foley's fellow house republicans......for years....and allowed him to continue his predatory preoccupation with the house pages.
...and this is some pretty lame bullshit, but expect to here much more of it:
Quote:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010178.php
(October 04, 2006 -- 02:43 PM EDT)
It really is just like rats from a sinking ship.
President Bush is out in Arizona today attending a fundraiser for Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ). All the local Republican officeholders were there. And after the event Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) took some questions about Foleygate.
Franks said he supported Denny Hastert and then (quoting from the pool report) ...
Quote:
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Franks said he did not know Foley personally, and did not know about his conduct with congressional pages, <b>but he believes leaders of the Democratic party knew about it 10 months ago.</b> He said he does not think the Foley scandal will impact his campaign, but it is likely to hurt other Republican incumbents.
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Truly through the looking glass. No one in the GOP leadership caught word of it. But the Democratic leadership knew. Quite a place they're running up there.
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