LARRY MARGASAK
Although a Congressional ethics panel said GOP lawmakers were negligent in monitoring former Rep. Mark Foley, they found that no rules were broken
Republican lawmakers and aides left male pages vulnerable to former Rep. Mark Foley's improper sexual advances even though the first concerns surfaced more than a decade ago, a Congressional ethics committee said Friday in its report into an election-year scandal that convulsed the House.
The committee said one witness testified he warned the head of the page board, Illinois Rep. John Shimkus, a year ago that Foley was a "ticking time bomb" who had been confronted repeatedly. Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., likely was told about inappropriate e-mails written by Foley last spring, even though he has said he doesn't recall the conversations, investigators concluded.
The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules, and recommended no sanctions in the case that cost Foley his seat in Congress and contributed to his party's defeat at the polls in last month's midterm elections. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct on the part of many individuals "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences" of Foley's conduct.
Speculating on the reason for their reluctance to act, the committee said: "Some may have been concerned that raising the issue too aggressively might have risked exposing Rep. Foley's homosexuality.... There is some evidence that political considerations played a role in decisions that were made by persons in both parties."
The committee interviewed numerous witnesses, including Hastert, his top aides and other lawmakers.
The man who sparked the scandal was not among them, though. Foley received a subpoena, but his lawyer notified the committee the former lawmaker would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights if compelled to testify and the committee dropped the matter. Foley, R-Fla., hurriedly resigned his seat Sept. 29 after the existence of sexually explicit computer messages sent to teenage pages came to light and quickly entered an alcoholic treatment program.
Florida authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether Foley broke any laws related to his communications with the teens. Federal authorities are also investigating.
On balance, investigators said evidence supports the conclusion that Hastert's top aide had been told about Foley's conduct in late 2002 or early 2003. The aide, Scott Palmer, flatly denied to reporters that he was told that long ago. In testimony to the committee, he said, "I believe it didn't happen. I don't have any recollection of it."
The report said another of Hastert's aides, Ted Van Der Meid, "should have done more to learn about the e-mails and how they had been handled," in view of earlier warnings he had received about Foley's conduct. Overall, the evidence shows that "concerns began to arise about Rep. Foley's interactions with pages or other young male staff members" shortly after he took office in 1995. Two aides reported raising concerns with him several times.
One, Jeff Trandahl, was the House clerk, and when word of suggestive e-mails surfaced a year ago, he approached Shimkus, the head of the House page board. Trandahl testified that he characterized Foley as a "ticking time bomb."
If Republicans were criticized for failing to confront Foley more aggressively, Democrats also figured in the investigation.
The committee said that one aide, Matt Miller, had possession of suggestive computer messages written by Foley, and passed them along to reporters as well as a communications aide at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The investigation suggested politics was a consideration for Republicans, too.
After Foley resigned, Shimkus told another Republican member of the Page Board — Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — why he never informed the Democratic member of the board, Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., about Foley. "Dale's a nice guy, but he's a Democrat, and I was afraid it would be blown out of proportion," Shimkus told Capito.
Speaking about Republicans, the committee said it had found a "significant number of instances where members (of Congress), officers or employees fails to exercise appropriate diligence and oversight, or should have exercised greater diligence and oversight, regarding issues arising from the interaction between former Rep. Mark Foley and current or former House pages."
The lengthy report was released on the final full day of the Congress, meaning that any changes in the rules or in the page program must wait until lawmakers return to the Capitol in January.
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