The boogey man, better have something REAL good up his sleeve in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise it is time for some Republicans to start sending out their resumes and calling in on all those big business contacts they have been kissing up to.
(CNN) -- The head of the Republican House campaign committee apologized Saturday for not catching Rep. Mark Foley in alleged lies about his Internet exchanges with teen pages.
Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-New York, issued the apology in a TV commercial aired in his Buffalo-area district.
"I trusted that others had investigated. Looking back, more should have been done, and for that, I'm sorry," Reynolds said.
"I was told about odd but not explicit e-mails between Mark Foley and a page," he said. "I never saw a single e-mail, not one. Even so, I reported what I had been told to the speaker of the House.
"At the time, I thought I had done the right thing. I have since learned that newspapers in Florida and the FBI had copies of the e-mails for months and that Foley had been confronted about them and lied," Reynolds said.
"Nobody's angrier and more disappointed than me that I didn't catch his lies," he said.
The scandal appears to be damaging Reynolds' re-election bid. Polls conducted since Foley's resignation show Democratic challenger Jack Davis with a narrow lead over Reynolds.
Is whether Hasert is an incompetent BOOB, who does not know about his own staff's meetings, or a liar... I vote both.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff met with disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley to discuss the time and attention Foley was giving House pages years before the speaker's office admits becoming aware of the issue, a current House staffer told ABC News.
The staffer, who asked not be identified because of the ongoing FBI and House Ethics Committee investigations, told ABC News of learning in November 2005 about an earlier meeting between Hastert Chief of Staff Scott Palmer and Foley, R-Fla.
November 2005 was around the time Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., head of the House Page Board, and then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl, who was administrator of the page program, met with Foley about an e-mail exchange Foley had with a former page sponsored by Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.
"At that time, I became aware that there was a previous meeting" between Foley and Palmer, the House staffer told ABC News.
That seems to corroborate the account of Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff, who said he had gone to Palmer to ask the speaker's office's to intervene and try to change Foley's behavior as far back as 2003.
Palmer has since said, "What Kirk Fordham said did not happen."
On Wednesday, Fordham was forced to resign as chief of staff to Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., who heads the effort to elect Republicans to the House in this fall's midterm elections.
Before the scandal became public, sources told ABC News, Trandahl had called Fordham several times to complain that Foley was paying too much attention to pages. Fordham said he would talk with Foley about the matter, according to the accounts.
Usually, Foley's behavior would change for a short time, only to return — and Trandahl would call Fordham again, according to the sources.
After several such cycles, the sources said, Fordham and Trandahl discussed seeking the help of Hastert's office, which led to Fordham's meeting with Palmer.
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE CHATS WERE PAGE 'PRANK GONE AWRY'
**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**
According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.
According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded an unwitting Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.
The primary source, an ally of Edmund, adamantly proclaims that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund. Both are fearful that their political careers will be affected if they are publicly brought into the investigation.
The prank scenario only applies to the Edmund IM sessions and does not necessarily apply to any other exchanges between the former congressman and others.
The news come on the heels that Edmund has hired former Timothy McVeigh attorney, Stephen Jones.
And a shitload of the "Stay on Message Shock Troops" of the Washington version of "F Troop," are trying their best to spin this. Lots of talk going on in the sphere.
You be the judge of who is living in an alternate reality... This guy definately isn't. Read the last paragraph of his post. Funny how the family values folks, lose those values when they are in danger of losing power. Can you smell it... Its the smell of fear and desperation...
