Monday Morning Political Roundup

POLITICAL CRITIC

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

- James Madison

Monday, October 9, 2006 - 12:00am

Monday Morning Political Roundup

The Mark Foley scandal is not going away anytime soon. Here are a few reasons it will dominate the news for the entire week.

The L.A. Times is reporting that a former page had sex with Mark Foley after he left the program. Foley started emailing him immediately after he left the page program while he was still in high school. He was 21 years old when they actually had sex.

Another Republican Congressman knew about Mark Foley's conduct six years ago. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) was notified in 2000 by his own page that Mark Foley was sending sexually explicit to him. Kolbe's office has confirmed the account to the Washington Post.

In 2002 or 2003, Mark Foley showed up drunk at the page's dorm. That prompted a meeting between Kirk Fordham and Scott Palmer, the Chief of Staff to House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Palmer later confirmed to Fordham that he had spoken to Foley and his boss, Dennis Hastert about the problem.

It is now clear that the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, has known for years about the Mark Foley problem and has been lying for the past ten days about his knowledge of the issue. It is time for him to resign immediately. My prediction is that he won't make it through the week. Pack your backs Cardinal Law, uh I mean Mr. Hastert.