The Daily Background

The Hotline has some unanswered questions about the Foley sex scandal:

Foley’s actions raised enough alarm bells that a number of investigating actions were started late last year and in early spring. In addition, ABC News reports that the 16-year-old page had been warned to watch out for Foley, suggesting that the congressman’s behavior was an open secret among the folks that ran the page program. If this is true, it implies Foley’s behavior was more systematic and known. If so, how many members of the House GOP Conference aware?

Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) was concerned. As he raised the issue with a number of key folks, including the clerk and NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds.

Reynolds was concerned enough that he made sure to alert Hastert. Now, Hastert, even today, doesn’t recall the conversation with Reynolds but doesn’t dispute Reynolds’ recall.

Yeah, I was wondering when somebody would mention that the ABC report said that warnings had been issued about Foley. Certainly seems worthy of further investigation. It could be that Republican leadership was already wary of Foley, who it was rumored and even reported was gay in the mid-1990s (he refused to confirm or deny at the time).

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