WASHINGTON – Rank-and-file Republicans on Sunday sought to mount a public defense of Speaker Dennis Hastert over the page sex scandal that threatens their congressional control one month before the elections.
But a House GOP leader under fire for his handling of the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley canceled a national broadcast appearance.
Also Sunday, it was revealed that another Republican congressman knew of Foley’s inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.
One Republican lawmaker said those who participated in a cover-up would have to resign.
“Anybody that hindered this in any kind of way, tried to step in the way of hiding this, covering it up, is going to have to step down. Whoever that is,” said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.
The House ethics committee is investigating the matter. If it finds evidence of a cover-up, the punishment could range from a mild rebuke in a committee report to a House vote of censure or expulsion.
Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who heads the House Republicans’ re-election effort, would have been the chamber’s top GOP official on the Sunday talk shows. Booked weeks ago for ABC’s “This Week,” he confirmed his appearance on Wednesday. By Saturday, his office had canceled without explanation and arranged for a substitute guest, Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., a network spokeswoman said.
A Reynolds spokesman said the New York congressman had flu-like symptoms. Reynolds, whose district covers a stretch of New York between the suburbs of Buffalo and Rochester, is now trailing his Democratic opponent, Jack Davis, by a margin of 48 percent to 33 percent margin, according to a Zogby International poll.
Reynolds has been criticized by Democrats who say he did too little to protect a page from Foley, the Florida Republican who resigned Sept. 29 after the disclosure of his sexually explicit electronic messages to teenage former male pages. Foley is now under investigation by federal and Florida authorities.
Putnam, who heads the Republican Policy Committee, sought to make the case that Hastert’s office “acted proactively, they acted aggressively, and within hours of the explicit e-mails coming to light, they demanded Foley’s resignation.”
“The dirty laundry in our conference is gone,” he said.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., confirmed Sunday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley was taking their e-mail relationship.
Last week, when the Foley matter erupted, a Kolbe staff member suggested to the former page that he take the matter to the clerk of the House, Karen Haas, said Kolbe’s press secretary, Korenna Cline.
The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley’s questionable behavior. A timeline issued by Hastert suggested the first lawmakers to know, Rep. John Shimkus. R-Ill., the chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., became aware of “over-friendly” e-mails only last fall.
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