What about Alexander? Why didn't he do more to protect his page?

[beaconess]

According to press reports, when the parents of the page he sponsored told Rodney Alexander about Foley's behavior, he "reported" it to Tom Reynolds, the GOP House campaign chairman. And then, it appears, he did not another thing about it.

Excuse me? Why would he report this to the CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN of all people and not the Speaker or the Ethics Committee or the Page Committee or the press OR THE POLICE? Why didn't he confront Foley himself?

I worked for a Member of Congress who sponsored page. In our office, the page was virtually a surrogate child of the Member, who felt very responsible for his well-being. He checked on him regularly, we included him in office activities, we were in regular touch with his parents and even arranged for his family to come to D.C. to visit him on several occasions. Everyone in our office knew that this kid was our responsibility and we looked after him while he was away from home.

If our page had told my boss that a Member had sent him inappropriate emails - even if they could arguably be seen as simply "overly-friendly," he would have gone ballistic. After we scraped him from the ceiling, he would have been in EVERYONE's face about it, including the offending Member himself. There is no way he would have simply told the head of the DCCC and then let it alone.

While Hastert and Shimkus and Boehner bear a great deal of responsibility here, let's not forget about the unforgiveable neglect by the man who brought this poor kid to Washington and then washed his hands of him when things got tough.

[spag68]

1. No use

reporting it to the ethics committee, because it hasn't been in session for 6 years.

[beaconess]

2. :-) Touche

But he could have told SOMEONE else other than the GOP campaign chair.

[Garbo 2004]

3. The kid was a former page who received the emails after he left DC

and was back in La. The emails from Foley were not sexual in nature. The kid had emailed an Alexander staffer asking if he was just being paranoid since the emails freaked him out. If you read the emails, there's not anything specifically for the police to act upon, just the kid's instincts (and likely our own) that Foley's interest wasn't entirely kosher.

According to one press report Alexander said when he learned of the emails he contacted the parents and the House leadership, FWIW: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060929/ap_on_go_co/congressman_e_mails

Not trying to justify Alexander or the others. I figure it wasn't entirely unknown by many that Foley had an "interest" in teenage guys. He appeared to have a pattern of contacting pages after they left the program. At least that apparently was the case with other former pages who received explict sexual communications from Foley but not until after they were out of the program.

[beaconess]

5. It makes no difference whether he was in or out of the program

This kid was Alexander's page and it was obvious that Foley was sending him inappropriate emails and his parents complained to him about it. They may not have been overtly sexual, but any person with a lick of sense would see that they were smarmy, to say the least, and warranted more than a casual mention to the party's political leaders.

The fact that Alexander went to the Chair of the RCCC about this (why go to the leading political operative before going to the Speaker or Majority Leader or Page Board?) and apparently did little to follow up on this is, in my view, disgraceful. He owed the kid more than to just mention it to a couple of people and then go on his merry way.

[Imagevision]

4. Alexander has always been too concerned saving his own butt,

Hastert, claims Boner, had taken care of Foley situation before the story broke but it wasn't true.