This story will appear in tomorrow morning's Washington Post:
A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) confirmed yesterday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley (R-Fla.) was taking their e-mail relationship. ...
The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's behavior with former pages. A timeline issued by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) suggested that the first lawmakers to know, Rep. John M. 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. It also expands the universe of players in the drama beyond members, either in leadership or on the page board.
Besides pushing back the timeline and expanding the cast of Republican congressmen involved in covering up for a child predator in their midst, this serves expose the lies that the Republicans and their extremist conservative supporters have been pushing in an effort to escape the consequences of their actions (or lack of action). Kolbe is a Republican, not a Democrat. He did not sit on this for six years only to mention it just before the election, because he wants Republicans to lose. He is not a practical joker. He did not make this up.
Unless you want to believe that an eleven term Republican is a paid operative of George Soros and Bill Clinton, none of the excuses offered to the press by Hastert, Drudge, Limbaugh, or Dobson can hold up after this revelation. Of course Kolbe is the only openly gay Republican in congress so, to the extent that they acknowledge him at all, I'm sure the conspiracy nuts will use Kolbe to push some new gay bashing narrative.
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