FAM ILY VALUES

["Robert L Bass" <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000
Page Notified GOP Rep. Kolbe

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 9, 2006; Page A01

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. 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.

he 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.

A source with direct knowledge of Kolbe's involvement said the messages
shared with Kolbe were sexually explicit, and he read the contents to
The Washington Post under the condition that they not be reprinted. But
Cline denied the source's characterization, saying only that the
messages had made the former page feel uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she
said, "corrective action" was taken. Cline said she has not yet
determined whether that action went beyond Kolbe's confrontation with
Foley.

In interviews with The Post last week, multiple pages identified Kolbe
as a close friend and personal confidante who was one of the only
members of Congress to take any interest in them. A former page
himself, Kolbe offered to mentor pages and kept in touch with some of
them after they left the program, according to the interviews.

Kolbe once invited four former pages to make use of his Washington home
while he was out of town, according to an instant message between Foley
and another former page, Jordan Edmund, in January 2002. The pages
planned to attend a first-year reunion of their page class. But because
of a snowstorm, they did not take Kolbe up on his offer, according to
one of the four pages.

Cline said one of the youths invited was a former page of Kolbe's.
Because the congressman frequently travels on weekends, either to his
Arizona ranch or abroad, the house is often available to friends,
constituents, staffers and former staff members, such as a former page,
she said.

Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, is retiring at the
end of the year.

The latest revelation in the growing House page scandal comes just a
month before crucial midterm elections. Foley resigned Sept. 29 after
ABC News confronted him with the sexually explicit messages that he
exchanged with a former page, triggering investigations by the Justice
Department, the House ethics committee and Florida authorities.

Hastert and his top aides have been sharply criticized by Democrats and
some conservative Republicans for failing to act promptly after
receiving warnings that Foley had been sexually predatory in dealing
with pages and former pages. Ron Bonjean, the speaker's spokesman, said
yesterday: "Allegations of inappropriate conduct by members of Congress
towards pages need to be fully reviewed by the ethics committee and law
enforcement."

In addressing the revelation about Kolbe, Bonjean said, "This
allegation reiterates why the speaker has also called for a full review
of the House page program to ensure that it is as safe and secure as
possible."

A new poll by Newsweek indicates the Foley scandal is doing significant
damage to the Republicans' political fortunes and could sink their
chances of holding onto control of Congress on Election Day, Nov. 7.
The poll found that 52 percent of Americans, including 29 percent of
Republicans, believe Hastert was aware of Foley's Internet
communications with underage pages and tried to cover up Foley's
actions. More of those polled, 42 percent, now say they trust Democrats
to do a better job handling moral values than Republicans; 36 percent
favored Republicans on the values question.

In a sharp exchange on "Fox News Sunday," Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.),
the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, insinuated that
Democrats were behind the revelations of Foley's actions and the
release of electronic messages showing Foley having sexually graphic or
highly suggestive conversations with former pages.

"What I don't understand is where have these e-mails been for three
years? Are we saying that a 15-year-old child would have sat on e-mails
that were triple-X-rated for three years and suddenly spring them out
right on the eve of an election? That's just a little bit too
suspicious, even for Washington, D.C.," Kingston said.

Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.) shot back, "If there's any evidence
that you need that the values in Washington have turned upside down,
you could just hear what Jack had to say. Only in Washington, D.C., can
you take a group of people in charge of the House and basically have
evidence that they've been looking the other way while a predator has
been . . . going after 15- and 16-year-old pages, [and] they somehow .
. . have the audacity to turn that into a political attack against
Democrats."

So far, only ABC News and The Washington Post are known to have
obtained the sexually explicit instant messages between two former
pages and Foley. The Post obtained its copies from a former page who
served on Capitol Hill with the other two pages.

Staff writer James V. Grimaldi contributed to this report.