The State Journal-Register’s editorial board met with Congressman John Shimkus yesterday and was not impressed with his arguments that he did everything he possibly could to prevent a sexual predator from preying on children.

We can’t help but wonder why such a stern warning - cease contact with all pages - would be issued if the evidence was as innocuous as Shimkus describes it. Even if Shimkus merely had a gut feeling that something serious was wrong, why would he not probe further? We now know that had he bothered to question former pages, he likely would have heard plenty about Foley’s inappropriate behavior. […]

Shimkus acknowledges feeling bad about the situation, but he becomes angry when questioned whether he should have done more. “I don’t know of a single thing I would have done differently,” he said. Shimkus seems more interested in raising the specter of Democratic dirty tricks than of second guessing his own actions. He repeated to the editorial board what appear to be Republican talking points, questioning why the salacious e-mails were leaked to ABC so close to the election. […]

It is clear one thing could and should have been done differently - the protection of the pages should have been placed above the protection of the Republican Party. To not do so was shameful.

Shimkus’ angry contention that this is all a Democratic plot to undermine the Republicans right before an important election has been undermined since he spoke to the SJ-R by this blockbuster story in today’s edition of The Hill.

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, said the source, who showed The Hill public records supporting his claim. […]

The source bolstered the claim by sharing un-redacted e-mails in which the former page first alerted his congressional sponsor’s office of Foley’s attentions. The copies of these e-mails, now available to the public, have the names of senders and recipients blotted out.

These revelations mean that Republicans who are calling for probes to discover what Democratic leaders and staff knew about Foley’s improper exchanges with under-age pages will likely be unable to show that the opposition party orchestrated the scandal now roiling the GOP just a month away from the midterm elections.

Shimkus also had this to say to the Tribune.

“The thing that’s frustrating to me is that I’m not the bad guy here,” Shimkus said. “Leadership’s not the bad guy. The bad guy is whoever had these explicit instant messages that were done in 2003 and held them. That’s the bad guy . . . because those instant messages are what put these kids at risk.”

He didn’t explain how he knew that the IMs were “held” until now by a nefarious third party, however.

Also still unanswered is why his spokesman told reporters when the story first broke that Shimkus had not seen any e-mails from Congressman Foley last year even though Shimkus now admits to seeing them.

Meanwhile, the Daily Herald reports on what it claims is the Republicans’ greatest electoral fear.

The biggest worry among the GOP, political observers say, is that conservatives won’t vote Nov. 7, fed up with a perception that House Republican leaders covered up the inappropriate sexual electronic messages between former Florida Rep. Mark Foley and young House pages.

It’s more than just the conservatives, however. It could be across the board if the bleeding isn’t stopped soon.

And the Sun-Times tracked down Topinka, but didn’t hear much.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Judy Baar Topinka conceded Wednesday that “obviously there were problems” with how congressional leaders dealt with reports of Rep. Mark Foley’s lurid e-mails to teenage House pages.

But Topinka declined to offer a specific opinion on the role of a fellow Illinois Republican, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, one of the leaders who has come under fire in the scandal.

Topinka has a lot of connections to both Hastert and Shimkus. As if she didn’t have enough problems.

Also, I have a new video in the YouTube vlog from this morning’s NBC5 report on the scandal. The station reported that Speaker Hastert has not emerged from his home in more than 24 hours.

       

47 Comments - BonVoyage John - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 8:58 am: Still unexplained (and I’ll keep this simple) 1. Did Shimkus ask the page’s family for specifics or determine if they were satisfied with his verbal spanking of Foley? 2. Why it did not occur to him to ask Foley who else he asking for pictures? 3. Why he did not ask security to check over the computers? 4. Who kept the police report on the Foley the Drunk visits the Page Dorm from authorities? 5. Why John thinks he and Denny are not the bad guys? 6. Does John understand that under IL law mandated reporters ( i.e. school bus drivers & janitors) are required to report this stuff to the POLICE. (That was what the school teacher was saying on KMOX-AM before she was cut off.) Anyone else with questions? - fedup dem - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:01 am: This mess will surely give a jumpstart to the candidacy of Denny Stover, Shimkus’ Democratic opponent. - Bill - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:07 am: Does this mean that Republicans lie? I’m shocked! - Bill - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:09 am: It’s deja vu, all over again! - Madison County Watcher - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:26 am: Is it true that the St. Petersburg Times was aware of the first e-mail, which is the same amount of information that Shimkus had, since November 2005? - Cassandra - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:28 am: What the parents wanted or didn’t want was irrelevant here although the legislators involved were apparently too clueless to see that. Because Foley was potentially a risk to all pages, the parents could not control the subsequent activities once they brought the problem to the attention of authorities. JBT’s response is indeed disappointing. One can see the next Blago ad about JBT “reserving judgment” against a string of salacious e-mails. Sigh. Why do these old pols all have to back each other up. Too many skeletons in the closets? If Hastert cares as much about the Repub party as he says, he’ll get out of the way and accept that his fellow Repubs are going to have to distance themselves from him to have a prayer of winning. The reality is that the Dems have not been good for kids. The Tribune recently excoriated them again for abuse of kids at the Dem-run Cook County juvenile jail, where two federal probes are underway. We read about another DCFS disaster practically every week. But it’ll probably be JBT who ends up looking soft on child welfare, at least when Blago gets done with her on her response to the Foley issue. Whitney is starting to look better…. - Juice - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:29 am: This is a horrible story for republiucans. It’s like a wildfire. It starts small and those around think that they have it under control. Before you know it, the fire is out of control and they are surrounded by fire and in danger of losing their own lives. This thing is going all the way to the top and Hastert is now hunkered down trying to ride this thing out. But its not going away. In fact, its going to get worse. He will wind up resigning his post because he allowed a pedophile congressman to take advantage of the young pages whose parents send to DC to gain some experience — it happened under his watch and he knew about it and did nothing. As for Topinka, this fire will reach her as well, unless she takes quick action to distance herself. Her press secretary is paid by Hasterts PAC, which amounts to a significant in-kind contribution from the embattled Hastert. She has also taken a good chunk of money from Shimkus. She will need to give that money back, make some declaritive statements distancing herself from the national republicans, and either get rid of McGovern, or put him on her payroll. Naturally, her putting this distance between herself and the national republicans will all but ensure that no national money comes in to prop up her “campaign.” She will have to sacrifice potential financial support in return for innoculation from this horrible, horrible sex scandal. - Roget - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:30 am: “underminded”???:-) - Leroy - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:37 am: Well this is certainly following the established media ‘disaster’ playbook: 1. Non stop coverage of said event for a few days. 2. Polling data to support / tear down the media’s position on the severity of the disaster. 3. Evidence offered up by the media that key responsible people were well aware that the transgression was occurring 1-3 years prior to the public’s learning about it; and that they did not take any action to prevent it, thereby implying the transgression & subsequent fallout could have been prevented. This is the standard ‘model’ for scandal reporting the media has been following for several years now. The public will readily accept this format. - Carl Nyberg - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:43 am: Can you picture George Ryan saying, “The thing that’s frustrating to me is that I’m not the bad guy here… The bad guy is whoever solicited and took the bribes. That’s the bad guy . . . because the unqualified drivers put Illinois motorists at risk.” Ryan merely profited from the underlying conspiracy and prevented it from being detected and the wrongdoers held accountable. Sorta like what Shimkus did on behalf of the House Republican leadership. - Carl Nyberg - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:45 am: Who believes Shimkus and Hastert behaved honorably and have been truthful? Isn’t being dishonorable and dishonest enough of a reason to vote against them? - Snark - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:47 am: Watching Republicans manage their scandal is like watching Republicans manage a war. Oh, right. - DOWNSTATE - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 9:51 am: Carl the same reason all the Dems are going to vote against Blago - Snark - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:04 am: I hear that Shimkus teamed up with OJ to find the real killers. - Skarfeld - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:07 am: JBT is awfully aggressive when it comes to showing us how she’ll klunk the Governor with her rolling pin because it, too, is an assault weapon; but when a problem like a pedophile congressman is covered up by two of her key advisers–Hastert and Shimkus–she has no opinion of their conduct? If she allows her loyalty to them to override the greater public policy concern of keeping these child Pages safe then she doesn’t deserve to be governor anyway. - Captain America - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:10 am: It’s amusing to see the Republican spinners try to blame the Democrats for a political “dirty trick.” In fact, it is the Republican base which is revolting about this “sex” scandal: the Washington Times, Fay Buchanon, Richard Vigurie(SP?, Paul Weyerich (SP?) have alll called for the heads of the Republican House leadership. The moral majority/shock troops/divisions of the Republican Party are very upset! The Republican base is alienated by a whole range of issues, and this latest scandal is sure to depress GOP voter turnout. I completely agree that Foley is the real”bad guy.” However, this situtation is syptomatic of the Republican Party’s institutional failures: a complete unwillingness to hold Bush and other Republicans accountable for anything: Tom Delay; torture; illegal surveillance; Iraq contracting scandals; manipulation of intelligence; the Iraq “fiasco; Katrina response debacle etc…. Rightly or wrongly,everything I’ve heard or read in the last 24 hours, suggests that Denny Hastert is “toast.” He was always a figurehead for Delay, et al anyway. Too bad for Illinois that he will be forced to surrender his Speakership! - Roomie - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:12 am: I agree with the commenter who stated that Topinka stands the most to lose. She is the only one whose election is in dire straights. This scandal is not going away… only getting bigger. Her campaign spokesperson, John McGovern, is paid out of Hasterts PAC. She has taken money from Hastert and Shimkus who are now alleged to be covering up early reports of sexual misconduct by Foley. Where do you stand on this issue Topinka? Are you going to return the money or be associated with insiders who try to try to cover up scandal for their felllow insiders. First its her and George Ryan. Now her and Hastert. Great company to keep. - Bill - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:17 am: Whoops, It looks like Denny might have to get out of the farmland selling business! Seeya, Mr. former Speaker. - Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:19 am: Has Topinka taken a stand on the issue? You know she would be SLAMMING the governor on this already. Why are you hiding Judy? I bet all that RNC money from Denny Hastert isn’t looking so clean any more is it? Where are you hiding? - (618) Democrat - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:56 am: Madison County Watcher: Who cares if the St. Petersburg Times had the same e-mails as Shimkus. The Times was not in charge of protecting these children from this sex predator, Shimkus was. The Times is not up for election in the 19th in Illlinois. The more Shimkus and his backers talk the more reason the voters have to throw this bum out. Shimkus failed to protect these children. He didn’t do enough when he had the chance. There will be alot more to this story before it is over. The latest is that Foley showed up at the page dormitory drunk and had to be removed by the capitol police. Did Shimkus know about this? - Skarfeld - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:58 am: As good ole Murray used to say: “Just give the money back, Judy; Just give the money back!” - B Hicks - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:08 am: So, let me get this straight. Judy is great at throwing out the public official A title. She loves giving her opinion about the governor’s activities. She loves to preach about public trust in the elected officials and what’s legal and what’s illegal. When is she going to speak out about Hassert and Shimkus? Is she going to slip back into the roll of Public Official Absent, like she was in 1998 through 2002? Isn’t that special. - BonVoyage John - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:14 am: Yikes, I think John answered one question for us. It appears he was a teacher and therefore a mandated reporter. For the first time in a long time the Belleville News Democrats offers something of value: Shimkus became angry during an interview on KMOV-TV, Channel 4. The West Point graduate, former Lutheran high school teacher and father of three sons said opponents are engaged in the politics of personal destruction. “People are questioning my integrity and my honor and my commitment to those kids. That’s disgusting. This is why people do not get involved in politics.” Yup, John we are questioning all of the above, because after the spanking YOU did absolutely nothing. NO call the the parents, NO check of computers, NO call to the police, NO nothing. Opps, I forgot you did cash Foley’s check. - Carl Nyberg - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:32 am: Here are some questions Shimkus should be forced to answer: 1. What did he know? And when? 2. What did he do to protect Foley? What did Shimkus neglect to do to protect the pages? 3. To what extent did he facilitate Foley meeting pages he wouldn’t have met otherwise? And did Shimkus provide this “service” to any other members of Congress or Washington, DC powerbrokers? - B Hicks - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:40 am: Judy, the silence will be deafening. - Shelbyville - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:40 am: Also ask when were Foley’s computers checked for porn and where is his Blackberry? Foley is under no court order to stay in rehab, stay off the computer or even stay in the United States. I think he is gone. Some bloggers are showing that maf54 is still on the computer daily. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:45 am: One thing that will destroy GOP efforts to “bipartisanize” this issue, spread the blame, and deny knowledge. These allegations are linked back to Foley’s former chief of staff, who just resigned as Reynolds’ chief of staff, and says that he told Hastert’s chief of staff that Foley was out-of-control in 2003. The story was on ABC first, but has been picked up by just about everybody else: A top congressional aide says he warned Hastert’s staff about congressman Mark Foley’s behavior toward male pages more than three years ago. But no action was ever taken. Hastert’s chief of staff denies that allegation. These new allegations come from the former chief of staff for Congressman Foley — Kirk Fordham. He claims the suspicions of Foley’s behavior toward pages was no secret to the staff of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. In fact, he says he warned them three years ago. On Wednesday, Fordham told ABC News in a phone interview that sometime in late 2003 he told the chief of staff for Dennis Hastert that Foley was getting too close to young male pages. Fordham says the speaker’s aide, Scott Palmer, then met with Foley. Fordham says he was later told the speaker knew about the meeting. Fordham says there had been a series of warnings to page supervisors that Foley was spending too much time with the pages in ways that were inappropriate and would not stop. The pages themselves say they were even warned by Republican staff members to be careful around Foley. Now, who are you going to believe: a lifelong Republican whistleblower who quit his high-profile job because he is so convinced there is a cover-up, or Denny Hastert and his chief-of-staff, who are still clinging to their Sgt. Schultz line: “I know nothing. NOTHING!” I know who voters will find more convincing. - Chalkline - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:52 am: Leroy needs to be straightened out on this deal. What we have is degenerate Foley sending porno mails to kids. Hastert and Shimkus knew about it. They did nothing hoping it would go away. Insteat of rightful outrage at Foley, Hastert and Shimkus, Leroy says it’s the medias fault. Son, they hire guys like you at Fox News. What will you say next? Foley isn’t a pervert. He’s just passionate about sex education. - Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 11:53 am: Ah, today’s Blago talking point, brought to you by Bill, Juice, Roomie, Hicks et al: “Rip on the Hastert/Topinka connections” Probably a good strategy when you don’t want to talk about those “phantom indictments” that are coming down against your people next week. The waiting must be terrible. - Bill - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 12:22 pm: Has McGovern resigned yet? Not that it will matter much! - Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 1:01 pm: I love it. When Foley gets accused of sexually harassing young men, Topinka “reserves judgement” even when there is substantive proof in the form of emails. However, when allegations are thrown out about the governor she is absolutely positive that he is guilty. Even though all allegations are based on hearsay. Reserving judgement in this istance is just like condoning his actions. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Hastert is financing her campaign and she doesn’t want to jeopardize her money? I wonder if John McGovern, Topinka spokesperson and Hasterts on-loan spokesperson, knew about this or was involved? - Skarfeld - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 1:50 pm: Maybe it is time to start asking what McGovern knew as well. Obviously, he’s been with Hastert long enough to have the issue come up. If he has provided any details to JBT regarding Foley’s behavior in D.C. wouldn’t she be obligated to speak up as well? - Rob - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 1:53 pm: I’ve never seen Democrats so happy a kid was sexually harassed..this is pretty sad. - Rob - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 1:53 pm: I’ve never seen Democrats so happy a kid was sexually harassed..this is pretty sad…even for them. - Shelbyville - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 1:56 pm: So, Hastert is going to try the “I am appointing a special investigator” scenario. I bet he steps down by next week. Unless, of course, a major news scandal comes along that tops the current one. - Angie - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 2:15 pm: JBT needs to get elected, first. THEN she can start cleaning house. It is very simple. Give her a shot, and if she can’t pull it off, we’ll vote her out in 4 years. So far, Rod hasn’t done the job, so perhaps voters just need to keep voting in a new gov every four years until we get one who truly will clean house? Still, she’s a better risk than keeping Rod around, and it is obvious that she first needs to get elected before she can do anything major. - Anonymous - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 2:40 pm: The e-mail creep congressman - Foley - a Republican. The congressman in charge of the page program - Shimkus - a Republican. The congressman who sponsored the page - a Republican. The staff people who received the complaints - Republicans. So the Speaker’s response is - this is all a dirty trick by Democrats! Does he think people are stupid?!? Doesn’t he realize that Fox News isn’t the only network out there? - Carl Nyberg - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 2:46 pm: Kevin Drum is blogging that the shoe is gonna drop for a couple more House Republicans that couldn’t keep their lust for pages under control. How bad does it have to get before the GOP true believers learn that Hastert and Shimkus played them for chumps? Questions for Shimkus: 1. How many members of Congress have had flings with pages on your watch? 2. What circumstantial evidence were you aware of? 3. Mr. Shimkus, was there even a single case where you did a responsible investigation? 4. Should other West Point graduates and other school teachers be insulted that you hide behind your credentials rather than answer questions? - Skarfeld - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 3:16 pm: Angie, Judy’s had plenty of years to be a part of reform. Instead she has been a part of the problem. And, now, she is showing us what courageous leadership we can expect from her by her handling of Foleygate. Stop the denial, Judy; and just give the money back! - RealClear - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 3:34 pm: Shimkus is a complete waste. The guy broke the most important promise he ever made, his term limit pledge. Why should we ever believe anything he ever says again? - NW burbs - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 4:35 pm: Shimkus needs to look in the mirror. He says: “The bad guy is whoever had these explicit instant messages that were done in 2003 and held them. That’s the bad guy . . . because those instant messages are what put these kids at risk.” Umm, that’d be the Republican leadership. Hastert, Shimkus, Boehner… And why was Reynolds (the political re-election chair) ever made aware of this? That smacks of a purely Republican political hush-hush cover-up. – Rob, No one is happy about this. I am furious that my nation’s leaders were either so stupid that they couldn’t think to dig into this deeper (Hastert himself says he missed “red flags”, red flags that no former teacher should have ever missed — what other red flags is he missing … national security? the economy? FEMA? personal privacy? Dubai port deals?) … OR my nation’s leaders were so power-mad they overlooked a pedophile in their midst and tried to keep things quiet while he preyed on other young boys, all in a bizarre effort to retain seats in the House… That is pathetic. And it is pathetic that Republicans like you are even trying to defend the indefensible. If our Republican leadership failed to protect these young boys in the Congress Building itself, why should any American trust them to protect anyone else anywhere else in the country? Democrats and Republicans of conscience take no pleasure at all in pointing out that the Republican leadership has failed, a failure of the highest order. I’m a dad to two beautiful, wonderful, bright young kids. The Foley affair and the ineptness and/or cover-up swirling around it disgusts me. It ought to disgust you also, but apparently it doesn’t. - RealClear - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 5:40 pm: On the one hand Shimkus and Hastert say they had no reason to know there was a problem. But then they say they saw the “overly friendly” emails and told Foley to stay away from the kids. Well if the emails didn’t indicate a problem, then why did they tell Foley to cease and desist? Obviously the emails DID show a big problem, and they knew it. They just didn’t want it getting out. These guys are talking out of both sides of their mouths. Hardly anything new. They’ve defended the indefensible so many times before, it’s pretty much second nature now. Abramoff, Tom Delay, etc. etc. Doing nothing until a situation explodes in disaster is what horrible leaders do. - Rattlehead - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:09 pm: Nice attempt at spin, Rob, but what is sad is that Shimkus and Hastert allowed this to happen in the first place. Democrats, Republicans and independents alike all have a right to be outraged over the lack of leadership from those two on this. - Rattlehead - Thursday, Oct 5, 06 @ 10:16 pm: In fairness, let me rephrase. What is sad is that Shimkus and Hastert allowed the situation to get as far as it did without taking any meaningful corrective action. “You did this? OK. Don’t do it again.” Weak. - WWDMD - Friday, Oct 6, 06 @ 12:13 am: they (Repubs) cannot spin there way out of this. A core issue for anyone, political or not, can realize a lack of judgement by leadership was exercized. Plain and simple. these were boys for god sake - T.J. - Friday, Oct 6, 06 @ 1:17 am: “I’ve never seen Democrats so happy a kid was sexually harassed..this is pretty sad.” Amen, Rob. AP used the word “delight.” - Truthful James - Friday, Oct 6, 06 @ 9:21 am: Hindsight is 20/20 (no not the newsmagazine. The solution was simple enough. The problem is that within the great wall surrounding all the mandarins, we — Democrats and Republicans — are blind, the electees run a self protection agency and all is forgiven, until it reaches the press. No contingency plans, so to speak are in place. The first step should have been to notify the National Party leaders, who then would inform the State Party leaders (in this case, Florida) who would then either invite the person in (or send it down to the District Party leaders to do the same.) The person would be told of the problem. A senior staffer would be appointed as ‘minder’, to watch over him. Foley wouldbe told to plan for his retirement at the end of term, if that is how the Florida people judged. If recalcitrant, all his duties in the House would be stripped from him — no chairmanships and no earmarks, either. As a reward for service, he might be sent to an international agency, or perhaps be given a diplomatic job. If in 2003, he would have been gone in 2004; if in 2005, not up for reelection now. That was the appropriate channel to use. Instead, because of hubris, the Republicans will suffer from the fallout, which themandarins with the wall thought they could avoid. Politics these days is war by any other means. The one thing we can say is that Foley resigned rather than face censure. The Democrat Mr. Studds was able to brazen it out without being censured. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.