If you’ve been following the Congressman Mark Foley resignation scandal, you’ve notice that there is a definite Illinois angle. The Florida Republican abruptly resigned after e-mails and other Internet communications emerged that more than just sugggested he was a child sex predator.

If you’ve confined yourself to Illinois media outlets, you probably believe that all is well and that everybody mostly did their jobs (if you’ve seen coverage at all). You’d be wrong.

The Tribune and the State Journal-Register both reported Sunday that US House Speaker Denny Hastert and his office were unaware that one of his Republican members was an accused pedophile until last week.

* Tribune:

Aides to the speaker say he was not aware until last week of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned on Friday after portions of racy electronic messages between him and current and former underage congressional pages became public. But the aides conceded they could not be conclusive on the timing.

* SJ-R:

Hastert’s office said no one in his office was made aware of the sexually explicit messages until press and Internet reports surfaced last week.

That reporting appears to be inaccurate.

* Roll Call:

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) issued a statement Saturday in which he said that he had informed Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) of allegations of improper contacts between then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and at least one former male page, contradicting earlier statements from Hastert.

GOP sources said Reynolds told Hastert earlier in 2006, shortly after the February GOP leadership elections. Hastert’s response to Reynolds’ warning remains unclear.

* Speaker Hastert then issued a press release and this non-denial denial was near the end:

Congressman Tom Reynolds in a statement issued today indicates that many months later, in the spring of 2006, he was approached by Congressman Alexander who mentioned the Foley issue from the previous fall. During a meeting with the Speaker he says he noted the issue which had been raised by Alexander and told the Speaker that an investigation was conducted by the Clerk of the House and Shimkus. While the Speaker does not explicitly recall this conversation, he has no reason to dispute Congressman Reynold’s recollection that he reported to him on the problem and its resolution.

* And RollCall claims Hastert’s office was informed right away.

At least four Republican House Members, one senior GOP aide and a former top officer of the House were aware of the allegations about Foley that prompted the initial reporting regarding his e-mail contacts with a 16-year-old House page. They include: Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) and Reps. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), as well as a senior aide to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and former Clerk of the House Jeff Trandahl. […]

According to a senior House GOP leadership aide, Hastert’s office was informed of the interview shortly after it occurred, but Hastert himself was not told.

* This morning, the AP reported that Hastert was finally admitting that his office knew about Foley’s dark secret, but claimed he didn’t know the extent of the problem.

The office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who earlier said he’d learned about the e-mails only last week, acknowledged that aides referred the matter to the authorities last fall. They said they were only told the messages were “over-friendly.”

And what about Congressman John Shimkus, the chairman of the US House page program? The Hastert press release, which is billed as a timeline of events, claims this:

The Clerk asked to see the text of the email. Congressman Alexander’s office declined citing the fact that the family wished to maintain as much privacy as possible and simply wanted the contact to stop. The Clerk asked if the email exchange was of a sexual nature and was assured it was not. Congressman Alexander’s Chief of Staff characterized the email exchange as over-friendly.

The Clerk then contacted Congressman Shimkus, the Chairman of the Page Board to request an immediate meeting. It appears he also notified Van Der Meid that he had received the complaint and was taking action. This is entirely consistent with what he would normally expect to occur as he was the Speaker’s Office liaison with the Clerk’s Office.

The Clerk and Congressman Shimkus met and then immediately met with Foley to discuss the matter. They asked Foley about the email. Congressman Shimkus and the Clerk made it clear that to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and at the request of the parents, Congressman Foley was to immediately cease any communication with the young man.

The Clerk recalls that later that day he encountered Van Der Meid on the House floor and reported to him that he and Shimkus personally had spoken to Foley and had taken corrective action.

So, a little talking to and a gentleman’s warning is considered “corrective action” in Washington, DC? This is the best evidence yet of how screwed up the capital has become.

But, wait, there’s more.

* This is a representative example of what GOP Congressman Shimkus’ spokesman has been telling the press.

Shimkus “did not see personally any e-mail a year ago when he dealt with the issue,” Tomaszewski said. “He was only told of the one e-mail that came out first, which references, ‘How are you doing after the hurricane?’ and, ‘Send me a picture.’”

When Shimkus learned of other e-mails and text messages that Foley allegedly sent the underage pages, Shimkus “did confront Mr. Foley, who obviously lied to him,” Tomaszewski said.

[Emphasis added]

* Shimkus’ own press release [scroll down] never really says one way or another whether he had read the e-mails, and today’s SJ-R story accepts his explanation without question.

* But the Post-Dispatch talked to Shimkus himself, and the congressman had a different story to tell.

Shimkus, who serves as board chairman for the House page program, read the emails, in which Foley asked about the boy’s well-being in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, what he wanted for his birthday, and for a photograph. (The boy was from Louisiana and had returned to his home state.)

Although there was nothing sexually suggestive in the emails, Shimkus and Trandal agreed: “That was enough for us to approach Mark,” Shimkus recalled an interview Saturday.

Soon after, they met with Foley and his chief of staff in the Florida congressman’s office. “We basically said, ‘We got these emails. And we don’t think this is appropriate. … You have to stop (contacting this boy)’,” Shimkus said.

[Emphasis added]

My own thought is that the story was probably downplayed when it was initially mentioned to Speaker Hastert. He does bear ultimate responsibility as Speaker for this mess, however.

The behavior of Congressman Shimkus, the chairman of the House page program, is far more inexcusable. Parents send their kids off to DC for the page program believing that our nation’s leaders will make sure of their safety. Shimkus completely failed those parents and totally failed his official responsibilities The fact that he never even told the minority party leadership of the page program about the incident suggests he was either clueless about his responsibilities to those kids or there was a partisan cover-up, or both.

An example of the consequences of Shimkus’ inaction and silence was that the Metro East Republican allowed the alleged boy-lover Foley to continue chairing the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. At the very least, Shimkus should immediately resign his page program chairmanship.

Clearly, more answers are needed. And, clearly, the newspapers in this state and particularly in Shimkus’ own district need to get off their kiesters and work this story a whole lot harder.

[Hat tips all over the place, and yes I’m aware there’s more to this story, including the fact that the US House Majority Leader changed his story. After initially claiming to the Washington Post that he told Speaker Hastert of the allegations, he later said he did no such thing. You can find a timeline here.]

[Also, you can comment now, but, as always, comments won’t appear until Monday so I don’t have to spend my weekends monitoring the blog.]

*** UPDATE *** Roll Call:

As of Saturday evening, nearly a dozen House GOP lawmakers and staffers have acknowledged that they knew of the initial batch of non-sexually explicit messages from Foley to a 16-year-old former House page, some of them for a year or more. These include Hastert; Majority Leader John Boehner (Ohio); National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.); Reps. Rodney Alexander (La.) and John Shimkus (Ill.); Mike Stokke, the Speaker’s deputy chief of staff; Ted Van Der Meid, Hastert’s counsel; Paula Nowakowski, Boehner’s chief of staff; Jeff Trandahl, the former Clerk of the House; and another Hastert aide and Alexander’s chief of staff, according to public statements and GOP insiders.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Hotline Blog:

What isn’t clear is why no one other the clerk of the House and GOP Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), the member in charge of the Page program, directly spoke with Foley.

More importantly, and this question may decide whether Republicans retain control of the House, how thorough was the investigation conducted by the clerk and Shimkus? What exactly did that “investigation” discover and/or conclude? It only took ABC News about a day to go from knowing nothing to knowing, well, too much about the contact Foley had with underage pages.

I’d like to know the answer to those two questions as well.

*** UPDATE 3 *** The president of the Page Alumni Association says pages were warned about Foley way back in 2001.

A Republican staff member warned Congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page. […]

Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-2002 class, told ABC News he and other pages were warned about Foley by a supervisor.

Loraditch, the president of the Page Alumni Association, said the pages were told “don’t get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff.”

If the pages knew, why didn’t Congressman Shimkus know? Or did he hear the rumors as well?

*** UPDATE 4 *** The Palm Beach Post, in the disgraced ex-congressman Foley’s former district, reports that Foley’s affinity for the youngsters was “widely known.”

Congressional staff members who asked not to be identified said it was widely known among Hill staffers and some House leaders that Foley had been engaging in inappropriate conduct and language with young aides

*** UPDATE 5 *** I’ve created an automated IceRocket news feed so you can follow the developments:

*** UPDATE 6 *** From the official farewell to the departing page class of 2001-2002:

Mr. SHIMKUS. I thank my colleague. Now someone who spends a lot of time with you also, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley), would like to say a thank you.

Mr. FOLEY. I warn all of you not to cry in front of me, please, so I can get through this very important day with you without shedding tears as well. […]

…and finally John Eunice. John was the highest bidder on lunch with Mark Foley. Maybe you all do not know this story, but John had paid considerable sums to dine with me. I had offered to take the winning bidder to lunch in the Members’ dining room. Then I heard how much John Eunice paid. And I said, “John, there is no way in the world after you committed so much money to have lunch with me that I would dare take you downstairs to eat in the Members’ dining room.'’ I said, “Where do you want to go?'’ He says, without reservation, “Morton’s.'’ I said, “Morton’s? Like in Morton’s Steakhouse?'’ He said, “Oh, would that be too much?'’ I said, “Oh, no, we’ll go.'’ I said, “Call your mother, get permission, make sure she notifies the Clerk and we will go to Morton’s.'’ And so we proceeded to cruise down in my BMW to Morton’s. And all of this story is meant to make you all feel jealous that you were not the high bidders. So we went to Morton’s, and I do not know where you all went.

It’s enough to turn your stomach. And since it was broadcast on C-SPAN, it’s all on tape. Luckily for Shimkus, his opponent doesn’t have the money to put this video into a TV ad.

[Comments now closed. Head to Monday’s post to comment, please.]