King Defends Hastert Over Calls for His Resignation

Yes King does owes hastert his position as commitee chairman but the criminality and malfeasence is quite clear.
King tells the NYTimes “I think it is a rush to judgment to say that he should step down,”


Guest-blogger Paco in Glen Cove provides this timeline of the widening scandal and shows there is no "rush to judgement" but clear and compelling evidence of wrongdoing by Hastert and the republican leadership.

"What has given the House GOP leadership and Peter King a huge migrane headache for possibly for the rest of the election cycle is the series of events that took place nearly a year ago when news of some initial questionable contact between underage House pages and Congressman Mark Foley were first reported to fellow Republicans.

2003 — Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) has sexually explicit IM exchanges with an underage boy who worked as a Congressional page. [ABC News, 9/29/06]
SUMMER 2005 — Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) sends inappropriate emails to another former Congressional page. [CREW]
SEPTEMBER 2005 — Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who sponsored the "05 page, learns “of the e-mails from a reporter.” [AP, 9/29/06]
FALL 2005 -- Alexander contacts page's parents. They tell him they don't want to pursue matter but want Foley to stop (according to Alexander).
FALL 2005 — “Tim Kennedy, a staff assistant in the [Speaker J. Denis Hastert’s] Office, received a telephone call from Congressman Rodney Alexander’s Chief of Staff who indicated that he had an email exchange between Congressman Foley and a former House page…[Mike] Stokke [Deputy Chief of Staff for Speaker Hastert] called the Clerk and asked him to come to the Speaker’s Office so that he could put him together with Congressman Alexander’s Chief of Staff.” [Hastert Statement, 9/30/06]
LATE 2005 — Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Chairman of the House Page Board, “was notified by the then Clerk of the House, who manages the Page Program, that he had been told by Congressman Rodney Alexander (R-LA) about an email exchange between Congressman Foley and a former House Page.” Shimkus interviewed Foley and told him “to cease all contact with this former house page.” He did not inform Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), the only Democrat on the House page Board. Apparently Foley agreed. [Roll Call, 9/29/06]
JANUARY 2006 -- Alexander has another "contact with a reporter" concerning the existence of the reported emails. (according to Alexander)
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 — Alexander tells NRCC chairman Tom Reynolds about “the existence of e-mails between Mark Foley and a former page of Mr. Alexander’s.” Reynolds tells Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) about the emails and his conversation with Alexander. [Reynolds Statement, 9/30/06; Roll Call, 9/30/06; Hastert Statement, 9/30/06]
SPRING 2006 — House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) learns of “inappropriate ‘contact’ between Foley and a 16-year-old page.” After leaning about Foley’s conduct, Boehner told Speaker of the House J. Denis Hastert who assured Boehner he would “take care of it.” Later, Boehner changed his story and told the Washington Post he didn’t remember whether he talked to Hastert. [Washington Post, 9/30/06; New York Times, 10/1/06]
MAY 10, 2006 — Reynold’s personal PAC, TOMPAC, donates $5,000 to Foley’s campaign. [New York Daily News, 9/30/06]
JULY 21, 2006 -- CREW received a set of emails, allegedly from Rep. Foley to a former House page, which it sent to the FBI later that day.
JULY 27, 2006 — Foley writes a $100,000 check to the NRCC, chaired by Reynolds. [New York Daily News, 9/30/06]
JULY 27, 2006 -- Foley, still co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, attends a signing ceremony at the White House for the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. [White House, 9/27/06; Talkingpointsmemo, 9/30/06; Washington Post, 10/1/06]
SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 -- ABC publishes emails between Foley and former page. [ABC, 9/28/06]
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 -- Foley resigns. [ABC, 9/29/06]
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 -- ABC publishes sexually explicit Instant Messages between Foley and several former pages. [ABC, 9/29/06]
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 -- "Aides to the speaker [Hastert] 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 e-mail exchanges between him and current and former underage congressional pages became public." [Chicago Tribune, 9/30/06]
Later on Sept. 29, 2006: The Associated Press reports that Alexander said he'd notified the "House leadership" of the Foley emails "10 to 11 months ago." Alexander also tells reporters he passed on the info about the Foley/page contact to NRCC chief Reynolds, and also says tells a local paper he informed Boehner of the contact.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2006 -- Hastert admits he was told about the emails by Reynolds in the spring. [Hastert Statement, 9/30/06]
SEPTEMBER 30, 2006 -- Rep Dale Kildee, the only Democratic member of the House Page Board, says he was never informed of the Foley matter.
OCTOBER 2, 2006 -- CREW Urges the Department of Justice to probe why FBI failed to investigate Foley emails sent by CREW in July.
OCTOBER 3, 2006 -- The Washington Times, one of the most reliably conservative voices in the nation's capital, calls for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to "resign his speakership at once" for not doing enough to investigate questions about former Congressman Mark Foley's e-mails to teenage pages.
"Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance." Washington Times editorial Resign, Mr. Speaker

OCTOBER 3, 2006 -- Hastert ignores call to resign amid Foley fallout [CNN]

We, as the responsible citizenry of Long Island, must strongly call upon Peter King to make his opinion known on the leadership of his party in the House of Representatives. This is no time for a long investigation, that could have occured last year instead of acting like the enabler of their sick republican colleague. In fact, there has already been five days that Mr. Foley has had an opportunity to destroy any evidence of impropriety on his home computer. That in itself is ridiculous.
Keep your eye on Peter King Watch for more updates on this matter.

Paco in Glen Cove "