Fordham Resigns; Blames Democrats -- Update
Why did Kirk Fordham resign today?
Accounts vary. According to a senior Republican official in Washington, Fordham, in the spring of 2006, promised Rep. John Shimkus, the chairman of the page board as well as a staff member in Speaker Dennis Hastert’s office, that he would make sure Foley kept out of trouble.
Fordham had spent ten years as Foley's chief of staff and is one of his closest friends. He was acting here in two capacities: as a representative of Reynolds, the chair of the campaign committee, and as a friend to Foley. From the perspective of the GOP leadership, whatever assurances Fordham gave were enough to prevent Hastert’s staff from recommending any further action.
But Shimkus, in a statement to ABC News, said he did not speak to Fordham about the "overly friendly" e-mails. Fordham has also denied seeking to quash any investigation.
Fordham denies interfering with any investigation into Foley's conduct and told the AP that he warned a senior Congressional aide about Foley's behavior two years ago. His friends believe he is a scapegoat for others in the leadership who ignored warnings about Foley.
Two Republicans said that Reynolds was not aware of the extent to which Fordham helped Foley deal with the initial set of accusations last week. But Reynolds accepted Fordham's explanantion. Fordham gave three interviews yesterday in the hope that the spotlight would shift from his boss. But the questions continued today.
In a statement, Fordham said that he "never attempted to prevent any inquiries or investigation of Foley's conduct by House officials or any other authorities."
"Like so many, I feel betrayed by Mark Foley's indefensible behavior," he said in the statement. "Again, I will not allow the Democrats to make me a political issue in my boss's race, and I will fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation." [MARC AMBINDER]
This is baloney--Reynold's fired him!!! Reynold's is trying to bail water in a very desperate attempt to save his own seat.
When I (and other pages) entered the program, we were told explicitly, that if any member of Congress or hill staffer engaged in inappropriate contacts/harassment, to stay away and report it. Subsequently, in following discussion among departing pages and staffers, we were warned about the behavior of 3 Members of Congress. All this and more has been going on for years, and I (as well as my former pages from the Summer of '98) know full well that Foley isn't where the scandal will end. This is an issue that will rock both parties, however, I can only speak to the 3 names we were warned of.
The rumors of Foley being gay, always have been true, but his using alcoholism and the fact he is gay is a poor excuse for his actions. The powers that be, as far back as 1998 (and most likely before) knew of inappropriate dealings and as I said yesterday, this isn't just related to Congressmen, several specific staffers do the same thing, it goes under the radar and no one does anything until something forces their hand. They vehemently warn Pages when we arrive to be alert of things to come….and the leadership has the audacity to claim they didn't know? - - Shame on all, who in a position of power and leadership and did nothing.
Big bad Democrats did this how? "The timing very is suspicious!" Well, the Republicans controlled the timing in that they could have cut this pedophile loose at any time. Boo hoo for them. The voters deserve to be informed. Informed that the GOP covers up predatory pedophiles.
The only Dem-leaning person I've heard about involved in all this is Melanie Sloan of CREW. She got the "overly friendly" emails months ago, but forwarded that to the FBI within 1 day of reading the emails. She didn't have enough information to publicly accuse a man of being a pedophile, and gave the information to the proper authorities (who apparently did nothing).
Despicable. Which dem knew about it and when?
What's that got to do with anything? They chose when to publish?
Well couldn't you have chosen when to sack a pedophile any time since you knew about it? pages say you warned them years ago. !!!!!!
Why didn't you call the FBI instead of leaving it to the young pages to defend themselves if they were attacked by the pedophile?