Over on “Out of Content Context,” the Salt Lake Tribune’s political writer’s blog, Thomas (don’t call him Tommy anymore, he toppled a county government after all) Burr decided to tease me about a POST I wrote a couple of days ago. The post mentioned that Mr. “Blame the Children and their Parents” Cannon having taken $500.00 from Mark Foley, ought to give it to charity, seeing as how he says that he’s always disliked and been annoyed by Mark Foley.

Well, until Thursday night, Thomas, I wasn’t working with a Utah Media Machine that, for the most part, felt Mr. Cannon’s lexicon of blunder and scandal was worth talking about. Since no one will write about his office’s ties to Safavian and Abramoff anymore, or the sexual harassment scandal in Cannon’s office, or the illegal campaign contribution ask on Spanish radio, or the duality of message on immigration, or the multiple bankruptcies, or the lobby scandals with Big Joe Cannon, or the time, on Decker’s Take Two when he said that anyone who couldn’t afford college was stupid and uneducated, or his pushing to make permanent the H1B that gives tens of thousands of American jobs to people from other countries, or his key role in making sure that middle class people don’t share the protection of bankruptcy that Mr. Cannon and the gang have made use of from time to time, (meat packing plant? Geneva Steel? Ringing any bells here?), and on and on and on.

Since the Utah media refuses to take an historical view of Mr. Cannon’s time in office and other historical events, I, your intrepid Democratic communications guy, have to go and look for new stuff because some reporters have expiration dates on bad behavior and scandal for GOP members serving in office. Maybe, Thomas, just maybe, that’s why I brought up the $500.00 from 1997. Oh, and, you’re working on the wrong Foley timeline.

Here, enjoy the date on the very first example:

TIMELINE:

THE GOP’S COVER-UP FOR SEXUAL PREDATOR MARK FOLEY

1995: Pages Were Warned About Foley. “In 1995, male House pages were warned to steer clear of a freshman Republican from Florida, who was already learning the names of the teenagers, dashing off notes, letters and e-mails to them, and asking them to join him for ice cream, according to a former page.” [Washington Post, 10/4/06]

1996: Foley Suggested That He and An Intern Get Together at Republican Convention. “Beck-Heyman, who was a Republican page and is now a Democrat, said the attention was ‘weird,’ and he provided a handwritten letter that Foley sent him after the page left WashingtonCalifornia. The note suggested that they get together during the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996.” [Washington Post, 10/4/06] to return home to

2001: Republican Staff Members Warned Pages About Foley. “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.'” [ABC News, 10/1/06]

4/03: Foley Left the Floor During Voting for Cybersex. Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages. ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18. This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp. [ABC News, 10/3/06]

2003: Foley Wrote Explicit Messages to Pages. Foley wrote much more sexually explicit messages sent to other pages in 2003. [Washington Post, 10/3/06]

9/05: Foley Requested Picture of 16 Year Old Boy. “Foley requested a picture of a 16-year-old boy and asked him what he would like for his birthday. The former page forwarded it to a staffer for another member of Congress in September 2005, describing it 13 times as ‘sick’ and saying, ‘This freaks me out.’ The staffer’s office informed a Hastert aide shortly afterward and the speaker’s office referred the matter to Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Page Board, who asked Foley to cease communication with the teenager.” [Chicago Tribune, 10/3/06]

Fall 2005: Alexander’s Office Contacted Hastert’s Office, Who Told Him to Contact House Clerk. Alexander’s Chief of Staff “contacted the Speaker’s office about Foley’s email exchange. Alexander was concerned about it.” The speaker’s deputy Chief of Staff and in-house counsel “told Alexander’s aide to contact the House clerk” [St. Petersburg Times, 10/1]

Fall 2005: Shimkus and Trandahl Met With Foley About the Emails. “Shimkus and Trandahl met privately with Foley and his chief of staff last fall to ask him to cease interaction with House pages. Shimkus said he acted based on the text of the e-mails and because the messages concerned the page and his parents.” [Chicago Tribune, 10/3/06]

11/05: Florida Newspapers Received Emails, But Didn’t Print Them. The St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald received copies of an e-mail exchange between Mr. Foley, Republican of Florida, and a teenager, but neither paper gathered enough solid material to publish a story, according to statements by the papers’ editors. . The trickle of information about Mr. Foley’s messages, first made known to the news media almost a year ago. . The St. Petersburg Times said that last November, it received copies of an e-mail exchange between Mr. Foley and a former page from Louisiana. The newspaper said the boy, who was under age, did not want his name used, and the paper said it did not want to publish accusations based on unnamed sources. The Miami Herald apparently received the same information, although it is not clear when it received it. [New York Times, 10/3/06]

2006: Foley Considered Not Seeking Another Term, But Reynolds Convinced Him To. Bob Novak wrote, “A member of the House leadership told me that Foley, under continuous political pressure because of his sexual orientation, was considering not seeking a seventh term this year but that Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), talked him into running.” [New York Post, 10/4/06]

Late Spring 2006: Boehner Says He Learned Of Initial Emails. Boehner told the Washington Post that he “had learned in late spring of inappropriate e-mails Foley sent to the page, a boy from Louisiana, and that he promptly told Hastert.” [Washington Post, 10/1/06]

Spring 2006: Alexander Discussed Emails With Boehner, Who Referred Him to Reynolds. “The congressman who sponsored the page, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), whose office first received the complaint from the page, was referred to Reynolds by House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) when Alexander discussed the e-mails in the spring with Boehner.” [Chicago10/3/06] Tribune,

Spring 2006: Reynolds Says He Learned of Emails in the Spring, Told Hastert. “Mr. Reynolds, who runs the fund-raising committee for House Republicans, was told in the spring that Mr. Foley may have acted inappropriately toward pages. He said he alerted the Republican speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, to the issue, but Mr. Hastert said he had no recollection of the contact.” [The Sun, 10/3/06]

6/06: Emails Came Up in a Capitol Hill Bar Conversation, Were Passed On to News Outlets. June, the reports resurfaced on Capitol Hill, where a neighborhood resident struck up a conversation in a bar with someone who had provided the e-mail messages. He said he
passed them on to several news outlets. The resident, who said he was not affiliated with either party and was motivated by concern for the teenager, would talk only on condition of anonymity. [New York Times, 10/3/06]

7/21/06: CREW Sent Emails to FBI. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in WashingtonNew York Times, 10/3/06] forwarded the messages to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on July 21 and requested an investigation. [

8/06: ABC Learned of Emails. Brian Ross of ABC News said he learned about the e-mail messages in August but was too busy with Hurricane Katrina and the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue them immediately. [New York Times, 10/3/06]

8/7/06: NRCC Took $100,000 From Foley. The NRCC accepted a $100K contribution from Foley’s campaign committee. [fec.gov]

9/28/06: ABC Reported On Suggestive Emails. ABC reported initial suggestive emails on Sept. 28. [New York Times, 10/3/06]

9/28/06: Blunt Said He First Learned of Foley Emails on 9/28. Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri wasn’t part of any past discussions of Foley’s e-mails, said spokeswoman Burso Snyder. “The first time Cong. Blunt heard anything about the Foley matter was Thursday of last week when ABC broke the story,” Snyder said in an e-mail. She said no “leadership meetings” were held on the issue, but rather some “one-on-one conversations among members.” [Kansas City Star, 10/3/06]

9/29/06: ABC Asked Foley About Explicit IMs. ABC News interviews Foley “about excerpts of instant messages provided by current and former pages under the age of 18. ABC reported that Foley, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual acts and body parts.” [ABC News, 9/29/06]

9/29/06: Former Foley COS, and Current Reynolds COS, Tried to Cut a Deal with ABC Not to Make IMs Public. Foley’s former chief of staff Kirk Fordham “tried to cut a deal” with ABC’s Brian Ross. Ross, “who had dozens of instant messages that Foley sent to teenage House pages, had asked to interview Foley. His ex-CoS “said the congressman was quitting and that Ross could have that information exclusively if he agreed not to publish the raw, sexually explicit messages.” Ross: “I said we’re not making any deals” [Washington Post, 10/2/06; USA Today, 10/4/06]

9/29/06: Foley Resigned.

9/29/06: ABC and CREW Reported On Explicit Messages. ABC News later reports on the sexually explicit messages. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington made messages public after the report. [New York Times, 10/3/06; ABC News, 9/29/06]

9/29/06: Hastert Said He Learned of the Explicit IMs on 9/29. Hastert said that no Republican House leaders had seen the ‘vile’ messages sent in 2003 until September 29. Hastert said he was unaware of any sexually explicit e-mails until Foley resigned. [Washington Post, 10/3/06; Chicago Tribune, 10/3/06]

9/29/06: Boehner Said He Learned Of Initial Email in the Spring, Told Hastert; Later Retracted That, Said He Couldn’t Be Sure. Boehner told the Washington Post on September 29 that he “had learned in late spring of inappropriate e-mails Foley sent to the page, a boy from Louisiana, and that he promptly told Hastert.” Roll Call reported, “Boehner and his aides later contacted the Post and other media outlets, including Roll Call, to retract the comment. ‘That is not true,’ he said after the Post’s initial report, and he contacted the Post to say he could not be sure he spoke to Hastert personally.” [Washington Post, 10/1/06; Roll Call, 10/3/06]

9/30/06: Hastert Said He Did Not “Explicitly Recall” Spring Meeting With Reynolds About Foley Emails. After Reynolds’ statement, Hastert’s office issued its own “preliminary report” on how the Speaker and his staff handled the Foley scandal. Hastert said, “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, [Reynolds] 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 Reynolds’ recollection that he reported to him on the problem and its resolution” [Hastert Release, 9/30/06]

10/2/06: Foley Checked Into Rehab. Foley’s attorney said he had checked himself into a rehabilitation facility ‘for immediate treatment for alcoholism and other behavioral problems.’

10/2/06: Hastert Says That He Didn’t Have A Chance to Ask Foley to Resign. At a press conference, Hastert was asked whether or not the leadership asked Foley to resign. Hastert replied, “I think Foley resigned almost immediately upon the outbreak of this information, and so we really didn’t have a chance to ask him to resign, and I left at the very end of the session, almost, before the very last vote.” [Transcript of Q&A with Speaker Hastert on Mark Foley Matter, 10/2/2006]

10/3/06: Hastert Changes Course, Says He Asked Foley To Resign. In a radio interview, Hastert changed his story, saying that he asked Foley to resign: “We took care of Mr. Foley. We found out about it and asked him to resign. He did resign.” [Salon, 10/3/06]

10/3/06: Boehner Reversed Course Again, Said He Thought Hastert Had “Dealt With” The Situation After Spring Meeting. Boehner said, “I believe I talked to the Speaker [in the Spring] and he told me it had been taken care of.And, and, and my position is it’s in his corner, it’s his responsibility. The Clerk of the House who runs the page program, the Page Board – all report to the Speaker. And I believe it had been dealt with.” This was a change from what Boehner had said on September 29. [Washington Post, 10/4/06]

10/3/06: Reynolds Said 10/3 that He Didn’t Discuss Foley With Fordham Until 9/29. “Reynolds, who is locked in a tight reelection battle for his own upstate New York seat, was forced to address his aide’s role on Tuesday, telling reporters that Fordham acted without his knowledge. He said he didn’t discuss the Foley matter with Fordham until Friday. “I didn’t give him permission to have any conversations that he’s had at any time with Mark Foley, either as his friend or as his former employer,” said Reynolds, adding that Fordham was interacting with Foley on his own time.” [LA Times, 10/4/06]