Congressional pages discussed rumors about former Republican Representative Mark Foley as early as April 2004, new evidence indicates. According to information recently purged from an online community designed for teenagers involved in the House page program, some teenage pages working for Republican Congressmen had heard rumors about former Congressman Foley and others.
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TheDailyBackground was recently able to recover information from the website, run by former House page William Kwilos. The website, www.pagealumni.us which was established in 2002, appears to have been shutdown after the scandal about former Rep Mark Foley appeared in newspapers Saturday morning. The URL congressionalpage.org redirects to the same webpage. Mr Kwilos did not respond to a request for comment.
One discussion which took place in April of 2004 between seven pages and former pages centers around whether some representatives were homosexual.
One former page noted "There are a few gay members of Congress, I believe. Jim Kolbe from AZ, Barney Frank of MA, and some woman from Wisconsin." Another page replied "yea, i remember hearing something about that too." The first page then said in response "I'm pretty sure my stalker was [gay] too."
The pages appear to be joking about the possibility of being stalked by a fellow page. At this point, in the context of talking about gay Representatives and "stalking," the conversation appears to suggest that Republican Representative Jim Kolbe personally contacted a male page at his house. The first page remembers "our roommate from AL told me that Kolbe called him at home (or something like that). A little odd." Another responds "woah, Yea I remember him or you telling me that. that was odd."
TheDailyBackground was able to contact one of the pages involved in this discussion, however after considering the matter for several hours, he declined to comment on the conversation, or any other aspects of the story.
Republican Congressman Kolbe (age 64), who is retiring from the House this year was a Congressional page in high school and is openly gay.
One former page continued in the conversation "I remember my stalker talking to me about which Republican would challenge Graham in Florida (at the time we didn't know if he would retire or not). He talked about Mark Foley to me." The former page does not elaborate on who the "stalker" was, or what information he shared with the page about Congressman Foley.
Later in the conversation, a third House page interjects "im assuming that [one of the other pages] knew this, but there were rumors going around about Foley last year as well" (last year being 2003). The conversation then wanders to political issues, such as whether or not John Kerry or George Bush will win the 2004 Presidential election.
The Congressional page program dates back to 1827, and several former Congressmen began their Washington career as pages. Before a scandal involving two Congressmen (one Democrat and one Republican) who had sexual relations with pages broke out in 1983, teenagers as young as 14 were encouraged to apply for the program. Only high school students are currently allowed to participate in the program, to which less than 100 students are accepted. Pages enrolled in the program during the school year study at a special school while they are not performing duties for Congressmen and committees. The majority party is typically allotted more pages than the minority party.
One former page who worked under a Democratic Congressman was involved in the discussion, however when he was contacted by
TheDailyBackground he said he had heard "nothing specific" and was unaware of rumors concerning Foley. He suggested that pages sponsored by Republican Representatives had heard rumors but others working for Democrats had not.
Pages contacted by
TheDailyBackground were reluctant to talk about the page program however they indicated they had already been contacted by members of the press. Neither House staff, nor authorities conducting investigations had contacted any of the former pages
TheDailyBackground spoke to however. When asked if he had been contacted by the press, one former page replied "we all have."
TheDailyBackground has learned that the office of Clerk of the House has been taking phone calls over recent days from former pages and is advising them not to comment on any aspect of the story. Sources suggest that this may even include commenting on whether or not the Clerk of the House has advised them on this matter.
In a separate conversation which took place in 2005, one high school student new to the website announces "I applied for the summer session II to Mark Foley (R-Palm Beach, FL). Hope I get in... :-)" Another member, who was a page from 2003-2004 (who was were 17 years old at the time) responded "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Foley."
Political analysts said that Congressman Foley, who represented Florida's 16th congressional district until last Friday when he submitted a letter of resignation to House Speaker Dennis Hastert through Florida Governor Jeb Bush-- had been expected to easily gain re-election to a sixth term this November until he resigned Friday.
Foley had been known for his years in Congress as a staunch supporter of protector children, sponsoring legislation designed to crack down on child predators. He also served as cochairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which he co-founded. A television advertisement which was airing in Florida the day Foley resigned routed the Congressman's record of "protecting missing and exploited children" and referred to him as a "proven leader" with a "record we can be proud of."
Cross-posted from TheDailyBackground.com