PRNewswire

NEW YORK, Oct. 8 — On one night in 2002 or 2003, an allegedly inebriated Congressman Mark Foley showed up at the Congressional pages’ dorm after a 10 p.m. curfew and tried to gain entry, according to an account provided by two congressional sources. It is not known if the pages were ever aware that Foley lurked outside their door, but word of the incident reached the House Clerk, who notified Foley’s chief of staff, Kirk Fordham. This was not the first time that Fordham had learned of his boss’s behaving “inappropriately.” According to a knowledgeable source, Fordham is prepared to tell investigators that he was warned on “two or three occasions” about Foley’s “overly friendly” socializing with young male pages, reports Newsweek’s Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas. Fordham was informed by Jeff Trandahl, then the Clerk of the House, who oversees the page program. On one occasion, sometime in 2002 or 2003, Trandahl told Fordham about Foley’s nocturnal adventure to the pages’ dorm. Fordham recalls Trandahl telling him that Foley “appeared intoxicated,” according to Newsweek’s source. This incident prompted Fordham to go to Scott Palmer, House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s chief of staff, and tell him about Foley’s behavior. Thomas reports this and other behind-the- scenes details of the scandal surrounding Foley that threatens to bring down the GOP in Newsweek’s October 16 cover story “Off Message” (on newsstands Monday, Oct. 9).

According to Newsweek’s source, Fordham did not tell Palmer about Foley’s attempt to enter the pages’ dormitory, but rather that he was generally concerned about his boss’s excessive friendliness to the pages. Palmer expressed surprise and concern, the source says, and wondered what this could mean to Foley’s political future. Why would he endanger his career with such conduct? Palmer assured Fordham that he would talk to Foley. A day or two later, Fordham called Palmer to ask what happened. Palmer told him that he “dealt with it” by talking to Foley and that he “informed the Speaker.” Months later Fordham had an awkward conversation with Foley in which his boss indicated that he had spoken to Palmer.

In Washington, reports Thomas, Foley’s homosexuality was an open secret. Gays active in Republican politics describe an informal “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule: gay staffers can be out of the closet, as long as they aren’t too public about it. Foley was sexually active in Washington, according to a gay Republican who declined to be identified. Because he had a longtime partner, he told a friend, he preferred to have affairs with men who also had boyfriends. That way, he explained, they both had something to lose. Foley jokingly described this practice as “mutually assured destruction,” said this friend.

At the White House, aides were straining to sound optimistic. “I think we’ve stabilized,” said one senior Bush aide, operating under the usual White House requirement of anonymity. “Unless there’s another circular firing squad or new information comes out.” Others were gloomier. In Rep. Ray LaHood’s Illinois district, the Foley scandal has been the lead story in the local paper every day for the past week. “We had this game plan of coming home and talking about our accomplishments on border security and the economy, and nobody wants to hear about it,” says LaHood. “The only thing I hear from people is Foley … It’s all anybody wants to talk about, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

And it’s not just the voters who care about “family values” who might be driven away, said Matt Dowd, Bush’s longtime pollster. The brouhaha on the Hill threatens what Dowd calls “the gut values” relationship between voters and politicians they trust. “Values always determine elections,” says Dowd. “Deep gut values, like ‘Do I trust someone?’ ” Dowd worries that public trust in the House Republican leadership — never exactly ironclad, even among the truest Republicans — could be shredded by disarray in the leadership and doubts about whether they tried hard enough to deal with Foley before he could prey on teenagers.