Washington – House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., spent nearly three hours behind closed doors with the House ethics committee Tuesday, describing what he knew about former Rep. Mark Foley’s relationships with young male pages and when he knew it.
The extraordinary appearance came just a few hours after his Republican campaign chief, Rep. Tom Reynolds, N.Y., went before the committee to reiterate his contention that he personally told Hastert last spring of suspicious e-mails that Foley had sent to a Louisiana teen.
Hastert has said he has no recollection of that conversation and did not learn of the Foley matter until it exploded in late September.
“Since I had requested prompt action by the committee, I took the opportunity to thank them for moving expeditiously to look into this matter,” Hastert said as he emerged from the hearing room. “I answered every question they asked fully and to the best of my ability.”
The twinning of Hastert’s and Reynolds’ hearings surprised Republican and Democratic leadership aides and only heightened the drama of the committee’s deliberations.
Hastert is the first House speaker to testify before the committee since Newt Gingrich discussed a much-criticized book deal in 1997. But in the Gingrich case, committee members scheduled his testimony at night, sparing Gingrich a daylight walk through the throng of reporters and camera crews.
Hastert also had to come right after the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Reynolds, who has already challenged Hastert’s version of events.
“I was happy to voluntarily do my part to assist in their inquiry and answer any questions they had,” Reynolds said.
Tuesday’s drama was the strongest indication yet that the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct may be nearing the end of its investigative work. The committee interviewed Hastert’s chief of staff, Scott Palmer, on Monday and could call up his deputy chief of staff, Mike Stokke, and his counsel, Ted Van Der Meid, this week.
