Well, Mr. Reynolds, the Republican partisan cheif within the halls of Congress, told the press that he had heard of these "inappropriate" e-mails(but not actually what were in these e-mails, but just that he heard that they weren't exactly...well, appropriate...for an exchange between a Congressman and a 16 year old Page) and had alerted to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert about these emails and Foley back in the Spring of 2006.

Hastert had told the press that he first learned about Foley and the e-mails on Friday. When asked about Reynolds' statements, Hastert said that such comments by Reynolds to him..."slipped" his memory.

Now what happened here? Either two things, each a 50/50 possibility, knowing Congress and politicians.

(1) Reynolds was worred about such-commented "inappropriate" IMs, and told Hastert about it, since its a possible leak that could be a piss stain for the Republicans in Congress. Of course, assuming that they don't know what the IMs actually are, they probably assume that those IMs were innocent, but the wording made it seem like a paedophile/homosexual relationship was going on. However, perhaps Hastert was damn busy, or he probably figured that the IMs were nothing to worry about. I mean, a top GOP guy for family values and safety of our children? Just cheap sleaze against him by the opposition.

In other words, the GOP on the Hill simply fucked up, and now have a major disaster on their laps, not because of failure to keep a cover-up, but because the chain of command failed in reprimanding Foley. Shit Happens.

(2) Reynolds learned of the IMs, and their content, and told Hastert, who then lead a cover-up of very devastating materials for the Fall Mid-terms. However, somebody(probably a Democratic sympathizer) got ahold of these IMs, and timely leaked it to the public.

Now I'm not saying that the GOP tried to cover Foley's shit up. They could have, but there is no proof for such things so far, so its irresponsible to say that they are. But considering how Washington is, and how cynical that we as a people are with our government's elected officials, many people will either believe, or actually consider, that such a failed cover-up did happen, and this shit will hurt the GOP in 30 or so days at the polls.

BTW, who saw Joe Scarborough taking Hastert and the GOP Congressional power structure to task for this fiasco? A former Florida Congressman from the 1990s, and considering that Hastert once upon a time was one of his bosses at that time...he laid a Cleveland Steamer on them.