The stench is growing

Josh Marshall was tracking the Foley story through the night last night as the news came fast and furious. To summarize: John Shimkus (R-IL), Chairman of the Page Board, learned of e-mail contacts between Foley and an underage page last year. He informed Hastert's office, but Hastert claims he wasn't informed. Not much was done. Later, John Boehner learned of it. He told the Washington Post last night that he had informed Hastert. Later, he called the Post and said he didn't remember whether he had informed Hastert.

So what we seem to have here is several Republican members of Congress (the exact number is not known) who knew there was a potential problem here for quite awhile but either did nothing themselves or, if they passed the information on to others, failed to follow up when the others did nothing.

It seems to me that the stench coming from the Republican wing of the House is getting overpowering.