A source close to former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl told ABC News that Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) was one of a small number of "problem members" of Congress who page program supervisors complained spent too much time socializing with pages, taking them to dinner or sporting events outside of official duties.
Mark Foley was also on the list.
The source said Trandahl frequently cautioned both congressmen that "adults should hang out with adults, pages should hang out with pages," a message Trandahl also conveyed to pages during their orientation.
Ok, Kolbe is under investigation for a camping trip that he took with a page in Arizona. He also invited the pages to use his house in DC as a crash pad when he was out of town. Do members of congress really need to be there if they need constant reminders to stay away from the teen-agers?
Trandahl actually had a list of SEVERAL members who were inappropriately close to the pages. Congressman Jerry Weller (IL) referred a matter with a man harrassing one of his female pages to the ethics committee last week.
Can Denny Hastert still credibly do the Shultz defense, he knows nothing? This is all going to come out. It may not come out before the election, but these folks just piss me off to no end. I don't care if you are gay or straight, or bisexual or you get off with whips and chains. You don't go to my congress and harass the high school juniors. Is that really too much to ask for now?
This is institutional. An independent prosecutor needs to be appointed in January. The House ethics committee really can't handle this one because of conflicts of interest. This should be in the first 100 plan of Speaker Pelosi. Our congress has 16% approval right now. It's time for a change.