The current scandal in the House Page program doesn't seem to be the first. Since the earlier scandals were successfully quashed, there is very little information available. I found at least two more scandals (involving illegal activities by the pages themselves this time) in 2002 and 2004. Oddly, these were election years. I don't yet know if adults were involved in either case, as the records are so scanty. Anyone have a rollcall subscription?
In May of 2002, the freepers were all
abuzz with the following:
Eleven teenage House pages are in hot water after getting caught using marijuana -- ROLL CALL's Ed Henry reported late Wednesday.
The pages were dismissed from their duties, acording to sources familiar with the investigation.
One well-placed staffer said the pages got kicked out for behavior "that anyone shouldn't be doing, let alone kids."
MORE
Henry reports: "The trouble started when one female page whose family lives in the Washington, D.C., area brought several other pages to the family home unsupervised. The pages involved allegedly smoked marijuana in the basement of the house."
The female page then allegedly "brought some drugs back to the House page dorm on Capitol Hill, where her roommate turned her in to authorities. That led to everyone involved being disciplined. "
Two Democratic sources tell ROLL CALL DAILY that all 11 pages were sponsored by Republican House Members.
Developing...
In the comments from that story was the following:
To: Bonaparte
I heard the news report tonight on a DC radio station, and the reporter said that the Page who provided the pot and the place to party lived in Gaithersburg, Md. By putting that bit of information together with the other reports that the involved Pages all worked for Republicans... it looks like Connie Morella (RINO) may be the sponsor of the pot-peddling Page. I'm drawing a blank trying to come up with another Republican Congresscritter in Montgomery County, Md... I guess it could be Wayne Gilchrest; either way, it's a RINO's Page. And in heavily 'Rat MD, the kid could well be a 'Rat's kid.
Oh well, the kid screwed up and did something dumb and got caught. I remember doing dumb stuff when I was 16. Hopefully she'll learn something from it.
posted on 05/01/2002 8:29:14 PM PDT by tgslTakoma
A little wingnut humor from further down the thread:
To: areafiftyone
Time to break out the page jokes...
Why don't Congressmen use bookmarks?
Because they bend their pages over!
posted on 05/01/2002 8:42:25 PM PDT by spanky_mcfarland
Hmm.
As I began to check the various internet tubes for more on this story, my flashlight lit upon the following from newly.com:
Huffin' Down the House
Friday, January 16th, 2004
Wow. Jack W. sends along this breaking news item from Roll Call:
House Pages Expelled for Chemical Abuse
By Jennifer Yachnin
Roll Call Staff
Friday, Jan. 16; 09:44am
Seven students were expelled from the House Page School last Friday after they were found abusing household cleaners. School officials discovered the students apparently using aerosol dust cleaner - which can contain pressurized chemicals such as difluoroethane or tetrafluoroethane, often used on computers - as inhalants.
I feel like I should make a joke but I can't think of one.
The original link at rollcall is http://www.rollcall.com/....
I don't know if either story is still there -- or if any of this is actually true -- because the stories have been, shall we say severely neglected by our beltway journalists. Anybody care to do a little Sunday night sleuthing? I know there must be at least a couple of tubes I haven't looked in yet.
Since we're talking about 18 pages (who were all sponsored by individual lawmakers) there is some explaining that needs to be done by the sponsors and the House leaders to the citizens of our country.