On Scarborough Country they've got a "BREAKING NEWS" chyron across the bottom of the screen with NBC NEWS: GOP LEADER DEMANDS PROBE INTO ALLEGED FOLEY DRUNK DORM VISIT in smaller type underneath.
Here's how Scarborough opened his show tonight (I've transcribed it using TiVo):
"Hey good evening, thank you so much Keith, and we have some breaking news in this Mark Foley sex scandal, just moments ago we learned that a House Republican leader is calling for an investigation into alleged reports that Mark Foley visited page dorm room while drunk, had to be led away by police officers."
Scarborough then introduces NBC reporter Mike Viqueira .
More...
Viqueira characterizes the dorm incident thusly:
"It turns out that last night the GOP Conference had a conference call, sort of a crisis management where all 232 House Republicans are invited to call in and get a bearing on where everything is and the status of this scandal. Last night on that call rumors, and I repeat they are rumors, were brought up by at least one Congressman, Robin [sic] Wicker of Mississippi, who alleged that there was an incident within the last several years when former Congressman Foley came to the House page dorm, which is just south of the Capitol, just a few blocks south, in an intoxicated state, was stopped by the Capitol Police from entering the page residence...
After an interlude about who told whom what when, Viqueira then reports:
Viqueira: Subsequent to that we've just received copies of two letters, one written by Deborah Pryce, she's the fourth-ranking House Rebublican, she's from Ohio...
Scarborough: She's the chairwoman of the GOP Conference?... Powerful woman...
Viqueira: Chairwoman of the GOP Conference, that's right, she has sent a letter to the Clerk now, a woman named Karen Haas, asking for an investigation, she has cc'd the Capitol Police... and, the majority leader, also from Ohio, John Boehner has the same, uh, has a letter to Karen Haas asking for the same thing, he says (McGarrett apparently quotes) "It has been brought to my attention that an incident may have occurred in years past involving former Representative Foley..." we don't know when this happened, the details are very vague, and I do repeat that it is a rumor.
Maaan, Hastert is some overdone toast now. I give him hours... minutes maybe...