Report Drubs Hastert, Shimkus, ReynoldsArizona Rep. Jim Kolbe (R) isn’t the only guy to take a beating in the House Ethics Committee report on the Foley scandal.
The panel finds that Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) all but abandoned his responsibilities as chairman of the House Page Board. “Rep. Shimkus should have demanded copies of all relevant e-mails or other documents,” the report states. “[A]t a minimum Rep. Shimkus had an obligation to learn more facts regarding the e-mails [between Foley and a page] before concluding that he could handle the matter himself without informing the other members of the Page Board or seeking their input.”
They also pull up just short of accusing House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) of conspiring to obstruct justice, when he tried to rope other GOPers with conflicting stories into meeting with him to “prepare a statement.” To the panel, that smacked of an attempt to coordinate a plausible lie:
[T]he efforts by the Speaker’s office to prepare a statement under the direction of counsel could have had the additional effect of inhibiting the Investigative Subcommittee’s ability to secure evidence… This effect was compounded by the appearance of [lawyer Randy] Evans and a law partner as counsel for the Speaker, Stokke and Kennedy during their testimony before the Subcommittee.
Some may recall that Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) refused to attend the meeting. But that doesn’t keep him clear of suspicion. He only did that on advice of his counsel — the aforementioned Randy Evans, who had the thankless (though likely profitable) job of keeping all the men out of trouble.