Covering Their Congressional Butts

The FBI is looking into those e-mails Rep Mark Foley (R-FL) has been sending to Congressional pages. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) sent a letter to the FBI requesting the probe after Democratic leaders also called for one:

“Since the communications appear to have existed for three years, there should be an investigation into the extent there are persons who knew or had possession of these messages but did not report them to the appropriate authorities. It is important to know who may have had the communications and why they were not given to prosecutors before now.” -- Hastert Letter to the FBI

That's a good question, since there are indications that Mr Hastert and other Republican leaders reportedly knew about the e-mails for at least a year. And there are reports that Republican leaders quietly warned pages about the e-mails -- but did nothing to stop them -- as far back as 2001. (NYT)