Foleygate scandal update

OK, this scandal seems to be evolving into a who-knew-what-when kind of thing.

Here's what we know so far: Florida congressman Mark Foley resigned when transcripts of emails and Instant Message sessions with teenage Congressional pages came out. He was favored to win his re-election, but now the Democratic challenger, Tim Mahoney will face off against an as-yet-unnamed Republican replacement. Foley's name will still be on the ballot (they're already printed), but the Republican candidate will get any votes cast for Foley. Foley may be charged with crimes, perhaps even under the law he helped to write. (I'm reminded of the quote, "Freedom is obeying a law you wrote yourself" which I must be mangling because I can't find it.)

But there's more. I'll let Josh Marshall explain:

[Speaker of the House] Denny Hastert has repeatedly said he didn't know anything about the Foley problem until Thursday. But two members of the leadership -- Boehner [whose name is apparently not pronounced "boner" but "bayner"] and Reynolds -- say no, they warned him about it months ago. Hastert got Boehner to recant; Reynolds is sticking to his guns.

Rodney Alexander brought the matter to the Speaker's office. And Hastert's office tonight put out the results of a detailed internal review of what happened in which they revealed that no member of the House leadership -- not Hastert or Shimkus or the House Clerk -- had actually laid eyes on the emails in question.

Only Hastert's office apparently didn't touch base with Rep. Shimkus, since as Hastert's crew was writing out their statement, Shimkus was offer giving an interview to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which he described how he and the Clerk had read the emails.

So Reynolds is throwing Hastert under the bus. And none of these Republicans told the lone Democrat on the page committee what was going on. Oh, this is going to be rich.