HASTERT KNEW

Speaker Dennis Hastert's political support showed signs of cracking on Wednesday as Republicans fled the fallout from an election-year scandal spawned by steamy computer messages from disgraced Rep. Mark Foley to teenage male pages.
At the same time, the congressional aide who last week counseled Foley to quit said in an Associated Press interview he first warned Hastert 's aides more than three years ago about Foley's worrisome conduct toward pages. That was long before GOP leaders acknowledged hearing of it.
The aide, Kirk Fordham, who resigned Wednesday, said he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene" at the time.
He made his comments as Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, third-ranking leader, told reporters he would have handled the matter differently than Hastert , had he known of it.
And Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky, in a tougher-than-expected re-election race, abruptly canceled an invitation for Hastert to join him at a fundraiser next week.
"I'm taking the speaker's words at face value," Lewis told the AP. "I have no reason to doubt him. But until this is cleared up, I want to know the facts. If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong, then I will be the first in line to condemn it."
Ron Bonjean, Hastert 's spokesman, declined to comment on the claim made by Fordham.
He said the entire issue had been referred to the House ethics committee. "We fully expect that the bipartisan panel will do what it needs to do to investigate this mater and protect the integrity of the House," he added.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement saying that Hastert and the rest of the GOP leadership should be "immediately questioned under oath" by the panel.
"The children, their parents, the public, and our colleagues deserve answers and those who covered up Mark Foley's behavior must be held accountable," she said.