Foley Scandal: What Did Heather Wilson Know and When Did She Know It?

Things haven't been going well for Republican incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson's campaign (NM-01). The lastest polling shows Dem challenger Patricia Madrid tied at 44% with Wilson, and the new Madrid ad calls Wilson out in no uncertain terms on lying for Bush about the disasterous Iraq War. Now the scandal that's exposed Rep. Mark Foley's sexual targeting of underage House pages may well be the nail in the coffin for the Wilson campaign. Political analysts are suggesting that other tight congressional races may also tip in the Democrats' favor as a result of this unfolding story about what Foley did and what Republicans did or didn't do when they found out about it.

Wilson was forced to donate the $8000 she got from Foley's PACs to charity, and she's joining other Repubs in tight races in suddenly stating concern about the situation -- trying to distance themselves from Hastert and others. It's now clear that the Repub leadership and at least some Repub members of the board that manages the House page operation (which has only one Democratic member) had knowledge of Foley's problems with minors for months, if not years. Yet they did nothing. According to a New York Times article:

Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

... Besides the leaders, other lawmakers and Congressional officers who served on the board that oversaw the page program were aware of the e-mail messages, though the Democratic lawmaker who serves on the board, Representative Dale E. Kildee of Michigan, said Saturday that he had never been informed.

Hmmm. Heather Wilson was a member of the House board that oversees the page program in 2001-3004, when pages were reportedly already being warned about Foley. What did she know about Foley's penchant for sending sexual emails and IMs to young, male pages and his "overly friendly" attitudes towards the 16 and 17 year olds? And if she knew about Foley's tendencies, as a number of Republican leaders did, why didn't she or anyone else do anything meaningful about it?

Rep. Wilson: See no evil?

As reported in the Bloomberg article also linked above:

"Toleration of inappropriate behavior is almost as bad as the behavior itself,'' said Representative Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico who faces a difficult race in November.

I wonder if Wilson includes herself in those Republicans who tolerated the inappropriate behavior. It's hard to believe she hadn't heard anything about the warnings about Foley given her membership on the page management board that oversees the program and its young interns.

What we do know is that the Republican House leadership apparently lacks the capacity and/or curiosity to investigate questionable activities, whether they involve members of their own caucus or the war in Iraq. Always number one on their agendas? Protecting their own and winning at almost any cost. Family values party, my eye.

ThinkProgress has a timeline of what is known so far in the Foley controversy.