Ilinois Rep. Mafia feel the heat.

First Lady Laura Bush went to Buffalo yesterday - Niagara Marriott in Amherst. She was slated as the keynote speaker at a luncheon honoring Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds who is running for re-election against Democrat and Akron businesman Jack Davis. Davis spokesman Curtis Ellis said on Monday he did not know if the Democrats would run campaign ads highlighting Reynolds' role in the page matter. A September 28th Survey USA, shows Tom Reynolds leading Jack Davis by a margin of 45% to 43% with the Green party candidate receiving 8% support and 4% undecided.The Green Party is now out of the race.

Reynolds said he was told by fellow Congressman Rodney Alexander in the "spring" about some "overly friendly" e-mails and, though he never saw the exchanges, then alerted his boss, House Speaker Dennis Hastert about the issue.


To jog the reader's memory here are Mrs. Bush's Remarks at a Regional Conference on Helping America's Youth,Indiana University / Purdue University Indianapolis University Place Conference Center, Indianapolis, Indiana June 6, 2006

"Those challenges are far greater today than they were for children just a generation ago. Drugs and gangs, predators on the Internet, violence on television and in real life are just some of the negative influences present everywhere today."

This is what Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) ( big Hastert supporter and fellow Illinois republican mafioso) said on CNN to defend his proposal to scrap the pages program. According to the transcript, (from Carpetbagger) LaHood didn't exactly do the Republican caucus any favors.

LAHOOD: It just — it's a program that simply is flawed. It has its flaws. We should fix it. And then if it's a valuable program, perhaps bring it back.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's kind of a sorry state of affairs. In essence, what you're saying is that members of Congress can't be trusted to be around young people.

LAHOOD: Well, that's pretty obvious.

Laura Bush spoke very strongly in support of Reynolds and then launched into a very strong defence of the actions of the President.

"Offering young people the hope of good employment is one of the most important things we can do for our children. Another way we can help young people is by steering them away from dangerous behaviors and guiding them toward the knowledge and the self-respect they need to build successful lives."

"Thank you so much for coming out to support Tom. Thanks for your generous support for his reelection. I urge you to redouble your efforts between now and November to make sure Tom Reynolds is reelected to the United States Congress."

But Kirk Fordham, Reynolds chief of staff for about a year, who had previously been Foley's chief of staff, resigned. Saying he had done nothing wrong and only quit to avoid becoming a distraction. Yes !That's right! Reynolds current Chief of Staff is Foley's ex-Chief of Staff. Oh, the ties that bind!

“I have resigned today from Congressman Tom Reynolds’ office,” Fordham said in a statement yesterday. “It is clear the Democrats are intent on making me a political issue in my boss’s race, and I will not let them do so.”

However the accusation that Fordham tried to cut a deal with ABC News, trading an exclusive interview for the suppression of Foley’s more explicit e-mails won't go away. Certainly not when Reynolds admitted yesterday that Fordham’s attempts to stop ABC News from posting sections of the e-mails on its Web site in exchange for an exclusive interview with Reynolds were (beautiful political weasel word coming up) “inappropriate.”

Pic. Reynolds hired a nursery and a load of kids to run a pres conference to say what a good guy he is / was....prostituting kids in a different role.... they look as though they are enjoying it ?

Watch this space. Meanwhile essential Reading Glenn Greenwald

"After all, even now that this conduct has been exposed, their instinct -- all the way to the highest levels -- is to excuse and defend those leaders and offer up the most disgusting defenses -- all because preservation of their political power depends on it. This is not some bizarre aberration. This is how they operate and it is what they are. And the Mark Foley scandal is making it virtually impossible for anyone to convincingly deny it any longer."