The House ethics committee approved four dozen subpoenas for documents and
testimony Thursday, launching an investigation of a congressional page ***
scandal that has imperiled Republican prospects in next month's elections.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said a newly formed
subcommittee's investigation "will go wherever our evidence leads us."
Asked if embattled House speaker Dennis Hastert was among those
subpoenaed,
Hastings would not comment.
"We are looking at weeks, not months," said the committee's senior
Democrat,
Rep. Howard Berman of California.
A House GOP official said that Hastert, fighting to save his job, will
take
responsibility for the unfolding scandal but insist that he will stay on
as
leader of House Republicans at a news conference scheduled later in
Batavia,
Ill.
Hastert will ask former FBI director Louis Freeh to also examine the page
system and make recommendations on how to improve the program, almost as
old
as the Congress itself. Freeh headed the FBI from 1993 to 2001 during Bill
Clinton's presidency.
Hastert also will also ask the Ethics Committee to consider new rules so
that anyone making inappropriate contact with pages be disciplined. In the
case of staff, they would be fired; lawmakers would be subject to
expulsion,
the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity so as to not upstage
Hastert.
Hastings said the subpoenas cover lawmakers and staff as well as appointed
officers of the House.
Hastert praised the ethic committee's actions and said he would instruct
his
attorney to cooperate with the panel "in getting to the bottom of this."
"The committee is moving to get control of this situation and find answers
to provide all of us peace of mind," he said in a statement.
"Any person who is found guilty of improper conduct involving ***ual
contact
or communication with a page should immediately resign, be fired, or
subjected to a vote of expulsion," Fat assed pervert Hastert said.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/10009586/detail.html?treets=fran&tid=2656305714813&tml=fran_12pm&tmi=fran_12pm_1_02000410052006&ts=H
So much for the chicken little pervert's contention that it was a prank.
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