Sex Scandals and Perversions Hit Congressional Pages: Is it TIME to ABOLISH this Corrupt Congressional Page PROGRAM?
By Marc Chamot
Why is there a need for young and vulnerable immature kids to be pages in congress? While most city and state governments in our nation have adult paid aides, congress uses special cream of the crop chosen individuals, usually sons and daughters of their biggest contributors or campaign cronies to become pages. After Mark Foley’s fiasco the Democrats said that they would clean house, but unfortunately nothing happened, just more sex and thievery came about this corruptive program.
Behind The Page Program and WHAT they do on BOTTOM
New sex scandal hits congressional pages
WaPo reports 2 pages were dismissed for “public oral sex” and 2 for shoplifting.
Republican Mark Foley’s weird fascination with a congressional page cost Foley his seat in Congress and helped a Democratic takeover of the House.
Drain the swamp and all that.
So much for reform of the House page program in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. House teenage pages are so wild and unsupervised that two GOP members of Congress have resigned from the House Page Board, protesting that they were not informed of two pages caught shoplifting and two others busted for engaging in public oral sex.
Those congresswomen would be Shelley Moore Capito, who represents my district, and Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida.
Apparently the Democrats kept Capito and Brown-Waite out of the loop.
Akers of WaPo quoted Brown-Waite, “I thought the Mark Foley incident was a wake-up call. Apparently it wasn’t. If I had a 16-year-old granddaughter, I wouldn’t let her come up here. I would not let my 16-year-old grandson come up here.”
AP reported:
WASHINGTON - Two Republican House members resigned Thursday from the board supervising teenage pages, accusing a Democratic official of failing to inform them about sexual and criminal activity by at least four youngsters.
The resignations by Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida and Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia echoed the supervision problems that came to light a year ago when Republicans were in charge.
At that time, page board members said they weren’t informed of sexual come-ons to former male pages by ex-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. Foley resigned his seat in September 2006, and the scandal helped cost Republicans control of the House.
Pages are high school students who run errands for lawmakers and learn about Congress, while attending high school classes at a congressional school.
Last January, the House voted 416-0 to expand the Page Board and equalize its political makeup. Angry lawmakers complained at the time that the former Republican chairman, John Shimkus of Illinois, failed to convene the board when he learned — in the fall of 2005 — that Foley had sent overly friendly e-mails to a former page.
Brown-Waite wrote a scathing letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., charging that she “learned nothing from the lessons of the Mark Foley scandal.”
The Florida congresswoman said four pages have been dismissed this year “for serious criminal acts and for inappropriate sexual indiscretions.” A House Republican official said the criminal activity involved shoplifting. The official could not be quoted by name because he wasn’t authorized to comment on the issue.
Besides blaming Pelosi, Brown-Waite said the clerk of the House, Lorraine Miller, was “slow to share information with members of the board.
“In at least one vitally important incident, we were intentionally kept in the dark about dismissals for more than a week, and were only given the details after personally confronting the clerk with rumors we had heard,” Brown-Waite wrote.
Miller did not directly respond to the accusation that she failed to inform the board immediately of the inappropriate conduct.
“As part of our program overhaul, we have adopted a zero-tolerance policy when faced with rules violations or conduct that is ethically or legally suspect,” she said in a statement.
“These recent dismissals are an example of our willingness to exercise our option of immediate dismissal from the program, an option that we will continue to exercise when appropriate and warranted.”
Capito, in a resignation statement, said, “Unfortunately, the problems with communication between board members that plagued the program in the past have only continued under new House leadership.
“There have been numerous occurrences this year in which board members have not received timely information, and it is my belief that to move forward we must start fresh with a truly open dialogue.”
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2007/12/06/new-sex-scandal-hits-congressional-pages/
OrlandoSentinel.com
2 Republicans criticize Democrat oversight of congressional pages
Tamara Lytle
Chief D.C. Correspondent
December 7, 2007
WASHINGTON
U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite resigned Thursday from a board that oversees congressional pages, blasting Democrats for not adequately overseeing a program that recently expelled two high-school students for having sex with each other and two others for shoplifting.Brown-Waite complained that Democratic officials initially covered up the shoplifting incident and had failed to overhaul the program after the scandal involving South Florida Republican congressman Mark Foley.
Foley resigned last year after it came to light he had sent sexually explicit Internet messages to a male page.Brown-Waite's strongly worded resignation letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was intended to draw attention to the issue. The board's other Republican, U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, also resigned.
"It is clear to me that you have paid nothing more than lip service to a wholesale revamping of the program, and that you have learned nothing from the lessons of the Mark Foley scandal," wrote Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville.Charlie Keller, spokesman for Brown-Waite, said she quit after a Page Board meeting because she thought that House Clerk Lorraine Miller, a Democratic appointee, was not addressing the program's problems.
The program gives about 70 high-school juniors a chance to run errands in the U.S. House while living in a nearby dorm.Miller issued a statement saying many changes had been made, including more monitoring, tighter safety measures and zero tolerance for rules violations, which led to the ouster of the four students.Keller said that this week, a boy and a girl were caught by an adult monitor having oral sex in a dormitory elevator. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/orl-pages0707dec07,0,6638923.story
Lawmakers upset over reports of sex, shoplifting by pages
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A lawmaker who resigned from the board that oversees Capitol Hill pages said one parent suggested lax supervision led to "kids gone wild."
The House page program came under scrutiny after the Mark Foley scandal last year.
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Florida, Friday said she resigned because she was angered to learn that two pages had oral sex in public areas of the their Capitol Hill dorm. The pages were dismissed from the program, but Brown-Waite said the incident is an example of lax supervision of the teens.
"It wasn't kissing and hugging -- let me put it that way," Brown-Waite said. "It did go beyond that, there were not only a young male and female involved, but there were also observers and other page participants who were, let's say, enablers."
"This had been going on for months," she said. "Almost all of the pages knew about it."
No members of Congress were involved, Brown-Waite said.
Brown-Waite also said she was angry the board was not promptly notified about a report of shoplifting by one of the pages.
"One parent dubbed it 'kids gone wild,' " Brown-Waite said. "That's a shame." See dorm where pages live »
House Clerk Lorraine Miller, who administers the program, said the students involved were dismissed.
Brown-Waite said her resignation was meant "to send a loud and clear message" to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders.
A second Republican, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, also resigned from the board in protest, effective Friday.
The page program came under scrutiny last year when sexually suggestive e-mails surfaced from then-Rep. Mark Foley to male pages. Foley, a Florida Republican, later said he is gay and resigned from Congress.
During an investigation into the Foley scandal, the House Ethics Committee found that some people who knew about Foley's questionable communications chose to "remain willfully ignorant" rather than confront the matter. However, the committee concluded no House rules were broken.
Then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, promised an overhaul of the program, which Pelosi pledged to pursue after Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in the 2006 elections.
"Apparently Democrats didn't learn from the Mark Foley incident that pages need better supervision," Brown-Waite said. "Apparently they haven't learned anything."
Brown-Waite added, "Nancy Pelosi is a mother and a grandmother. She should be embarrassed."
Pelosi said in a statement that the pages involved were immediately expelled and sent home because of a "zero tolerance" policy for page misconduct.
"The House Page Board must undertake an immediate and thorough review of the adequacy of the supervision and security at the page dorm. As a mother and a grandmother, nothing is more important to me than the safety and security of our House pages," Pelosi said.
Miller said she promptly notified the board of the inappropriate conduct by the pages.
"On one occasion this year, Rep. Brown-Waite was not informed immediately of a page's dismissal -- the incident occurred over a weekend and she was informed on the next business day," Miller said in a statement released Friday.
"After that incident, board members asked that they all be informed immediately of any such disciplinary action, and the clerk provided that notice in the most recent case," referring to the sex acts.
In her resignation letter to Pelosi, Brown-Waite wrote that she has seen "even less oversight from the clerk's office and from your office than in Congresses past."
Brown-Waite also complained of the "failed leadership of the Clerk of the House."
"This year has already seen four pages dismissed from the program; dismissals for serious criminal acts and for inappropriate sexual indiscretions between the students," she wrote.
In her statement released Thursday, Miller responded, "These recent dismissals are an example of our willingness to exercise our option of immediate dismissal from the program, an option that we will continue to exercise when appropriate and warranted."
But Brown-Waite wrote, "To be quite frank with you, while the makeup of the board has expanded, and the party in control has changed, I have yet to see the wholesale changes that were promised by you and your leadership team upon taking office this year.
"It is clear to me that you have paid nothing more than lip service to a wholesale revamping of the program, and that you have learned nothing from the lessons of the Mark Foley scandal."
Brown-Waite and Capito said communication with the Clerk of the House also was problematic.
"Members of this board cannot productively tackle problems that may occur with our pages when questionable incidents are held from members of the Page Board," Capito said in a statement.
"There have been numerous occurrences this year in which board members have not received timely information, and it is my belief that to move forward we must start fresh with a truly open dialogue."
Brown-Waite said board members "were intentionally kept in the dark" about some dismissals of pages for more than a week, adding they got no information until "personally confronting the clerk with rumors we had heard."
"Withholding information is simply an unacceptable management practice," she said.
Miller did not address those concerns, but she said she welcomed "constructive criticism" and "ideas for further improvement."
The House page program is open to high school juniors who maintain a "B" average. Those accepted into the program are housed at a dormitory on Capitol Hill and attend school at the Library of Congress.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/07/house.pages/?iref=mpstoryview
Behind The Page Program
Oct. 2, 2006
(CBS) Mark Foley, a congressman from Florida, abruptly quit Congress on Sept. 29, 2006, after reports surfaced that he'd sent sexually charged electronic messages to boys working as congressional pages.
The disclosure sent House Republicans into damage control mode amid charges by Democrats that some House leaders may have known for months about Foley's inappropriate overtures toward the young pages. What Is The Congressional Page Program?
Sen., Daniel Webster appointed the first Senate page in 1829, while the first House pages began their service in 1842. But it wasn't until 1971 that the first woman was appointed.
A place in the Congressional Page program is a highly sought-after position for high school students. Pages are sponsored by their local representative or senator.
Part of the goal of the page program is to provide students with a foundation for a future in service to the United States, as it has with pages of past generations. In fact, several members of Congress began as a Congressional Page.
What Do Pages Do?
Pages serve principally as "gofers," or messengers. They carry documents between the House and Senate members' offices, committees, and the Library of Congress.
They also prepare the House and Senate chambers for each day's business by distributing the Congressional Record and other documents related to the day's agenda, assist in the cloakrooms and chambers, and, when Congress is in session, sit near the dais where they may be summoned by members for assistance.
How Many Congressional Pages Are There?
There are 72 House pages, 48 of whom were selected by Republicans and 24 by Democrats. There are 30 Senate pages, 18 of whom were selected by the Republicans and 12 by the Democrats. All students must be sponsored by a member of Congress to become a Page.
How Are Pages Selected?
There are specific qualifications for selection that include:
· The individual must possess a cumulative 3.0 or 85% GPA in order to be considered for the program;
· They must take core academic courses such as English, science, foreign language, humanities and mathematics in its computations of the nominee's GPA;
· Courses such as physical education, band and yearbook are not considered.
Have There Been Other Problems With The Page Program?
As The New York Times reports, the page program was nearly discontinued two decades ago after accusations of sexual misconduct and drug use. According to the newspaper, Reps. Daniel Crane, R-Ill., and Gerry Studds, D-Mass., were formally censured by the House in a sex scandal involving pages in 1983.
Rep. Crane admitted to sexual relations with a 17-year-old female page, while Rep. Studds admitted to sexual relations with a 17-year-old male page. Crane apologized for his actions and was voted out of office in 1984. Studds said the relationship was consensual and won re-election the following year. He served in Congress until his retirement in 1996.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/02/fyi/main2055244.shtml
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