Brian Ross was on O’Reilly tonight and I am reminded that Bill hales from ABC and apparently see Ross as a kindred spirit. Thus the lack of serious, driving questions. With that said, I was impressed with Ross’s contention that Hastert and the House leadership never had access to the salacious emails IMs from 2003 that clearly cross a line. It is important to note Bill O’Reilly has background information that CREW is possibly behind moving this story – which makes sense. In another of many coincidences in timing, CREW was on CNN (Nancy Grace) claiming they turned over the vague emails to the FBI in July. We all know the vague emails are not actionable and come from 2005 (post Katrina). The website used as a source for this scandal was created in July of this year – around the same time as the CREW referral.

Now we all know the questionable emails, combined with the fact Foley was a well known gay in DC circles, was enough to gin up the news media. Then came the final stage – stashed IM messages from 2003. It is clear from Brian Ross these stashed messages are coming from ex-Pages. These truly disturbing IM messages are the fodder for the confusion. The timing is perfect. Tease the media with the borderline emails and hints of a gay man (talk about gay bashing!) and then follow with the hard stuff. The question still remains. Why sit on evidence of a possible crime for years if not for personal gain. If we find CREW or some other partisan shop behind the website then this scandal will blow up in the Democrats face – deservedly so.

Right now the calls for Hastert to step down are from nervous ninnies we all now know cannot be trusted to stand tall in the face of a political storm. The buckled and that is all we need to know. Then we have the modern Brutus in Roy Blunt – who is the only one trying to turn this fiasco into personal power. Strike him from the acceptable leadership candidates. This scandal is not working out as planned because he antique media cannot drive the story anymore. If they get too far out front and the blogs can undercut them, they lose what dwindling credibility they have and elevate the blogs to even higher status. The media cannot react as fast and does not have the brain power to sift this information and condence out the essence of what is going on. We have clear indications of a planted, false story. And the news media is going to be playing catch up from here in because they chose to ignore the information and instead fell into their fantasy dreams once again.

Update: Mac Ranger’s latest post includes this link to an old partner for David Corn at the Hill, and these claims:

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, said the source, who showed The Hill public records supporting his claim.

The same source, who acted as an intermediary between the aide-turned-whistleblower and several news outlets, says the person who shared the documents is no longer employed in the House.

But the whistleblower was a paid GOP staffer when the documents were first given to the media.

Sounds just like Kirk Fordham – doesn’t it? But there are more hints on who on the Democrat side is about to take a possible hit:

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) yesterday called for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) to testify about what and when they knew of Foley’s contact with former pages (see related story).

That is the second story I have seen tonight mentioning Rahm Emanuel….