Oct 15 2006
More Proof Trandahl And Fordham Covered For Foley
The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that the incident where a drunk Foley was found outside the Page dorms was known by two people, House Clerk Trandahl and Foley Chief of Staff Fordham. In fact, it appears that out of all the people who knew of a Foley incident, these two men knew of most if not all of them. And these two men are also gay and seem to have spend years covering for Foley’s predatory moments. The NY Times confirmed this blogger’s suspicions these two gay staffers made the terrible decision to cover for Foley, probably because they wanted to avoid gay men getting tagged with the horrible stereotype of also being child predators. Because a gay man is a child predators does not make all gays the same – but it does mean a child predator can easily be a gay man. So it is not hard to see that Trandahl and Fordham probably covered for Foley, keeping House leader’s blind to what was happening.
One night a few years ago, Rep. Mark Foley reportedly showed up at the dormitory for House pages, a brick building a few blocks from the Capitol. It’s unclear what Foley wanted, but staffers believed he was drunk and turned him away.
A day or two later, House Clerk Jeff Trandahl called Foley’s chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, and told him about the incident. Trandahl asked Fordham to speak with his boss about it.…
Fordham, Foley’s top political adviser and chief of staff until late 2003, has said he was always wary about his employer’s contacts with younger men.
Foley was gay but did not want to reveal his sexuality because of political considerations. Yet he could be unusually bold on Capitol Hill. He invited gay friends to visit his office and was especially friendly with young male staffers.
Fordham said that bothered him. He said he was concerned people would see Foley with young men. The men appeared to be in their 20s, creating an impression that Fordham says he believed was inappropriate for a congressman who at the time was in his late 40s. Fordham repeatedly warned Foley to be careful about appearances, but the congressman did not heed the advice.
The same went for the attention he showered on underage pages.
About five years ago, long before the dorm incident, Fordham got a call from Trandahl, who said he was concerned about Foley’s contacts with pages. Trandahl asked Fordham to discuss it with Foley, and he did.
Some time later, Trandahl called again with the same request. Fordham has said the calls from Trandahl were prompted by Foley’s overly friendly behavior with the pages. Fordham has said he saw nothing to indicate Foley was making sexual advances toward the boys.
Fordham again talked with Foley about the behavior but, once again, Foley did not follow his advice.Note that all these contacts are between Fordham and Trandahl. And from the NY Times we leanr Fordham tired of a ‘decade’ of covering for Foley and ‘broke’ with him to try and get him to stop. I think we know who leaked the emails between Oct 17 and Nov 30th, 2005 to Democrat operatives. It was Fordham at least. The question is how did he get the emails that were in Trandahl’s possession and probably redacted by Rod Alexander’s staff – the represtentative of the LA Page in the emails. A redaction that is common to both the CREW versions and ABC News versions of the documents. We are getting closer to solving this puzzle.
Perhaps a broken relationship in this mess? Hell hath no fury like a (lover) scorned.
AJ, the Capitol police say the dorm incident never happened. You think Trandahl was protecting Foley? I think this is 180 off the mark. Trandahl is the real snake here.
I think you have done yeoman’s work on the Foley case, but I also think you are way way too hung up on the predator bit. Is there any evidence that Foley ever met with anyone underage for the purpose of sex? I don’t think so. Was he a normal male and interested in young hard bodies, yes, just like millions of guys who slobbered over 17 year old Britney Spears. This scandal is nothing more than a lonely drunk being careless and living vicariously through his computer. It is about a man who was made a joke of by a bunch of immature young men (not children).
I worked for a Member of Congress for several years and I could name a dozen different Members or Staffers who were very creepy and they are all heterosexual pigs, masters of the double entendre designed to make a woman uncomfortable, roving hands, insulting sexist remarks. I know staffers who had no problem using their boss’s position and power to lord it over those in subordinate positions, I know staffers who slept their way through every female campaign worker that would give them the time a day. I know one Congressional candidate (he didn’t win) who devastated the lives of a half dozen (maybe more) young women when he spread Herpes around like giving out Halloween to trick or treaters. And I certainly have known drunks. There were some who had to practically be carried into the Chamber for a vote, some in very high leadership positions. This pseudo-rage over a few pathetic IMs is so stupid, when you have real criminals like Jack Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Harry Reid, and Ted Kennedy out there.
Foley did the right and honorable thing and resigned. He had to because being a drunk, he can’t defend himself and point out that Trandahl and Fordham and Rodgers and Aravosis are lowlifes with a far different agenda than painted by the media because he doesn’t remember. He said as much to Fordham.
The Foley Dorm Incident…
A new article yesterday on the Foley incident suggests either that the incident in which Foley supposedly was drunk and trying to get into the Pages dormitory was made up or covered up:
U.S. Capitol Police said yesterday that they have no record of an …
Hi AJ,
I made some new posts regarding Harry Reid and “The Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002.â€
Link to article
SBD
I think both these men are angry about being fired and want to get even with the GOP and especially Foley. They probably did try to protect Foley, but are making up things now. I don’t see how getting a new job would make Foley change his ways. If the Capital police have no record of this incident, then it could not and to all intents and purposes did not happen. There is no proof except for he said he said which is not proof. I think Squiggler is right and this is all a tempest in a teapot.
What bothers me is the idea of a clintonite (Rahm Emanuel) being in congress and still putting forth the scortched earth policies of Clinton in congress. Are we never going to get rid of this man?
Keep in mind that Fordham is on Rogers’ “BlogActive” list, which means an extortionistic threat we may not have even a clue about (we know he’s homosexual, but that doesn’t mean Rogers doesn’t have any number of other things on him), and that Trandahl so far is not saying anything.
Squiggler is right I think; the only personal meeting with a former page we know of was with a 21-year-old, and he claims Foley made it clear to him that he (Foley) didn’t fool around with any underage persons.
The only IMs we’ve seen were the ones Edmund baited Foley into, so we don’t really know whether the ABC-touted parade of anonymous former pages claiming to have gotten dirty IMs from Foley has any merit or is woven from whole cloth.
The only thing we know for sure is that Foley sent too-chatty but innocuous e-mail to former pages. Why he sent them is really speculation, but probably to test their responsiveness or reciprocal interest (one thing he said to the 21-year-old was “I knew you were a player,” which suggests a sort of testing the waters).
The seeming overreaction to innocent-sounding e-mails of the Louisiana and Arizona former pages, both teens, is easily explained by the, at that age, insecurity about being pegged as not-quite-macho if they were aware, and they probably were aware, of rumors about Foley’s homosexuality, and the fact that they were showing the e-mails to their parents.
We just might be hanging this guy for his fantasies, and that could put all of us in the shadow of the gallows.