THE COVER-UP ALLEGATIONS: Despite GOP Leadership claims that the Mark Foley sex scandal matter was referred last year to the House Page Board for review, two of the three members say the Hastert/Shimkus story is not true. Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds (R-NY) all knew of the emails ten months ago -- and Boehner and Reynolds essentially said Hastert was handling the matter. Hastert says he referred the matter to the Page Board for review. This account was confirmed over the weekend to the media by Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL), Chair of the House Page Board. Shimkus said the Board investigated in late 2005 the initial emails between Foley and the 16-year-old boy, but they had no knowledge of the explicit IM's that subsequently surfaces. In fact, Shimkus said the Board warned Foley to cease further private communication with the boy. On Monday, the other two members of the Board -- Congressman Dale Kildee (D-MI) and Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) -- said Shimkus' account was not truthful. "Theres only three of us on the Page Board. I feel that we should have been informed. Im absolutely disgusted by what Im hearing," said Capito to the Charleston Gazette. Kildee -- a 15-term incumbent respected on both sides of the aisle for his integrity -- issued a written statement Monday saying the matter was "never investigated" by the Page Board. Kildee said he was "outraged to learn that the House Republican Leadership kept to itself the knowledge of Mr. Foley's despicable behavior toward the House Pages ... the House Republican leadership [is] more concerned with finding political cover for themselves than with the safety and wellbeing of the House pages." So now we know -- as confirmed by Board members from both parties -- why the House Republican Leadership is able to claim it "never knew" about the explicit emails and IM's: because they covered-up the matter and never investigated it. Late on Monday, the Washington Post and other news sites reported that Reynolds' Chief of Staff -- who formally worked for Foley -- tried to get ABC News correspondent Brian Ross to kill the Friday story with the sexually explicit IMs in exchange for getting an exclusive on Foley's resignation. Ross, however, rejected the cover-up trade-off: "I said we're not making any deals." In the wake of all this, the conservative Washington Times newspaper is publishing an editorial on Tuesday demanding that Hastert "resign his Speakership at once ... Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance." Courtesy: Politics1