CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS
Dec. 6, 2007 – 7:20 p.m.
Republicans Quit Beleaguered House Board After Pages Are Kicked Out
By Jonathan Allen and Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Two Republicans resigned Thursday from the bipartisan House Page Board, complaining that the program lacked supervision and that the board was not being adequately informed about instances of misconduct.
Four pages were dismissed in recent weeks for “serious criminal acts” and “inappropriate sexual indiscretions,” Ginny Brown-Waite , R-Fla., said in her resignation letter.
Shelley Moore Capito , R-W.Va., also announced that she intended to resign from the board.
The eight-member panel has oversight of the roughly 70 pages who work in and around the chamber. It comprises two Democrats, two Republicans, the House clerk, the House Sergeant at Arms, a former page and the parent of a page.
The pages, who are typically 16 years old, attend school in the morning, then report to the Capitol to run errands for members and staff the rest of the day.
The board was enlarged this year in reaction to a scandal during the 109th Congress involving then-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. (1995-2006), who had sent sexually explicit e-mail messages to male pages. The Page Board chairman at the time, Rep. John Shimkus , R-Ill., knew about the allegations but did not alert the rest of the panel.
Now Brown-Waite and Capito have complained that the Democratically appointed House clerk has failed to keep page board members informed of problems in the program.
Aides said two pages were dismissed this week after an incident involving oral sex in a page dorm elevator. Charlie Keller, a spokesman for Brown-Waite, confirmed that information.
In a separate incident, two other pages were dismissed about a month ago, after allegedly shoplifting items at Pentagon City mall in nearby Northern Virginia, Keller said. A senior House aide said the same two pages were caught on tape shoplifting from a store in Union Station and at Macy’s in Pentagon City.
They were dismissed immediately from the page program.
“We were intentionally kept in the dark about dismissals for more than a week,” Brown-Waite said in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi . The board’s members, she added, learned the details of the dismissals only “after personally confronting the clerk with rumors that we heard.”
Keller said Brown-Waite learned of the shoplifting from another page, not Clerk of the House Lorraine C. Miller, even though the clerk had told at least one Democrat on the board about it.
In her letter, Brown-Waite told Pelosi, D-Calif.: “You have learned nothing from the lessons of the Mark Foley scandal.”
“I do not see how the page program can be properly administered with the current leadership of the Clerk of the House,” she added.
Pelosi’s office declined to comment after repeated requests.
Keller said Brown-Waite submitted her resignation after a meeting of the page board Thursday because she was not convinced that the clerk would implement substantial changes to the page program.
Miller issued a written statement that did not address the secrecy complaint but did touch on other aspects of the way the page program operates.
“We have adopted a zero-tolerance policy when faced with rules violations or conduct that is ethically or legally suspect,” Miller said. “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 her written statement, said, “[U]nfortunately, the problems with communication between board members that plagued the program in the past have only continued under new House leadership.”
Page board chairman Dale E. Kildee , D-Mich., issued a statement Thursday acknowledging that the board was dissatisfied with the House clerk’s “manner and timeliness” in informing the board of the dismissal of the two pages in the earlier incident. However, Kildee indicated he believed that the problem had been resolved: “In our Page Board meeting of November 9, 2007, the Board unanimously agreed that the Clerk of the House should immediately and simultaneously inform all Members in cases where pages were dismissed from the program. Indeed, that was the case in the most recent incident.”
Edward Epstein and Alan K. Ota contributed to this story.
Comments
This sounds a little petty. If the Republicans that quit were really interested in keeping the pages safe they would have stayed on and tried to fixed the problems they preceived. Seems a little more like they were planning ahead for the 2008 elections and trying to make the Democrats look as bad as it was proven the Republicans were.
This is absolutely ridiculous. My friend is a page and they were not enablers in any way. This article is extremely biased and should be removed.
Why did the resigining members run away from the problem instead of helping to reform the system? Sounds like a cheap-shot at the dems. Also, if anyone knows anything about the page program, they know that the teenagers in it are some of the most-watched and supervised teens in the USA.
To whom it may concern, I have been reading multiple comments that were in response to the resignation of the two republicans from the page board and I can no longer take any more. The great thing about America is that any citizen to this country has the freedom, the right, to say what they believe. The sad thing about this is you tend to find people whom comment on things they are not educated about. In January of this year I was sworn in as a Page to the 110th Congress of The United States. I can remember the goose bumps I had the first day walking onto The House Floor knowing that the greatest governing body in the world presided there. I could not believe I was sitting in a room that has seen the impeachment of presidents, declared war, and even seen our country attacked. The room is just a room, but the people who have spoke there are what make it so great. Pages over the years have worked hand in hand with the most powerful and intriguing people in the world. They have seen that ANYBODY can become what these former and current members are. I personally have experienced what I consider the greatest educational experience in my life. I have looked the King of Jordan in his eyes, watched the first women speaker preside over the body of The House, listened to the debate over ending the war in Iraq, and was able to get to know one of the most influential men in our nation's history. That man was Congressman John Lewis. Mr. Lewis never failed to say hi to the pages and he never failed to motivate us to get involved with our future. This is a man who has been beaten to obtain the freedoms he had deserved. This is also why Congressman Lewis is one of the six major civil rights leaders in history along with Dr. King. I can never forget what Mr. Lewis once told our Page class. He told us that our generation is to quiet and if we aren't careful people will stop investing in our education. I AM STANDING UP TODAY AS A PROUD PRODUCT OF THE PAGE PROGRAM! To the people that believe the page program should end because it is a waste of money, do some research. I'm sure if you ask Bill Gates whether or not it is a waste of money he would tell you know (considering he was a former page). It is scary to think that kids these days have no care in the world about what is going on. Pages are part of the very few kids that do tend to care and just because there were some Pages who have royally screwed up doesn't mean that others should suffer. I would give anything to be back in the Page program today. Despite what people think, the rules were very strict and the staff had zero tolerance. I support the staff of the page program 100% and will always be thankful for their strict and reasonable supervision. Taylor Riddle Jan-June 2007 Page Citizenship Award Recipient 2006-2007 Page School Year
The democrat culture of corruption continues! Lie lie deny deny it just never stops. The coverups are just incredible. No wonder the democrat controlled Congress has the worst rating in the history of Congressional approval ratings.
So, after gaining the House majority in large part on a House Page sexual scandal the Democ-rats now think they can ignore on taking place on their watch and probably involving one or more of their people. No doubt the liberal dominated media will ignore the story and it will fade away. Disgusting!
For John Ft Lauderdale and David Levine. It looks lik you can't read. the article states that 2 pages were cought a month or so ago SHOPLIFTING & FIRED, but the Clerk of the House did not tell the House Board. Further, "In our Page Board meeting of November 9, 2007, the Board unanimously agreed that the Clerk of the House should immediately and simultaneously inform all Members in cases where pages were dismissed from the program. Indeed, that was the case in the most recent incident." So when te Pages were caught in an Oral Sex situation, they were fired and the Board notified. sounds like they are on to of te behaviour of the Pages and not tolorating any scandal. The Rep. members of the board that quit among waving arms and loud voices were only tryhing to make it apolitical deal to have us forget ALL the Rep scandals thad have happenid in the program, in Congress, and at home with many of the ELECTED politicans. Of course, the Board doing what they were charged with in a proper manner is not usable as a story. Read ALL the words, and use your politically slanted head to understand them.
I agree with Tom Kelly, The one-sided emphasis on the Republicans' political rhetoric puts this report completely below the level of acceptable reporting. The story is even more poor in comparison with the usual standards of CQ. Was the regular editor out sick the day this story was cleared for the sebsite? CQ should rewrite this story with a more balanced emphasis or remove it from this web site.
Jonesridge, You've conveniently missed the point of the lying and denying on the part of the democrats. The story is that they are acting without consulting the very committee that should oversee the process. By acting unilaterally, they shed no light on the situation to those who need to know what is going on. The board was not notified in a timely fashion at all, that is another point you miss in your haste. Such denial of their responsibilities is typical of democrats. Pretend it didn't happen and shove the situation under the rug. Oversight Jonesey, oversight! Just as an aside, I guess we know it was a boy and girl involved in the act, since if it was a Barnie Frank situation, they would have been hired to organize the democrat national convention next year!
I am from the opposite political party, but have a great deal of respect for Shelley Moore Capito. I have no doubt that she quit the House Page Board out of concern for its operation and a belief that her presence there would not reform it. That said, she should not have quit. I imagine that the rules for pages are specific, and that the offenses of the pages that were dismissed vilolated the rules and called for their immediate dismissal. The Clerk should have notified al lthe members of the Board immediately, but there is certainly no there there regarding nany scandal, and there is certainly nothing that suggests that the shenanigans of the Republican control of that Board, which seemed to serve as a hookup connection and wall of protection for the hypocrites of that party, continue. It wasn't the covering up of the pages' activities that led to the changes in the cBoard - it was the covering up of the members' activities that led to those changes. And yes, this article is biased andnot up to CQ standards.
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