Oct 08 2006
Jeff Trandahl, Kirk Fordham And The Foley Emails
Update: The RCP Blog noticed a Washington Post article that might confirm the theory Trandahl had been covering for Foley on more than one occasion:
A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley’s inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) confirmed yesterday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley (R-Fla.) was taking their e-mail relationship.
…
Nevertheless, she (Kolbe press spokeswoman Cline} said, “corrective action” was taken. Cline said she has not yet determined whether that action went beyond Kolbe’s confrontation with Foley.
The fact she could not determine what action was taken beyond Kolbe’s tells me other elements of the House were notified at the time. This could be the House Clerk, given the fact Kolbe referred these Pages recently to discuss their experiences with the current House Clerk. But who knows. It iis probable Fordham would have heard about the incident, if he was Foley’s Chief of Staff at the time. What seems to becoming clear is a classic ‘circle the wagons’ mentality in the the Capitol Hill gay community. Gays, feeling under attack anyways, were probably trying to control Foley so they could avoid the bad press of a gay predator on The Hill. This mentality included shading the truth from the leadership, I am sure. In either event, there is still a mystery ‘source’ out and about passing this information about Reps to the news media. All the documentation appears to be from Rep documents or offices, but that doesn’t make the person who had the emails back in November of 2005 a Republican.
End Update
Reader MerlinOS2 has noticed some interesting news which dovetails nicely with the detailed timeline I have been collating. It seems there is on person who had a major change in position at the time the Foley emails shown to Rep Foley because of concerns voiced by a Louisianna Page and his parents to there Representative, Rodney Alexander. And that person was then House Clerk, Jeff Trandahl. First we note that Jeff Trandahl left his job on November 18th, 2005. This is inside the window of time when I suspect the emails were leaked from Congress and were being shopped around and the St Petersburg Times says they assigned reporters to the story because they had received the documents.
MerlinOS2 points to an ABC News article out yesterday that is still trying to claim the leadership timeline is inaccurate, based on their sources. But of course, one of their sources is the man who was shopping the emails around new organizations. The ABC News article claims Trandahl received copies of the emails directly from the parents:
The staffer, who asked not be identified because of the ongoing FBI and House Ethics Committee investigations, told ABC News of learning in November 2005 about an earlier meeting between Hastert Chief of Staff Scott Palmer and Foley, R-Fla.
November 2005 was around the time Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., head of the House Page Board, and then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl, who was administrator of the page program, met with Foley about an e-mail exchange Foley had with a former page sponsored by Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.
“At that time, I became aware that there was a previous meeting” between Foley and Palmer, the House staffer told ABC News.
…
Before the scandal became public, sources told ABC News, Trandahl had called Fordham several times to complain that Foley was paying too much attention to pages. Fordham said he would talk with Foley about the matter, according to the accounts.
It seems to me from this exchange the two people pointing fingers at each other are Trandahl and Fordham. MerlinOS2 posits that Trandahl (and I would say Fordham) were trying to contain Foley by regularly confronting him. When the word got out this had been recurring then Trandahl was asked to resign as Clerk of the House. He was upset and leaked the emails to the press.
MerlinOS2 also pointed to this recollection from Rep Shimkus about the confrontation with Foley, but with an interesting twist – Trandahl says he got the emails from the Page’s parents.
Shimkus said he first learned of the e-mails in the fall of 2005. Just before an upcoming vote on the House floor, House Clerk Jeff Trandahl showed him an excerpt of e-mail exchanges the former page’s parents forwarded to him. The parents, Trandahl said, had expressed concern about the messages but were adamant that they be kept confidential.
Emphasis mine. Now all the email versions I have seen do not fit with the idea the Page’s parents sent them to Trandahl. I am not saying it is impossible, I am saying the timeline doesn’t fit well. The emails from Foley to the Page were printed out on 9/13/05 – the date on their footers. Trandahl and Shimkus didn’t meet Foley until November. Plus, the email from the Page to Danielle Savoy was printed out on the same system it seems (date footer in the same place) but a month later. Not impossible, and only more details on the sequence of events will tell for sure. Not outside the realm of possibility is Trandahl led Shimkus to believe he was the recipient of the emails to add some cover to the fall out with Rep Alexander’s staff.
It is very possible Trandahl and Fordham had been covering for Foley. It is supposedly a well known fact Fordham and Trandahl are gay.
Two former high-level Republican staffers on Capitol Hill who are gay are expected to be among those questioned by FBI agents and members of a bipartisan House ethics committee in the investigation into the scandal surrounding former GOP Congressman Tom Foley of Florida.
These two had been protecting his Foely from gay activists like Mike Rogers trying to out Foley for months, if not years. MerlinOS2 may be right, Trandahl could have lashed out at Foley for losing his top level position after taking so many hits for Foley (who was the one who should have fallen on his sword). It seems someone started exploring all sorts of avenues to get Foley with these emails. In addition to the media shopping going on, it seems Mike Rogers was getting some new leads and meeting in Mid December, and predicting big events in 2006!
Dec 21st, 2005: Not only did I receive a nice number of tips, but I have also been put in contact with a number of new sources of information. Let’s just say, 2006 is going to be a busy year on the site.
…
In one case, I even had to buy two last minute tickets to fly to sources — meetings I could not mention at the time — (you’ll have to trust me, six months time will prove one of those trips was worth every penny).
Mike is excited about some big news. Then on January 2, 2006 Mike as an exchange with a political friend j——. This could be John Aravosis (or not, to be fair). Mike is excited about something that will be happening in 2005 (read the exchange here). Aravosis was definitely tied into events as one of the early recipients of the email files, along with CREW. One has to wonder how Aravosis would warrant such an important leak that is being shopped around to major news outlets.
Anyway, the theory has merit and holds water. Fordham may have thought Trandahl was informing the leadership, or he could be pointing the finger outright since it could be said Trandahl was the leadership. It is no surprise under this scenario why Trandahl may be so quiet, and Fordham was willing to, one final time, try and help Foley out of his mess.
Update: It turns out Jeff Trandahl is on the board of Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group aligned against the Family Research Council and other social conservative groups. And HRC is mentioned by Mike Rogers and John Aravosis as a source (if not partner) for their efforts to out and/or pressure gays on the right side of the political spectrum:
Both Aravosis and Rogers said they continue to collect information from their network of sources, which include employees of the Human Rights Campaign and Log Cabin Republicans, and plan on outing more staffers and members.
There are numerous mentions of Aravosis and Rogers and HRC on the net commenting about each others efforts. Seems we have found a nexus.
AJ
Another point is Trandahl in a member of the board of Human Rights Campaign a gay issues group.
Supposed Rogers, Aravosis,CREW, ACLU and others are all coffee Klatch buddies
Foley Setup? – Part XVIII – The “paper game”…
Via the Edwardsville Intelligencer, this interview with Shimkus sheds more light on a least one set of copies of the emails:
“Shimkus said he first learned of the e-mails in the fall of 2005. Just before an upcoming vote on the House floor, House…
It seems to me from this exchange the two people pointing fingers at each other are Trandahl and Fordham. MerlinOS2 posits that Trandahl (and I would say Fordham) were trying to contain Foley by regularly confronting him. When the word got out this had been recurring then Trandahl was asked to resign as Clerk of the House. He was upset and leaked the emails to the press.
I am not going to discount the idea that either of these 2 men (Trandahl and Fordham) may have been the target of blackmail and were pressured to turn over rumored emails.
John Aravosis used to be a congressional aid interested in outing and Mike Rogers seems as if he would blackmail his own mother. Roger has been pursuing this for quite a while, and also recruiting pages.
If -Trandahl and Fordham- had involved themselves in Foley, the mean gay mafia, would not hesitate to threaten them with implication.
If Trandahl left mad he could have taken a complete roladex of all past pages with him makeing it much easier for all his new buddies to find sources to work for the im’s.
Also he may have known if some of the pages were openly gay or at least leaning that way to narrow the search.
Also if he had recurring problems with Foley, he would likely know the names of those other complainers in the past.
All this aside, the gay community is not coming out looking very good in all this…this “mafia” is repulsive.
Slightly different focus, but have a look at Hewitts blog, where he discusses an interview with Rahm Emnauel.
No, the “gay mafia” looks pretty bad in all this. So do the pages.
Now all the email versions I have seen do not fit with the idea the Page’s parents sent them to Trandahl.
AJ, I think you are right about this. I think Shimkus was stating where he thought Trandahl got the emails. I’m guessing Trandahl had the same printed-out copies of the emails that we’ve seen, the excerpted parts the page himself forwarded.
This is great investigating. All of you are amazing. Now the emails were not that incriminating ie. sexual context wise for Foley . That’s why he did not resign when originally confronted. The IM’s are where the beef is. When Foley was told about the IM he quit and ran to Florida because he knew they were incriminating.
Is there proof that the Dems had these IM and where holding them for their October surprise? The Reps have to make sure America understands the difference between the Emails and IM, their origins and timeline. So far they are not explaining it because they are on defensive and not attacking.
AJ,
The Maoist site called MIM has anarticle on Foley.
http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/gender/foleyfallout.html
For those of you who never heard of the MIM, this is pretty funny stuff.
If the theory is that someone leaked the emails out of concern for the pages, count me out. I think that is the least plausible alternative.
Self interest, money, spite–yes. But the other–I doubt it.
Does anyone remember when the Dems started their ‘Culture of Corruption’ campaign? They repeated those words on Hardball and several locations within the same week. Thought it was Abramoff/DeLay but now, betcha they had this one in their socks. They do know how to get that second big bounce….just substitute ‘Foley’ for the ’16 words’ and ‘corruption of leadership’ for ‘the outing’. Same.
THE PENSION!
I’d bet that’s why Foley resigned! Hastert pointed out what could happen to all those years of accumulated PENSION BENEFITS. So to protect this, Foley signed immediately.
It doesn’t mean there’s “deeper dirt.” Heck, Foley has a long term relationship with a dermatologist who lives in Palm Beach. 19 years! So when Foley was invited, let’s say, to Trump’s Mar Lago, he brought his “partner.”
This looks very bad for gays. All that work to stipulate that guys needed marriage to each other! And, what we get here is close enough to pedophilia, coupled to promiscuity … that all of this stuff is out the window.
I think Clarice Feldman said it best, commenting on Just One Minute.
The Women’s Movement, (feminists), shot themselves when they didn’t protect the women Bill Clinton abused. PERIOD.
Now, it’s the gays. Whatever the community as a whole feels, even if many to most of them are democraps, they absolutely must feel they’ve been pee’d upon while INSIDE the donk’s tent.
And, I don’t think it makes a dent for the GOP.
Up ahead? November 7th will be like the Novembers’ that followed the other two October Suprirses. GOOD FOR THE GOP.
Will Pe-lousy have to give up her chair? Yup. Probably to Murtha.
But what can ya do? This has money spent all over it!
Somebody PAID MONEY for this “trick.” Rogers, Trendahl, Fordham, et. al. GET PAID MONEY. Where their actions provide them with income, when the go radically insane. If the gays want this? Good luck to them.
Have you noticed Code Pink really isn’t worth the money George Soros has spent so far? And, Cindy Sheehan, while her name is known, doesn’t bring harm to the GOP, either.
What a waste.
AJ: is Foley scum, and deserved to go, even IF he didn’t do anything “illegal”; which remains to be seen?
The answer is YES!
Did Republican “leadership” “know” about Foley, but coddled him, in some way, because he was a “gay” in the Republican party, and thus they didn’t want to appear “homophobic”, and also, to let it be known that they were “inclusive”?
The answer is YES!
Are YOUR efforts, those of Mac Ranger, JOM, etc., interesting, and probably on target, in that these emails/IM’s were MOST PROBABLY part of a MSM/ABS/Democratic Party/Gay-Activist “outting” of Foley, to hammer the Repulican’s prior to the mid-term elections?
The answer is YES!
But ultimately, it doesn’t matter!
The Leftists and the gay-activists, are winning the Propaganda War, and that’s all that matters.
As the Leftists, and their enablers and co-conspirators, the seditious MSM have proven over the past 5 years, when you control 90% of the airwaves, TV programs, News programs, and “ink” in the newspapers; it doesn’t matter what the Truth IS; it only matters how relentlessly you hammer your message at the voters; after awhile, they get buried under all the crap, and they give up!
I’m a former Military/Marine Corps Officer; I KNOW military history, tactics, statistics, Intel, etc.
I KNOW, that the Afghan campaigans, and the Iraq War, though FAR from perfect, have been, Militarily, two of the BEST campaigns, in American Military History!
That can be proven by the FACTS, not the rhetoric, but the FACTS!
But that doesn’t matter; the RELENTLESS lies, with the enablers in the MSM, and the American Public think that BOTH are unmitigated Disasters!
The “voters” think the President did something “illegal” with the SWIFT program; that is a LIE: but the “voter” believe it!
Advantage the LEFT and the MSM!
The “voters” think the President “spied” on Americans with the NSA program, and that it is “illegal”; both are LIES; but that doesn’t matter, the “voters” think that!
The “voters” in general, think the American military as a matter of POLICY, and in general, mistreat prisoners, beat people up, murder them, torture them, etc.!
That is a LIE; but the “voters” believe it; Advantage the Leftists and the MSM.
The majority of “voters” think that Libby/Rove/Cheney “outted” a CIA “operative”; Corn/Isikoff, can write a book, and admit, that after 3+ solid years of their lies, and the MSM’s lies, on this subject, it in fact WASN’T true, and still the “voters” in general, don’t have a clue!
Advantage the Leftists and the MSM….
The majority of “voters” now think that President Bush is most responsible for bin Laden getting away; despite the overwhelming evidence, that Clinton had at least 10 chances to kill him, and DIDN’T! The majority of “voters” now believe, that Bush let Bin Laden get away, ignored the warnings he had to stop him prior to 9/11, and is more responsible than Clinton!
It’s all LIES, of course, but doesn’t matter! Advantage the Leftists and the MSM!
It just goes on, and on, and on…..
Frankly, this has been, probably the most incompetent Administration, in HISTORY, in SELLING IT’S message!
And as the Clinton’s and their supporters showed us, especially people like Sandy Berger, who was willing to destroy classified material, to help REWRITE history; it does NOT matter what the “truth” is, it only matters who WRITES the History!
Since 9/11, the Leftists, and the MSM, have WRITTEN the history, and the Bush Administration, has looked like third graders, up against the MSM and the Clintonista Mafia, bound and determined to get Hillary into the White House, rewrite history to protect Bill’s legacy, and to bring down this President.
Advantage to the Leftists and the MSM…..
The bottomline is this; you, and Mac, and JOM can continue this Foley issue dissection until the cows come home, power to you; but the “voters” aren’t getting the message; and along with the myriad of other MSM/Leftists attacks against the President, the straw has broken the camel’s back!
If you can’t get your message/work out to the “voters”, you’re just writing for your audience, and the other bloggers who read your site.
I’m frustrated AJ; this is an extremely important time in our history; for all the mistakes that this President and his SecDef HAVE made, they are NOT the ones that have received all the publicity and ink over the past 5 years.
And when the Leftists do take control, of one or both houses of Congress after the mid-terms, this President’s term is effectively done, he’s a lame duck, and we may very well be totally screwed, with the Leftists in power.
These people cannot WAIT, to surrender to the Jihadis, destroy our military completely and finally, a process they began under Clinton, and to completely and thorougly implement the McGovernite and Carterite policies that will destroy this country once and for all!
It’s a disgrace, and a very real possibility, that we have to be prepared for.
I literally get stomach aches, thinking about it!
I know, you’re trying, but it’s too little, too late….
In this case, the BAD GUYS win….
HRC- Socially conservative??? HRC is the democratic party’s gay rights group. They say they are non-baised- Not true! THey are the home of the radical gay activists.
Did I imply HRC was socially conservative? I meant to say they oppose social conservatives.
Just a notice that Rogers website went down for a while tonight and when it came back up there is only the current months posts available.
All the old stuff is goners poof
Gee another Stalinistic Purge
It is still within the realm of possibility that Trandahl was sent the same thing Alexanders office was because this article is the only one that talks about the parents sending it to him. All other accounts show him getting it from the other path or only just discussion of the type of emails without any being presented.
When Trandahl got booted with little fanfare out of his power position, he may have felt like he was the sacrifical lamb dealt with worse than outing , since he was a known gay person and reacted without any concern to the page welfare, just doing payback.
We will see what develops.
I tend to agree with Dale. It is similar to many years of ignoring the signs of the growth AQ, we have also had a generation of ignoring the buildup of certain social norm alterations.
So now we are having to deal with a terrorist based war and an internal culture war that both have been ignored for all too long.
The documents I have seen come from one source only. My reading of events is Trandahl never got into contact with the parents because Alexander’s office was attempting to keep the family anonymous, per their request. I think it was either a miscommunication by Trandahl or a not remembering accurately by Shimkus. My personal opinion only.
Cheers.
AJ
This is truely a possibility, but still the one story that countered other information , triggered the look into this aspect of the players.
I will note that again the blogsphere is trying to make a determination of fact from open source information, in a major part the reporting of the MSM, however I have yet to see an overall area of operations and tactics perspective from the MSM and really don’t expect to.