Let the scrambling begin. The AP reports:

Rep. Thomas Reynolds (news, bio, voting record), head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Speaker Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow GOP lawmaker had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Hastert’s office said aides referred the matter to the proper authorities last fall but they were only told the messages were “over-friendly.”

So naturally, they undertook a thorough investigation, right? Wrong.

After the issue was referred to the clerk, it was passed along to the congressman who oversees the page program, Rep. John Shimkus (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill.

Shimkus has said he learned about the e-mail exchange in late 2005 and took immediate action to investigate.

He said Foley told him it was an innocent exchange. Shimkus said he warned Foley not to have any more contact with the teenager and to respect other pages.

Well I guess that settles it, eh? “I didn’t do anything wrong”….”Okay, well just don’t do what you didn’t do again.” No ethics committee investigation. No report to the police about a possible crime. No request, much less a subpeona, of the logs of the emails and text messages from either the victim or from Foley. Hey, he said it was an innocent exchange. What more do you want? Well, how about an actual investigation? I know it would be inconvenient at a time when you’re fighting to hold on to control of the house, but it’s still the right thing to do.

Remember, this is the same group that went insane about Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, who was an adult. But when reports come in concerning one of their own legislators and a 16 year old congressional page, the most they could do is ask him about it and when he said it was okay, they believed him and went about their business. It’s a little late to hear them feign outrage at what Foley did.