Updated: Republicans quit after new page sex allegations

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite resigned from the board overseeing the troubled House page program, saying the program has been poorly managed and that four pages have recently been dismissed for shoplifting and "inappropriate sexual indiscretions."

Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, and the other Republican on the panel, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, blamed the Democrats who run the House for failing to fix problems that were exposed by the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley’s sexual conversations with former pages.

"It’s almost like the Democrats haven’t learned from the Mark Foley thing," said Brown-Waite.

Capito issued a statement that said, "Unfortunately, the problems with communication between board members that plagued the program in the past have only continued under new House leadership. Members of this board cannot productively tackle problems that may occur with our pages when questionable incidents are held from members of the Page Board."

Brown-Waite said two pages were dismissed after they allegedly stole merchandise from a shopping mall in September. The congresswoman said "the amount was substantial."

Members of the page board weren’t told about the incident for a week, she said.

Two other pages were recently dismissed from the program because of "inappropriate sexual indiscretions." She said the indiscretions involved the student pages — and not any adults — but that other pages were "enablers and...observers."

It is with sincere regret that I am forced to write this letter of
resignation to you today. Since my appointment to the House Page Board
earlier this year, it has been my wish to see a strong and vibrant page
program reestablished in the United States Capitol. Unfortunately, due
to the failed leadership of the Clerk of the House, and the continued
lack of oversight, I have no choice but to resign as a Republican
representative to the Page Board. It is my hope that this drastic step
will bring attention to the continued mismanagement of the pages and
help revive the flagging program.

Following the upheaval of the page program last September and October,
Speaker Hastert took affirmative steps to provide more oversight of the
program. When you took office as Speaker this year, you also suggested,
and I supported, what I thought were well designed changes to the page
program. When I agreed to serve as a Republican representative to the
Page Board, I truly believed that we would have the opportunity to make
a difference in the lives of hundreds of high school students working in
our Capitol. Unfortunately, what I have seen is even less oversight and
less supervision from the Clerk's and your office than in Congresses
past. This year has already seen four pages dismissed from the program;
dismissals for serious criminal acts and for inappropriate sexual
indiscretions between the students. Given the rate and seriousness of
these events, I do not see how the page program can be properly
administered with the current leadership of the Clerk of the House.

To be quite frank with you, while the makeup of the board has expanded,
and the Party in control has changed, I have yet to see the wholesale
changes that were promised by you and your leadership team upon taking
office this year. It is clear to me that you have paid nothing more than
lip service to a wholesale revamping of the program, and that you have
learned nothing from the lessons of the Mark Foley scandal. Page
supervision, other than on the floor of the House, is found to be sorely
lacking, and the Clerk has been slow to share information with members
of the Board. In at least one vitally important incident, we were
intentionally kept in the dark about dismissals for more than a week,
and were only given the details after personally confronting the Clerk
with rumors we had heard. Madam Speaker, it is impossible to do our jobs
as Page Board members if we are not given the information necessary to
make decisions in the best interests of the students and their families
back home. Withholding information is simply an unacceptable management
practice.

Sadly, I submit this letter of resignation with the full knowledge that
in the short term the credibility of the Board will be damaged, and the
page program may suffer. However, I see no other alternative to bring to
your, and the rest of the House's, attention the serious management
problems the page program currently faces. We have been given no
opportunity to make substantive changes. Please know that I wish current
and future students the best in their studies, and that I thank the
other members of the Board for their time and service. I hope that you
take the seriousness of my resignation to heart and that immediate
action is taken to put strong and effective oversight of the Page
program into place. The pages serving the House, and their parents,
deserve nothing less. Until I can ensure parents that proper supervision
is provided, I intend to not seek students to participate and encourage
my colleagues to do the same."

Comments

Congressman Mahoney sure has shown great leadership on this issue...
It's time to elect Harrell or one of the other Republicans so she can help Ginny Brown-Waite clean up this mess.

Brown-Waite needs to get a life. Instead of worrying about pages, why doesn't she do something to end the war and implement health coverage for all Americans.

3:34, I support Harrell, or any Republican for that matter over Tim Mahoney.
But, protecting pages is not a partisan matter. Don't make it one.

Why doesn't congress change the minimum age to 18 for pages, instead of the typical 17 year old high school junior. That is pretty young to turn them loose in D.C.

The pages could serve after they finish high school and work as page a semester period their college freshman year.

Pages are not turned loose in DC. They are heavily supervised in a dorm.

College Students would have to take a semester off to work as pages. They would not be able to coordinate such a program with a college schedule.

I guess it is better to hear "inappropriate sexual indiscretions between the students" than between congressmen

Brown-Waite is a drunken buffoon. She should stay with the whole “resign” thing and just keep on a’goin.

Every recent immoral and perverted sex scandal has come straight from the Republicons Party… and this moron has the gall to blame it all on the Democraps… what a dried-up Party hack.

Take the skinny… Ginny!

More failed leadership by our new Dem majority!!!

The word is Fasano will be running against Ginny. Wow, what a choice we have between the two of them. Vote Independent

Isn't Fasano in little Bilirakis' district?

GBW should quit congress and serve as housemother at the page dorm. It sounds like there is more heavy petting at the page dorm than heavy supervision.

Better yet, GBW should get Debra LaFave appointed housemother at the page dorm so Debra can get the pages in line and straightened out!

3:45, She won't do that because she's not working feverishly to lose this war to the terrorists for political gain and to make the United States a marxist failure. In essence, because she's not a Democrat.

How sad that a major American political party's survival depends on an American military loss.

[A PAGE]

I was a page VERY RECENTLY and the page program is nothing like this says. Kids mess up as you all know and just because they work for the government doesn't mean in any way that they are perfect. And there were NO observers. They make this seem like all we did was go to bars, strip clubs, casinos and sneak out of our dorms. We learned a lot from the experience and its sad that so many people are blowing this out of porportion.

We were not "turned loose in D.C." I was 17 and had the time of my life and came home without a scratch on me. This is first hand experience. So say what you please, but you don't know and never will know.

[RM. 109]

the previous two are right, I'm assuming I was a page with them, for I just returned as well, and the supervision really is right on key. As tennagers teetering on the verge of turning legal adults, I believe we'll do what we have now formed in ourselves to be the right morals and beliefs. The supervision of the page program is that of supervision you would find at any decent and loving household. The proctors and directors are there for the kids, whatever the problem may be. However, at the same time they are there to lay down the rules and trust me, they will do so faster than you can put a hole in a wall. My point is, without taking away every kids freedom to privacy, there'd be no way to make supervision any stricter. The isolated incidents have been taken care of, lets move on.

Don't you just love the way these Republicans operate - they create a mess and then blame the DEMs for not fixing it.

Are you listening DEMs - here's your chance to fix this problem - just forbid the pages to work for GOP members.

-Problem Solved!

[former page]

i was a page about a year ago, and i too can vouch for the supervision of the page program. of course kids can find a way to get by all the rules, but short of placing video cameras in their private dorm rooms, nothing else can really be done. also, by keeping the pages between the ages of 16 and 18, the government is allowed to be responsible for them. if the pages were older, the government would not be able to supervise the program as it does.

[Ron Mills]

This is all a bunch of GOP Karl Rove tricks
she is a loser from the start.
this is just a bunch of nonsense to make the democrats look bad.
It is not working. Any moron who falls for Karl Rove Bull, would not vote for a democrat if it was Jesus himself

Mark Foley's admitted, "Best Friend in Congress".

I learned from her last campaign that she will do and say ANYTHING. What a witch.

She makes John Russell look sane.

So the people who were warned about but didn't do anything to address allegations against Mark Foley now say it's the Dems who are responsible for Pages out of control. Yeah, Ginny, that's right. And Dems forced Bob Allen and Paul Craig their crises of judgement in bathroom stalls and Sen. Vitter to frequent prostitutes and the White House to permit a porn star journalist in the briefing room. Those Democrats will stop at nothing. I think it was Nancy Pelosi with her black, gay, atheist, French driver who videotaped the kids having sex.

Now that the democrats have been in charge for a year, what has been done to address the page program? Not solely blaming them, as the republicans had an opportunity to institute changes, but probably did not (I don't know for sure)...

[Bob Allen]

Which policy changes would have stopped kids from having public oral sex?

THERE WAS NO PUBLIC ORAL SEX.. you are very much mislead.. Nobody was watching.

sounds like that witch kovakovich clawed jerk appointed to a court in the late-60's!!

essentially the grotesque, gargoyle-like hag was "upset" because college students were getting more than she ever would so she called coed dorms "taxpayer-funded whorehouses!!

a real class act, just like clawed roy!!

[Jacob Kosoff]

During my year as a page (1997-1998), many pages made boyfriends and girlfriends and this was quite lovely. It prepared many of us for relationships in college and beyond.

As the age of consent in Washington, DC remains at 16 years old, it is not banned for pages to date other pages. Many pages had their first relationships (both opposite and same gender) as pages. Whether your first kiss was at Annex II or in Georgetown, it was not forbidden.

Publicly displaying of affection was not allowed and led to a demerit, it did not lead to expulsion. This draconian change to rules, which undermines pages from developing relationships, is quite unfortunate.

[hobson-thats who!]

Who in thier sane mind would ever find Ginny Brwon Waite as appealing? What a crotchety, bitchy,and acrid human being!