WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Monday that no Republican leaders saw lurid Internet exchanges from former Rep. Mark Foley to pages and that he would have demanded the Florida Republican's expulsion if he had known about them. "As a parent and speaker of the House, I am disgusted," Hastert, R- Ill., told reporters after holding a meeting at the Capitol in the wake of the disclosure of the e-mails in 2003 to a page, which led to Foley's resignation last Friday. The page's home state was not immediately cited.
The speaker did not mention e-mail exchanges between Foley and another page, from Louisiana, in 2005. Other House Republicans said they told Hastert about those exchanges months ago. Hastert has not disputed those accounts.
"Congressman Foley duped a lot of people," Hastert said. "I've know him for all the years he has worked in this House and he deceived me, too."
Hastert described instant messages that Foley sent to a former page in 2003 as "vile and repulsive."
Hastert and his leadership team have been working through the weekend to contain the fallout from the Foley revelations. He spoke to reporters Monday after meeting with Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who chairs a panel of lawmakers that oversees the page program.
Asked about the preliminary inquiry under way at the FBI into Foley's actions, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters Monday afternoon, "We're just beginning to look at it right now. I haven't received a report."
Officials were still trying to decide whether the Washington or Miami offices of the FBI would head the inquiry.
The congressional page program has traditionally been a starting point for young people interested in making a career of politics.
There currently are 72 House pages, 48 selected by Republicans and 24 by Democrats, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service. The Senate breakdown is 30 pages, 18 chosen by Republicans and 12 by Democrats.
