Ex-Congressman Mark Foley is a scumbag, and deserves every bad thing he gets. But the calls for Dennis Hastert, and other Representatives, to resign are premature. Hastert says he never knew about Foley’s attempted pederasty until the story was broken by ABC on Friday, and there’s no reason (yet) to doubt his word.

LaShawn Barber essentially says Hastert should have guessed Foley was a child-molester, and ordered a thorough investigation until he had some proof. But this is hindsight, and it is nonsense. Hastert, like the rest of the House members, is a legislator, not an investigator. He can’t just order up thorough criminal investigations to sate his curiosity; he can’t subpoena e-mails or anything else. Congress can hold hearings and subpoena records, but no individual Congressman has this authority. And before last week, there were no grounds to hold hearings.

Barber says:

[A] former page named Matthew Loraditch… said a Republican page supervisor warned him and other pages about Foley. That means Foley’s conduct was known by at least one elected official as early as 2001.

It does not mean that, LaShawn, unless “page supervisor” is an elected office. And this warning he gave was what, exactly? “Don’t get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff.” If all anyone knew in 2001 was that Foley was “being too nice,” I cannot damn Hastert for not lynching Foley at the time. [And even Loraditch retracted this remark the next day. See update, below.]

Now, it may turn out that there really was a cover-up, and Hastert is guilty as charged. But I’m waiting for proof. Meanwhile, Mark Foley is a scumbag. Put him in prison.

*UPDATE: Now other pages are disputing Matthew Loraditch’s account, and Loraditch himself has “clarified” it, explaining that when he said “warned,” he actually meant “not warned,” and he and the other pages were treated well in Washington. So all the evidence of an official coverup (which consisted of Loraditch’s single retracted remark) has collapsed.