A retiring Republican reveals something about the Foley scandal that contradicts Hastert's public statements last week.  Fittingly, this Republican's vacated seat might turn out to decide whether the Democrats can take back majority in the House.  It's all connected.

Sorry for the cheap cliche.  It really is a small world though.  Republican Randy Graf -- Minute Men supporter and border-line xenophobic -- trails Democrat Gabrielle Giffords in the race for Arizona's 8th District U.S. House seat.  This race has national implications as it could decide the fate of which party controls majority status in the U.S. House of Representatives.

This House seat is open, and is being vacated by retiring Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe.  Now here is where the small world part comes in.  According to his spokesman, Rep. Jim Kolbe saw Mark Foley's messages in 2000.  This adds more names to the list of GOP lawmakers that saw the messages but chose to stay loyal to their party:

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. Last week, when the Foley matter erupted, a Kolbe staff member suggested to the former page that he take the matter to the clerk of the House, Karen Haas, said Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline.

The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's behavior with former pages.

Jim Kolbe is the only openly gay Republican in Congress.  The fact that Rep. Kolbe is retiring probably had something to do with this information being released.  He has no reason to be loyal to the GOP leadership.  He will be gone in January anyway, and is deciding to leave with some dignity (the same situation as General John Batiste).  More importantly, Kolbe's revelation proves that Dennis Hastert lied when he said that GOP lawmakers learned for the first time about the Foley messages last fall -- when in fact it was more like six years ago.

Hastert will lie through his teeth if it means holding on to majority.  He knows that voters are fed up and want change.  All he can do is fight -- even if that means fighting dirty.  This will be an interesting final month.
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Other progressive sites blogging about this story: The Democratic Daily, Newsvine, True Blue Liberal, Major Conflict,  The Republic of T, The Next Hurrah, Down with Tyranny, Facets of Lisa, Apply Liberally.