US Republicans, Democrats joust over sex scandal

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) Republicans today tried to repair damage caused by the handling of a scandal involving teenage congressional assistants amid charges the issue was being used as a political weapon by both sides ahead of next month's crucial mid-term elections.

Facing calls for his resignation, House Speaker Dennis Hastert has become a key factor in the November seven elections because of his handling of the case of former Republican Rep. Mark Foley's sexually lurid Internet correspondence with former congressional assistants, known as pages.

A Newsweek poll showed 52 per cent of Americans believe Hastert knew about Foley's contacts with the teenagers and tried to cover them up.

''Denny Hastert is a decent person but the problem here in this case is good people do bad things when they're trying to protect their own political power,'' Democratic Rep. Marty Meehan of Massachusetts said on ''Fox News Sunday.'' Democrats say Hastert and his chief of staff had been warned about Foley's e-mails and instant messages to former pages as early as 2003.

Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, said it would not have made political sense for Hastert to cover up for Foley.

''The speaker's job is to protect the majority (in the House),'' Kingston, the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, said on ''Fox News Sunday.'' ''We know this race has been a 15-seat race to keep the majority. Why would the speaker protect one member in a safe Republican seat?'' Kingston said the timing of the revelation, which led to Foley's resignation from Congress on September 29, suggested a political ploy by Democrats since it came slightly more than a month before elections.

''What I don't understand is where have these e-mails been for three years,'' he said. ''Are we saying a 15-year-old child would sit on e-mails that were triple-X-rated for three years and spring them out on eve of the election? That's just a little suspicious, even for Washington, D.C.'' Meehan accused Republicans of trying to shift the blame for their own scandal.

''Only in Washington, D.C., can you take a group of people in charge of the House and basically have evidence that they've been looking the other way while a predator ... has been going after 15- and 16-year-old pages,'' Meehan said. ''And they have the audacity to turn that into a political attack against Democrats, saying, 'They must have known about it so they're responsible.''' Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, appeared on ABC's ''This Week,'' and said Republicans were trying to ''take your dirty laundry and throw it over the fence and try to blame other people for the problems.'' Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, scoffed at calls for Hastert's resignation.

''Give me a break on this resignation stuff,'' he said on CNN's ''Late Edition'' show. ''You're telling me the speaker of the house, because he was at some point possibly given a questionable e-mail, should resign?'' Reuters DKB DB2259