The Greatest Movie Never Made

If House Speaker Dennis Hastert is to be taken at his word -- that anyone found to have covered up the despicable behavior of former Congressman Mark Foley will be fired -- then his own chief of staff should be toast.

Don't hold your breath.

Kirk Fordham, a former congressional aide, is expected to tell a House ethics panel Thursday that he delivered warnings about Foley to Scott Palmer, Hastert's top aide, years ago. The warnings included a report that Foley showed up drunk at the congressional page dormitory.

Fordham, once the disgraced congressman's chief of staff, plans to testify under oath that he warned more than one congressional official several times about Foley's inappropriate behavior with pages -- and that the warnings came much earlier than Republican leaders have reported.

Meanwhile, the White House was so desperate to keep Foley in Washington for one more term before he became a lobbyist that Karl Rove threatened to interfere with his future career if he didn't run again, according to a New Republic story.

Money quote:

"He said, 'The White House made it very clear I have to run,'" explains Foley's friend, adding that Foley told him that the White House promised that if Foley served for two more years it would "enhance his success" as a lobbyist. "I said, 'I thought you wanted out of this?' And he said, 'I do, but they're scared of losing the House and the thought of two years of Congressional hearings, so I have two more years of duty.'"

Illustration by J.C. Christian at Jesus' General