At least at first reading, this from MSLSD NBC seems a bit bizarre. It was just about 3 Fridays ago when the Foley story broke. And as far as I can tell, all of the relevant individuals on the Kolbe trip referenced below, including staff, family and park's personnel, don't suggest there was anything wrong.
Are we now going to ignore any wrong doing by Senator Harry Reid and plunge into another week or two of QUEER REPUBLICANS POSSIBLE MISDEEDS?
Frankly, this nonsense from the MSM is making me sick. The thing reads like maybe one homophobic, or Dem park ranger may be hoisting a red flag simply to set off another round in what's starting to look like a Gay Republican witch hunt.
Some key graphs:
National Park Service employees also were on the three-day trip, along with several Kolbe staffers and the congressman's sister. Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican legislator in both houses of Congress, had not acknowledged his homosexuality publicly at the time.
NBC News interviewed several people who were on the trip, and their accounts vary. One participant, who requested anonymity, said he was uncomfortable with the attention Kolbe paid to one of the former pages. He was "creeped out by it," he said, adding that there was a lot of "fawning, petting and touching" on the teenager's arms, shoulders and back by Kolbe.
However, Gary Cummins, the deputy superintendent of the Grand Canyon National Park at the time — and who also was on the trip — said he did not see anything inappropriate take place.
NBC also interviewed the two former pages, who are now in their late 20s. One of them said that Kolbe was a gentleman and never acted in an improper fashion. He recalled that the pair spent time in Kolbe's house at one point — and briefly were alone with him on the trip — and that Kolbe always acted professionally and decently.
The other would not comment on Kolbe's behavior during the trip or characterize it in any way.
"I don't want to get into the details," he said. "I just don't want to get into this... because I might possibly be considered for a job in the administration."
However, the former page — who is the one to whom Kolbe allegedly paid special attention — said he had a "blast" on the trip and did not report anything improper to this parents or any House officials after the trip. He said he has a favorable impression of the page program to this day and likes Kolbe.
WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News. NBC News first reported on the camping and rafting trip on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington said that the U.S. attorney in Arizona has started a "preliminary assessment" of the trip, after an unidentified source made allegations about the congressman's behavior on the expedition.
"The U.S. attorney is looking into allegations about the congressman taking a trip with the two pages," the spokesman said.
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