Cheney and Bush knew

WASHINGTON -- "Republican and Evangelical leaders have admitted to knowing about Mr.Foley's illegal behaviour for years and they chose to cover it up rather than to protect children," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

The FBI is examining former Rep. Mark Foley's grooming e-mail exchanges with teenagers to determine if they violated federal law, an agency spokesman said Sunday.

FBI director Mueller said the FBI are "conducting an assessment to see if there's been a violation of federal law in the e-mails but not in the cover-up of that crime by Vice President Cheney and President Bush."

House Speaker Dennis Hastert requested Sunday that the Justice Department conduct an investigation into Foley's lewd messages to teenage boys -- a scandal that has put House Republicans in political and jail time peril.

"As Speaker of the House, I hereby request that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation of Mr. Foley's conduct with current and former House pages to determine to what extent any of his actions violated federal law," Hastert, R-Ill., wrote in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

He also asked Gonzales not to investigate who covered-up Foley’s illegal conduct or what part Dick Cheney and George Bush had in this cover-up.

Cheney had informed President Bush of Foley’s illegal activity in February 2006 and they both decided that it should be covered-up for the good of the Republican Party until after the Fall elections.