BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist
A casualty of the Mark Foley cyberspace sex scandal is the once-close relationship between Illinois Republicans Rep. John Shimkus and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.
If top staffers in Hastert's office had knowledge of Foley's overly friendly interest in pages -- as is alleged by Foley's former chief of staff -- then Shimkus did not know everything he needed to know when he walked into Foley's House office in November 2005 to talk to him about a questionable e-mail from a former page, on a mission that originated in the speaker's office.
Moreover, Hastert's team, by asking Shimkus to appear at a press conference with the speaker in Washington last Monday -- but not letting him take questions -- made a bad situation for Shimkus worse.
"I am now,'' said Shimkus when we talked last week, "a little jaded.''
A very cautious Shimkus taped our phone conversation and said it was now his standard operating procedure for all of his interviews.
more:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/89009,CST-NWS-sweet09.article