http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15680059.htmShimkus defends his leadership of the House Page Board
<snip>The scandal seemed to be taking a toll on Shimkus, a low-profile lawmaker unaccustomed to the national media spotlight. He grew testy in the Post-Dispatch interview and at least one other, with Copley News Services on Tuesday. In that news account, he at one point called the notion that Republicans had engaged in a cover-up "bull ---- ."
The real question, Shimkus said in his interview with the Post-Dispatch, is who had the sexually explicit instant messages Foley had sent to underage boys and why didn't they come forward earlier.
"Whoever had them put these kids at risk," he said. "That's where we ought to be doing our investigative journalism . . . That's the real smoking gun that would have identified the real former congressman Foley."
In an earlier interview Wednesday on KMOX radio, Shimkus called Foley a "slimeball."
"The question has to be asked - who knew about the explicit IMs and when did they know it and why did they release on Friday, the last day of our session?" Shimkus said on the show. "Why would this all get dropped the Friday before we get out for the November election?"
Shimkus did not directly answer a question from the Post-Dispatch about what he meant by that or who he thought might be behind the release of the messages, other than the teenagers who had received them.