I’ve got a really bad record when it comes to predictions, but there have been a couple things I’ve seen that today seem to indicate that the Foley scandal is going to get bigger. The first is the rumor that more Congressmen could get swept up into this mess (via Kevin) :

As the scandal over former congressman Mark Foley entered its sixth day, one Republican warned that there may even be further disclosures involving other politicians. “People are very, very concerned,” said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. “They think there are going to be more disclosures.”

On the other end of this scandal, it looks as if the cover-up could be bigger than we expected :

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) wrote to the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General’s (I.G.) office today to ask for an investigation into why the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has fabricated and disseminated a cover-up story as to why it never investigated the Foley emails sent to it by CREW.

CBS News has reported that according to the FBI when CREW gave the Bureau the original set of emails from Rep. Mark Foley to a former House page, they were “heavily redacted.” The FBI is also claiming that it came back to CREW and asked for more information so that it could follow up, but that CREW refused to provide anything further. Reporters from several other news organizations have repeated this allegation. The FBI is lying.

If it’s true that the FBI didn’t actively pursue the Foley emails and is now covering its tracks, the next question would be “Why?”. Was the FBI instructed to ignore the Foley emails? If so, by whom? If culpability in this cover-up reaches beyond the House into…say…the executive branch, all hell will break loose.

…and because the Republicans who brought this scandal upon themselves are desperate to deflect blame on someone else, let me just point this out for good measure :

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, said the source, who showed The Hill public records supporting his claim.

The same source, who acted as an intermediary between the aide-turned-whistleblower and several news outlets, says the person who shared the documents is no longer employed in the House.
. . .
These revelations mean that Republicans who are calling for probes to discover what Democratic leaders and staff knew about Foley’s improper exchanges with under-age pages will likely be unable to show that the opposition party orchestrated the scandal now roiling the GOP just a month away from the midterm elections.

This is a Republican scandal. They’ve treated this like a partisan political issue since day one, so now they have to live with the fact that they politicized the sexual harassment of minors. Live by the sword…