October 3, 2006 - Senator Howard Baker posed that rhetorical question at the opening of the Senate Watergate investigation in 1973. Ultimately that question was answered and the answer brought down a Presidency. That same rhetorical question can be posed today in any number of forums and when the answer is found it may have equally devastating effects on the futures of several political figures. First there is Illinois’ own Speaker Hastert and Representative John Shimkus. What did they know of Foley’s unseemly internet grooming of the house pages and when did they know it? Did they learn only of e-mails and instant messages when ABC broke the story last weekend or did they first learn of the “naughty e-mails” in December 2005 and content themselves with Foley’s lame explanation and permit him to continue to pursue the boys? At best the answer to the rhetorical question may demonstrate shocking incompetence at the highest levels of Congressional leadership; at worst it may come so close to crossing the line into criminal malfeasance as to require them to respond side by side with the former Congressman from Florida. What did they know and when did they know it?

What did National Security Advisor Rice know and when did she know it? Since shortly after the September 11th attacks we have known of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) the President received at the Crawford ranch on August 9th, 2001. We have known that it was headlined “Al Qaeda Determined to Strike the United States”. We have listened as Ms. Rice told us that it was so general as to be written off as “historical”; that it did not constitute a warning that hijacked airliners would be used as missiles to attack American buildings. Now, with the publication last week of Mr. Woodward’s latest book, we learn that CIA director Tennant briefed Ms. Rice on July 10th, 2001 warning her that an Al Qaeda strike was immanent. Apparently Ms. Rice either did not hear that warning or ignored it. In any event if the now Secretary of State is to be believed she did not seem to take either that warning or the NIE repetition of the warning a month later seriously enough as to bring either to the attention of the President. At Best the answer to the rhetorical question demonstrate shocking incompetence at the highest levels of the Executive Branch of government; at worst it may show a pattern of malfeasance that comes so close to crossing the line into the Constitutional definition of high crime and misdemeanors. What did she know and when did she know it?

Speaker Hastert and Rep. Shimkus apparently elected to accept without inquiry Rep. Foley’s explanation that he was just being friendly with the pages. Secretary Rice expects the American people to uncritically accept her explanations that the briefing and subsequent NIE were so unspecific as to be viewed as a generalized description of the danger posed by Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Neither the Republican House leadership nor Secretary Rice answers the question, what did they know and when did they know it?