We know what Foley did -- he's resigned.
We know that the House leadership knew -- they've admitted as much.

The question is, did Hastert and Boener use this knowledge and threats of disclosure to coerce one more member of congress to toe the line?

I think they were simply trying to make it go away quietly, only when they did this, all thay did was make it easy for the sick bastard to do it even more. Then the leaders were in deep shit and all they could do was continue to cover it up, to save their own sorry asses and hope to gawd nobody talked.


That is after all the very nature of lies, that eventually they will come back to bite your ass.

They thought, like everything else, they could keep it quiet and above the law in order to hold onto one more seat. I don't think they could have blackmailed him, because apparently he kept doing it. If that were the case (blackmail) then they were enablers and probably subject to some prosecution themselves.