In an article in the October 16 issue of Time magazine about how the scandal surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) marks the latest example of how the Republican Party has purportedly grown “adrift from its ideals,” Time national political correspondent Karen Tumulty wrote that upon resigning his position as chief of staff to Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham “threw fuel on the political fire by announcing that he had warned [House Speaker J. Dennis] Hastert's staff of Foley's 'inappropriate behavior' at least three years ago -- a charge that Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, denied.” Later in the article, Tumulty altogether ignored Fordham's claim that he sought to alert Hastert's office to Foley's behavior, uncritically reporting that according to “a whisper campaign [that] has been launched in Washington,” Fordham may have been one of the “gay staff members” belonging to “a 'velvet mafia' at the upper levels of G.O.P. leadership” which sought to protect Foley.

In fact, the dispute between Fordham and Palmer is not a simple “he said, she said”; an unnamed current Republican congressional staffer recently came forth to corroborate Fordham's account, according to October 7 reports by various news outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times. An October 8 Times article further reported that Fordham's attorney stated Fordham is prepared to testify under oath before the House ethics committee that Fordham arranged a meeting with Palmer “as early as 2003” (“2003 or earlier,” according to the October 7 Post article) to discuss Foley's contacts with underage congressional pages.