Ah...it wasn't the Congressmen, it was their staff!

The initial e-mails may not have piqued media interest, but even Speaker Hastert has told reporters that Mr. Foley's request for a teenager's picture "would raise a red flag" with him. But he defended the decision by Mr. Trandahl and his other staffers to handle the Foley issue without telling him: "I see no reason to bump it up to me at that time." He insisted he would not second-guess how his staff handled the situation.

That shows Speaker Hastert just doesn't get it. If something was a "red flag," he should have been told about it. Now Washington is filled with speculation that Mr. Trandahl and other staffers might have been trying to cover up for Mr. Foley. On "Fox News Sunday," Rep. Jack Kingston, vice chairman of the Republican Conference, raised the idea that "there was a staffer or two who decided to maybe protect Mark Foley for reasons unknown."

The Washington Post has reported that Mr. Trandahl is on the board of the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign and is "personally close to the now-disgraced former lawmaker, who announced through his lawyer this week that he is gay." In November 2005, days after his involvement in the Foley matter, Mr. Trandahl left his job as House clerk to head up the National Fish and Wildlife Federation. The Post noted that "House aides say the circumstances of Trandahl's exit were oddly quiet," marked with little of the congratulatory sendoff other departing House clerks have received.

Whatever role Mr. Trandahl or other staffers played in the Foley matter, they clearly failed to put the interests of the pages or their bosses first. This doesn't shock many longtime Capitol Hill observers. The staffs on Capitol Hill increasingly are a power in their own right, and that should concern both members and voters. Many have accumulated so much influence that they can "micromanage" the executive branch, create pork-barrel "earmarks" out of thin air, and subject officials to relentless investigation. Ernest Hollings, a former Democratic senator from South Carolina, once described what he called "the staff infection": "I heard a senator the other day tell me another senator hadn't been in his office for three years; it is just staff [there]. Everybody is working for the staff, staff, staff, driving you nutty, in fact."

Or, as longtime congressional staffer Harrison Fox puts it, "Because they are not accountable to the voter, staffers are often driven by different values and priorities."

Man, you really need to watch your back with Republicans.