Weller Clarifies

Jerry Weller has apparently decided to do what he can to shut down the rumor-mongering. He says that one of his interns (not a page), whose identity they did not know, was invited to the home of another congressman for some type of party when that intern was 21. Apparently nothing happened.

I have said that the GOP needs the whole page story to go away. I suspect that reporters will do some digging around this (those that have not done so already). This account of Weller's raises questions: did nothing really happen, why do they not know the intern's identity, and how did this transform into the other page rumor that went around a few days ago? However, if reporters find nothing more to it than this (and I am told the NYT found this to be a dry well), and if the person was indeed 21, hopefully the story will die without further attention.

Weller clarifies intern incident
DISSPELLING RUMORS
October 21, 2006
By Ken O'Brien STAFF WRITER
Intern invited to party by another lawmaker

JOLIET -- Acting on the advice of an election attorney, the staff for U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller is contacting the U.S. House Ethics Committee about an incident involving a male former intern and another congressman.

The staff took that action as rumors swirled Thursday about potential trouble for Weller, R-Morris, in the wake of the page scandal.

Weller is not being investigated, campaign spokesman Steve Shearer said Friday.

Shearer said "there is nothing" to the rumors, noting that those have been circulated on Democratic-leaning blogs. He said some blogs have since changed their postings about Weller.

Shearer said the incident occurred two to four years ago when an intern of Weller's intern, then 21, was invited to the home of another congressman for a social function. Weller's office does not know the identity of the intern, he said.

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