House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wants the House Ethics Committee to put Republican leadership under oath to find out what they knew about Congressman Mark Foley's inappropriate communications with Congressional pages.

Pelosi sent a letter yesterday to Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, chairman of the House Ethics Committee and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat, pressing the committee to put the leadership under oath. The House voted unanimously on Friday to direct the committee to begin an investigation into Foley's behavior.

But, Pelosi wrote:

Since that resolution unanimously passed, Republican Leaders have admitted to knowing about Mr. Foley's outrageous behavior for six months to a year, and they chose to cover it up rather than to protect these children.

As the author of the resolution that the House unanimously passed, I am writing to insist that the Ethics Committee act as directed and immediately form the investigative Subcommittee and begin work on the preliminary report in 10 days. Central to the investigation is immediately questioning, under oath, the House Republican Leadership.

It is a nightmare for every child, parent and grandparent to learn that a child is being stalked on the internet by an adult in a position of authority. The fact that Mr. Foley was engaging in this behavior with underage children, that the Republican Leadership knew about it for six months to a year and has characterized the inappropriate behavior as "overly friendly" and "acting as a mentor" and that apparently no action was taken to protect these underage children is abhorrent.

Hastings spokeswoman Jessica Gleason would not say what Hastings planned to do:

Ms. Pelosi's letter was addressed jointly to Chairman Hastings and Ranking Democrat Howard Berman. Thus, any response to her letter will be authored jointly by both lawmakers — and will be delivered to Ms. Pelosi before it is provided to the news media. To do otherwise would be disrespectful to Ms. Pelosi.

Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider told me there's been no response yet.

The ethics committee has already come under fire for its slow response to Congressional scandals. In May, when investigations were launched into both Republican and Democratic corruption charges, the Washington Post wrote:

The inquiries by the long-dormant House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct come after the Justice Department intensified its corruption investigations of Ney and Jefferson, and after Cunningham pleaded guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes and was sent to prison.

But as those and other scandals were unfolding, the ethics committee — chaired by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. — sat on the sidelines. Democrats said GOP leaders had changed the rules unfairly to thwart investigations that could have negative ramifications for the Republican Party. Republicans accused the Democrats of dragging their feet on the committee's reorganization to bolster their accusations of a cover-up.

That logjam was broken last month when Rep. Allan Mollohan, D-W.Va., the ranking Democrat on the committee, was forced to step down from the panel amid accusations that he used his congressional position to funnel money to his home-state foundations, possibly enriching himself in the process.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says the ethics committee should appoint an outside counsel to investigate Foley and the Republican leadership. The group, a liberal corruption watchdog group, said in a release:

Because the House leadership has demonstrated a shocking lack of judgment in dealing with Rep. Foley's conduct, those in charge cannot now be trusted to examine the matter candidly.

UPDATE: At horsesass.org David Goldstein says Congressman Dave Reichert is getting rid of photos of him and Foley.