Less than eight months ago the world learned of former GOP Rep. Mark Foley’s seedy online and possible in-person interactions with several male high school students who recently took part in the Congressional Page Program. But Big Head DC has learned from insiders that the scandal has actually helped promote the program, rather than detract from it, as some had feared. In fact, the numbers of students and their families who have contacted program officials regarding employment has skyrocketed since Foley’s misdeeds came to light.

It’s generally known that pages do menial tasks while employed by Congress, like running files and answering phones, but you’ll need lots of luck (and considerable sway with top Congressional officials), if you want to hear from current students about what real life is like as a Congressional Page. Officials with the program have told BHDC sources that current students are “off limits for interviews.”

CNN Capitol Hill reporter Lisa Goddard, for instance, was all set to interview a current student and his or her family on camera on Saturday, but program officials put the kibosh on those plans late Friday night. Goddard was left to speak with past pages who had nothing but positive things to say about the program.

“I think there’s a lot of white-washing going on,” one less enthusiastic former page told BHDC in reference to the renewed secrecy being instituted by current program officials. “There are lots of scandalous things to talk about, which is why officials are holding these kids in a gestapo state.”

Our source believes that pages should be able to talk freely about their experiences, so that interested candidates can make more informed decisions before participating. Indeed, many internship programs in Washington go out of their way to let current interns speak out in the press.

One thing’s for sure: whatever secrets lie within the current Congressional Page Program will have to wait for a later date to be aired.

Earlier: Exclusive: Foley-Gate Web Site Could Be Yours!; Sex in the Union Station Bathrooms?; Political Page Bondage; How Long Have We Been Harping About Jeff Trandahl?; What Does the Former Clerk of the House Know?; Jeff Trandahl Still Silent in Foleygate; Secrets in the House Clerk’s Closet

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Soon after the Mark Foley scandal erupted last fall, an enterprising Canadian man named Clarke Brunsdon registered the Web site Maf54.org to forever memorialize the AOL conversations the former Congressman had with young pages. Foley, you’ll recall, used the screen name Maf54 to chat up his kiddie pals via instant messenger.

“I could not possibly imagine anything more legendary than that conversation between a Congressman and a Congressional page,” Brunsdon tells BHDC. “The traffic was pretty heavy for a while – when it initially came out, a couple thousand hits a day.”

He plans to keep domain registered for as long as he owns the server it runs on. But, despite its popularity, he is willing to give it up to another Web entrepreneur.

“If someone else wanted the domain with the intentions of developing it,” says Brunsdon, ”I’d send it over at no cost.”

For details on how to make that happen, e-mail BHDCtips@gmail.com. You too can be a part of history!

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Barack may not be, but is Hillary black enough?

Dick don’t matter. But never forget the power of the Dick.

John McCain calls Donald Rumsfeld “one of the worst.”

New House Clerk promises that no pages will be molested on her watch.

Young voters, Facebook, blah, blah.

I knew George Washington, and you, sir, are no George Washington.

The one to watch: Antonin Scalia.

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This morning I thought I’d summarize the sentiments of all Washington-based gossip columnists: Fuck you, Mark Leibovich.

In a NY Times article summarizing our blossoming gossip market, he daringly says that whispers within Washington are often not “titillating.”

“As the globe warms, Iraq burns and a presidential campaign heats up, Washington finds itself red-hot in gossip, or what passes for such here,” he writes. “Never in memory has the political world been so awash in items about every little burp and wart and appendectomy of our nation’s leaders.”

Instead of heralding the addition of Big Head DC and WaPo’s The Sleuth and In the Loop to a mix that already included the Reliable Source, Under the Dome, In the Know, Heard on the Hill, Washington Whispers and Karen Feld’s Capital Connections, he opines that our gossip is “tame compared to the sexier, snarkier variety from Hollywood and New York.”

BS! When Mark Foley gets in trouble for IMing teens about their horny wee wees, the actual leadership of the Congress changes. When Lindsay Lohan goes into rehab, alcohol sales plummet at one NYC grocery.

The only area where I agree with Leibovich is that the Politico’s “Shenanigans” columnist Anne Schroeder writes like a retard. OK, he didn’t really say that, but I’m sure he meant it. (I kid Anne because I love her.)

Well, suck our untantilizing bitch tits, Mark, our sources say that you’re just jealous (and that you might even like to sniff dead tree copies of the Times.) Now that’s juicy!

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Sen. Hillary Clinton has done something nobody had ever anticipated! She wore a red top, rather than her traditional collared black suit. Colorful lady, she is.

Sen. Barack Obama even pretended to be happy that he only got a few days to bask in his own glow.

Another helicopter down in Iraq: “[O]ne of the deadliest days for United States forces…”

President Bush suddenly thinks health care is mighty important.

Live from Park City: “Wake up, kids, your ancestors were once smart-aleck, long-haired Yippies getting their pot heads bashed by baton-wielding Chicago police officers — what gramps back in the day would call “the [dirty word, dirty word] fascist pigs” — so unplug the PlayStation and to the barricades!”

Who is Sen. Sam Brownback? Why is he running for Prez? Is a he a friend of Dorothy? (He announced on a yellow brick road, after all…

Will a snowstorm prevent Gov. Bill Richardson from running for President in ‘08? More importantly, will we get a snow day this year?

The only gorgeous man named George has died at age 93.

Something about campaign finance laws. Dunno. Never works out anyhow.

Foleygate shall never happen again, if the House of Reps has its way.

And, oh yeah, we’re back, looking as youthful as a Congressional page.

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