Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite has released a letter that says the director of the House page program brought in “the operator of an abortion clinic” to speak to the young pages.

“When I spoke to one irate parent, they made the comment that, ‘I didn’t send my kid to Washington, D.C., to become knowledgeable about abortion techniques’….I understand that this speaker was brought in without approval of the Page Board, but no disciplinary action has been taken,” the GOP lawmaker wrote in the letter.

Brown-Waite resigned from the House Page Board last week after two teens were expelled for shoplifting and two others were caught performing oral sex in front of other pages, who were touching themselves. Former Congressman Mark Foley resigned last year after he was caught sending sexual instant messages to male pages.

The semester for the current crop of sex-loving pages ends Friday.

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Republican Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite and Shelly Moore Capito have resigned from the House of Representatives board that oversees young pages after one teenage female page was caught performing oral sex on a male page as a group of other adolescent pages looked on — with one source suggesting to Big Head DC that at least one of the peeping pages was touching himself as he watched.

Brown-Waite told the Washington Post that the situation made her feel “very, very uncomfortable,” and she believes Congressional leaders have not done enough to supervise pages who come to Washington each year to learn, supposedly, about politics in action.

“I thought the Mark Foley incident was a wake-up call,” Brown-Waite told the paper. “Apparently it wasn’t.”

The oral sex incident resulted in the recent expulsions of two pages. Other pages have been caught shoplifting in recent weeks.

The House clerk’s office tonight released a statement acknowledging Brown-Waite’s resignation and welcoming “constructive criticism” and “ideas for further improvement,” but also defending current oversight of the page program.

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We’ve long been telling you that ABC News utterly and royally muffed up the telling of the “DC Madam” story in May, and may have even covered up aspects of the story because the phone numbers of Sam Donaldson, a longtime ABC newsman, and other past or current ABC news personalities appeared in her escort records.

Now comes word that Brian Ross, the network’s lead DC investigative reporter on the Deborah Jeane Palfrey story, has conducted questionable journalism — and some of his past and current news peers are speaking out.

While several of Ross’ competitors say he’s a reporter who’s capable of breaking big stories, he also has a tendency to overplay smaller ones, they say. Jim Stewart, who recently retired from CBS News, has told the New York Observer that he has reservations about some of Ross’ work on ABC’s Web site, The Blotter. “Were they wrong some of the time? Yes,” said Stewart. “I’d rather be right than be first.”

A former ABC news employee also told the publication that there is intense internal pressure from ABC News execs to create page hits for The Blotter. Also, some reporters said they have been unable to retrace Ross’ scoops.

The Blotter was the first mainstream news outlet to break the Mark Foley tawdry IM story in 2006. While that story hasn’t been called into question, several other Ross stories, including those surrounding the “DC Madam,” continue to receive more scrutiny.

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Disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley, whose e-mails and instant messages to teenage former male Congressional pages shocked the country last fall, “will likely avoid criminal prosecution in Florida because of the state’s three-year statute of limitations,” reports ABC. Any Congressional pages who have had more recent IM conversations about boxer shorts and penises and such with maf54 are urged to immediately send them to tips@bigheadDC.com. It’ll be like America’s Most Wanted, sans John Walsh.

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Just after his arrival on Capitol Hill as a member of the House of Representatives, Sen. Larry Craig was tied to a Congressional page scandal involving drug use and homosexuality. According to the following ABC and NBC news reports from July 2, 1982, Craig was implicated in the tawdry dealings, leading him to issue a public denial.

At the time, former House page Jeffrey Opp told the FBI that several Congressmen had illicit sex with male teenagers. NBC’s Lisa Myers ended her report with this observation: “That Craig felt compelled to react to reports from reporters that he was under investigation is evidence of the sheer panic that reigns in certain corridors of Congress.”

Craig went on to become a Senator — and to serve as honorary co-chair of the Idaho Safe Kids Coalition.

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