MSNBC’s Mike Viqueira reports:

Denny Hastert, it turns out, reached out to ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh. He wanted him to head up an overhaul of the page program, but it’s not going to happen now, for the time being anyway.

Hastert gave a call to Nancy Pelosi in Washington today. Nancy Pelosi said no, that’s not good enough. We don’t want an overhaul of the page program. We need a more thorough investigation. That’s something that both Democratic and Republican aides that I’ve just spoken to agree on, that Pelosi refused. So Freeh, for the time being, will not be heading up, as other news organizations have been reporting, will not be heading up…a probe, or an overhaul…of the page program here in the House.

“Sixty-one percent of American adults believe that Republican leaders have been ‘protecting [Mark] Foley for several years.’ A Rasmussen Reports national opinion survey conducted Tuesday and Wednesday nights shows that only 21% believe that the leadership ‘just learn[ed] about Foley’s problems last week.’”

Roll Call reports that will Speaker Dennis Hastert will “announce today that former FBI Director Louis Freeh will oversee an investigation of the House page program.”

Fox News reporter Major Garrett reported that Hastert’s office spent hours recruiting individuals to head the probe. Other names on his list, according to Garrett:

– Right-wing pundit Bill Bennett
– Lobbyist and politician Susan Molinari
– Former Rep. Bill Paxon (R-NY)

Paxon was the immediate predecessor of Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), and has already publicly defended Reynolds’ role in the Foley scandal. Paxon and Molinari are husband and wife.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has delayed a scheduled press conference for hours, and has reportedly been in “lockdown” in his Illinois home for most of the day. According to CNN, he’s finally decided on a strategy: dig in.

CNN’s Dana Bash moments ago:

Now just to give you a little context here, what the speaker’s office is trying to do today in the wake of all of these new questions about what his office knew and when they knew it is to try to be more aggressive and to try to go more on the offense. We understand that there was actually a meeting here on Capitol Hill just a short while ago with Republican press secretaries where the Speaker’s staff told the Republican press secretaries that they’re going to try very hard to change the mood, change the atmosphere, go on the offense. And that, we understand, will include at least the speaker making it clear he does take full responsibility for this. We don’t believe — we don’t believe that he is going to announce, though, that he’s going to step down or in the near future.

UPDATE: Hastert has cancelled his fundraisers over the next two weeks, according to an MSNBC reporter:

[Hastert] has canceled all of his fundraisers. You know, he was bragging recently that he was gonna hit, it was 34 districts in 30 days to do fundraisers. He has canceled all of his fundraisers for this week and for next week. That is big.

“were classic examples of the tactics predatory adults use to approach young people and called for close and immediate examination, psychiatrists and other clinical experts on sexual misconduct said Wednesday.” Conservatives, House leadership, and the media continue to refer to them simply as “overly friendly.”

said he was “proud” of how he handled the Foley situation and said he has no intention of stepping down from his position: “What else do you want me to do? Take off my shirt and give myself 40 lashes? Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.”

“I’m a huge Denny Hastert fan — I think he’s a great speaker,” Cheney tells the Washington Examiner. “And it makes no sense at all for him to think about stepping down.”

Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA): Yes, I cheated on my wife, but I didn’t beat my mistress.

Setting the “moral values” bar just a little bit lower.