Hastert testifies in House ethics panel's Foley probe

WASHINGTON - Speaker Dennis Hastert says the House ethics committee should quickly determine whether officials took proper action after learning of ex-Rep. Mark Foley's overly friendly and salacious computer messages to former male pages. He may get his wish. Most of the key players in the scandal already have been questioned. One likely witness is Hastert aide Ted Van Der Meid, who was among the speaker's staff assistants who learned of Foley's questionable e-mails to a former page in the fall of 2005, according to a report by the speaker's office. Hastert, R-Plano, has said he first learned of Foley's e-mails to the former Louisiana page - and sexually explicit e-mails to another former page - late last month as the matter became public a