FBI to Examine Foley's E-Mails

"This weekend," McDonald said, "there's no more lying to yourself."

Hastert's letter to Gonzales was the culmination of a day-long evolution of the Republican strategy toward dealing with the scandal.

On yesterday morning's "This Week" on ABC, White House counselor Dan Bartlett defended the House GOP leadership directing the investigation into how the scandal was handled.

"The leadership appear to be very aggressive in pursuing this investigation, and I think that's the best place is for the leadership to determine the way forward," Bartlett said.

But by midday, on CNN's "Late Edition," Bartlett had joined calls by Democrats and some Republicans for a criminal investigation of the matter. "If you take the allegations at face value, I think there would have to be at least a preliminary look to see if there's any breaking of criminal law," he said.

Hours later, Hastert called for the Justice Department investigation.

The changes in course were in keeping with a Republican plan to stay ahead of Democratic attacks and to show a willingness to let impartial investigators pursue the matter. On Friday night, when Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took the House floor to demand an investigation by the ethics committee, GOP leaders quickly agreed and the motion passed unanimously.

Yesterday, Democrats kept up the pressure. Pelosi applauded the FBI announcement and called on the Republican leadership to quickly investigate "the cover up of Mr. Foley's behavior."

And Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the allegations against Foley "are repugnant, but equally as bad is the possibility that Republican leaders in the House of Representatives knew there was a problem and ignored it to preserve a congressional seat this election year."

Staff writers Anne Hull and Dan Eggen, research editor Lucy Shackelford and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.