Boehner says he would have axed Foley

House Majority Leader John Boehner said he might have taken matters into his own hands if he or any GOP leader had known about ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually explicit instant messages to former pages.

Boehner (R-Ohio) said he told Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) last spring about Foley’s too-friendly e-mails to pages and was informed the matter was being handled.

“I believe strongly that the speaker -- neither the speaker, myself or anyone knew of the sexually explicit instant messages,” Boehner said on ABC’s “This Week.” “If any one of us would have known about this, we would have dragged him out of there by his tie.”