Washington ? A congressman who is a key figure in the House page scandal conceded Friday that Republicans have mishandled the matter.

“I think there’s stuff that everybody would have done differently” in hindsight, said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., after he testified for more than three hours before the House ethics committee. The panel is investigating former Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually tinged Internet communications with teenage pages during several years.

Shimkus is chairman of the board that oversees the House page program, and he intervened last fall to stop Foley from e-mailing a former congressional page who considered the contacts inappropriate. Shimkus said he voluntarily testified before the House investigators to help them uncover “who knew what, when and where.”

The Illinois Republican kept the two other House Page Board members, including the panel’s sole Democrat, in the dark when he confronted Foley last fall.

He did so, he says, to follow the wishes of the boy’s parents, who wanted the matter to remain private and wanted Foley to stop sending the boy overly friendly e-mails.

Democrats have criticized Shimkus for not informing Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., a longtime member of the Page Board, after learning of the incident involving Foley.