Florida Republican Representative Resigns Effective Immediately

[Ramo]

Two things:

St. Petersburg Times, published September 12, 1998

Republicans were aghast at Clinton's behavior, with many saying it showed he had lied and abused his power.
"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

And on a more serious note:

The page worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents. Alexander told the Ruston Daily Leader, "We also notified the House leadership that there might be a potential problem," a reference to the House's Republican leaders.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060929/ap_on_go_co/congressman_e_mails

Thus the House leadership (presumably Hastert et al.) kept Foley as a Deputy Whip, member of the Ways and Means Committee, and Chair of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus for nearly a year after hearing that he engaged in what sure seems like predatory behavior with an adolescent Congressional page... Wow.

But I have to say that it's sad that this, and not the destruction of habeas corpus, will be the pivotal boost to the Dems' shot at taking the House.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Ramo
The Dems now have 5 pickups nearly guaranteed (in addition to this, TX 22, AZ 8, IN 9, and CO 7). The number to beat is now 10.

Why is this one guaranteed?

[Ramo]

The Republicans can't replace his name on the ballot. Votes for him will go to a replacement candidate, but you're going to have a hell of a time trying to convince people to pull the lever for the man. Plus, barring a massive cash infusion from the NRCC, the new candidate will be way down in the money game. And this was only a 55% Bush district, so there's not much room for error. If the national party puts in a few million, we might have a real race; otherwise, I have my doubts.

[GePap]

He forgot the cardinal rule of never getting caught with a dead girl, or a live boy.

[Drake Tungsten]

This only goes to prove that all gays are pedophiles.

I'm glad you think so too.

[TCO]

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO

[PLATO]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Before he resigned from the House of Representatives today, Florida Rep. Mark Foley was the co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus and somebody who spoke out a lot about the risks young people face from adults who might sexually exploit them.

At least he was an expert in his field...

[Mordoch]

By the way it turns out Foley was doing this to Congressional Pages for years. Obviously Republican House leadership really carefully investigated things when the initial emails were brought forward.

WASHINGTON — Sexually explicit messages from former Rep. Mark Foley to one former congressional page might be just the tip of the iceberg, the leader of an alumni association for former congressional pages told Scripps Howard News Service on Saturday.

While Foley resigned this week after published reports of "friendly" e-mails to one 16-year-old male page and the pending broadcast of more sexually explicit instant messages, similar graphic messages from him were received by at least three other teenage boys who once worked in the page program, said Matthew Loraditch, a Maryland college senior who runs the U.S. House Page Alumni Association's Internet message board.

"I've known about them (messages) for several years now," he said Saturday.

"It was more like, 'Hey, look at this,' " said Loraditch, 21, who served in the page program in the 2001-02 session. "I don't think the people in question felt that uncomfortable. It was more, 'Ooh, look at that creepy guy.'

"It was definitely crossing-the-line stuff. The instant message stuff, and stuff I've seen and heard about, definitely couldn't be misconstrued" as merely "friendly" or innocent, Loraditch said...

After Loraditch returned to Maryland and began attending college at Towson University, several male former pages told him they had received Internet messages that were similar to the graphic messages first reported by ABC News last week.

"At the age we were when those things happened, 16 or 17, when you see that kind of stuff, most people our ages know what's going on and know what's happening," Loraditch said. "You're not like a little kid who can be roped into that."

Loraditch said his friends all thought the messages were disturbing, but they did not report them, either because they did not think the messages posed a serious threat or because they might have worried about career consequences.

http://reg.tcpalm.com/tcp/web/loginForm?from=www.tcpalm.com/tcp/florida_news/article/0,2820,TCP_24432_5034317,00.html

Its not like Foley's general behavoir was a secret only know to a couple of the former pages either.

As a member of Congress, Foley was gregarious and charming and befriended the pages, the teen-agers who serve as the Capitol's official messengers.

"I was told by a few interns to be careful about Foley," Will Humble of California, a 2005 page, told the Times last year.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/30/Worldandnation/Lawmaker_quits_amid_s.shtml

[Asher]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/BrianRoss/story?id=2509586&page=1

[DinoDoc]

Already been posted, Asher.

[Asher]

Didn't bother reading the thread, there's not much to be said.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The original Salon story mentioned a Massachussetts Congressman who got caught with a 17-year old boy in '83, but continued getting returnd to Congress until '96 . . . ZOPMG! His name was . . . are you read for it!?! . . . STUDDS!

I actually find it a bit worrying that he kept getting returned to Congress. Did the Democrats remove him from any committee posts he might have had?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Interesting fallout from this one. I guess what goes around, comes around:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/us/politics/02child.html

October 2, 2006
Democrats See a Chance to Turn the Tables
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — In their efforts to keep their party in power, Republican leaders have not hesitated to hit the Democrats hard when it comes to the issue of protecting children.

The strategy was on display in Indiana, where the National Republican Congressional Committee recently ran a series of television spots showing a man accused of child molesting who was inadvertently released under the watch of Brad Ellsworth, a county sheriff and a Democratic candidate for Congress.

Now, Democrats are suddenly seeing an opportunity to turn the tables, questioning the actions of Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, the chairman of the Congressional committee, and other top Republicans who have acknowledged that they had been aware for months of e-mail exchanges between Representative Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, and a former teenage page.

In a statement issued over the weekend, Mr. Reynolds said that when he first learned of the issue, he personally brought it to the attention of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. Republican leaders have described the e-mail messages that initially came to their attention as “over-friendly” and said that they were not sexually explicit, like the messages between Mr. Foley and other pages that were disclosed later.

But Democrats are accusing Republican leaders of keeping silent about Mr. Foley and allowing him to remain as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children until the disclosure on Friday of the more sexually explicit e-mail messages. Carl Forti, a spokesman for Mr. Reynolds, defended the actions of Republicans, emphasizing that there was nothing overtly sexual about the e-mail messages they had initially seen. He also defended the advertisements sponsored by the Republican House campaign committee.

The Democrats, Mr. Forti said, are “trying to take advantage of a very tragic and wrong situation.”

After years of defending themselves against Republican charges that they are soft on crime and generally out of step with the nation’s values, Democrats are criticizing Republicans on one of their core issues. While commercials and mailings attacking Democrats as weak on issues like child protection appear to occur only sporadically, Democrats contend that it is a tactic that Republicans fall back on regularly.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said concerns about the Republican leadership’s handling of the accusations made their campaign attacks on Democrats seem hypocritical.

Not all rank-and-file Republicans have been happy with the efforts of party strategists to feature the issue of sexual predator legislation in campaign commercials.

In a closely watched race to fill a Congressional vacancy in San Diego this past June, the Republican candidate, Brian P. Bilbray, protested when the National Republican Congressional Committee ran an advertisement attacking the Democratic candidate, Francine Busby, a local school board member, for praising an elementary school teacher who was subsequently accused of trying to obtain child pornography.

The advertisement grew out of a newspaper article in 2004, when Ms. Busby was asked her reaction to reports that an elementary school teacher in her district had been arrested for trying to obtain child pornography. Ms. Busby said she was stunned and noted that she had always found the teacher to be dedicated and supportive of his students.

After the spot began running, Mr. Bilbray expressed displeasure with it and, referring to national Republicans, said he “would sure prefer that they keep the message positive.”

In 2004, protecting children against lurking threats was a theme with the Republican House committee running advertisements against several Democratic candidates in Texas, Kansas and Indiana, accusing them of being out of step with “family values” because the candidates would “allow the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games and movies to our children.”

That theme has resurfaced this year. In the contest for Nevada’s Third Congressional District seat, the Republican incumbent, Representative Jon Porter, is running a spot that notes his work to crack down on pedophiles.

“As parents, we need to know that our schools are not hiring teachers that are sexual predators,” Mr. Porter says in the advertisement, which was paid for in part by the Congressional committee. “That’s why I wrote a law in Congress that gives our local school districts the information they need to ensure that sexual predators are not teaching our children.”

And in mailings sent in recent months to voters in Pennsylvania’s Eighth Congressional District, the Republican incumbent, Representative Michael G. Fitzpatrick, criticized the Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy, who had raised objections to legislation seeking to protect children from online predators that Mr. Fitzpatrick proposed. Democrats said Mr. Fitzpatrick distorted the position of Mr. Murphy, who they said did not believe Mr. Fitzpatrick’s measure went far enough.

Since the revelations of Mr. Foley’s behavior, Democrats have been particularly forceful in singling out Mr. Reynolds, whom they see as an architect of Republican attacks against them. Mr Reynolds is facing a challenge from Jack Davis, a wealthy businessman who has vowed to spend at least $2 million of his own money in the contest and whose campaign has seized upon the Foley episode to attack Mr. Reynolds.

[DanS]

The political fallout from this should be pretty non-existent outside of that particular district. The Florida senate race is not competitive this year and nobody outside of Florida is going to vote based upon this.

If the Dems put their energy into this, I think the GOP would be happy.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by DanS
The political fallout from this should be pretty non-existent outside of that particular district.

I wouldn't know too much about American politics, but it sounds like it's a big deal when the leadership in the "party of family values" appears to have ignored this for months.