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On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 01:29:37 -0700, "Yang, AthD (h.c), Kicking AWOL's
Cocaine Snorting *****" <eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote in
alt.atheism
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/1/21236/6720
His sudden resignation as a Congressman, a position he loved, came
only hours after he was confronted with e-mails and AOL instant
messages he had exchanged with a pair of teenage boys. ABC News since
has reported that as many as five boys -- all congressional pages --
have come forward.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2006/10/01/m1a_FOLEY_1001.html
Foley's secret confounds friends: Ex-congressman, said to be an
emotional wreck, loses GOP support
By Brian E. Crowley
Palm Beach Post Political Editor
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Mark Foley spent decades crafting a careful public image, one that was
shattered Friday with revelations of Foley's sexually explicit Internet
conversations with teenage boys.
His political career in tatters, the now-former congressman went into
seclusion, leaving his friends to wonder: Who is Mark Foley?
Rumors that Foley is gay have swirled around him for years. Many
believe it was one of the worst-kept secrets in Florida and Washington.
In 2003, during his brief run for the U.S. Senate, he was asked about
his sexual orientation. He refused to answer and has not publicly
addressed the question since.
But on Friday, whether Foley was a homosexual or a heterosexual no
longer seemed to matter.
His sudden resignation as a Congressman, a position he loved, came only
hours after he was confronted with e-mails and AOL instant messages he
had exchanged with a pair of teenage boys. ABC News since has reported
that as many as five boys — all congressional pages — have come forward.
Foley left Washington on Saturday for an undisclosed location. He is
said to be an emotional wreck. His older sister, Donna, who always has
been by his side during his political campaigns, is with him.
The scandal has rocked Capitol Hill.
Foley's current and former staffers have been told by lawyers to remain
mum because they may be called to testify in an Ethics Committee
investigation.
Democrats are accusing Republican congressional leaders of withholding
information they received in November 2005 about e-mails Foley had
exchanged with a 16-year-old male page. Although those e-mails were not
sexually explicit, Foley did ask for a picture of the boy.
The Louisiana high schooler told a friend that he thought the e-mails
from Foley were "sick, sick, sick, sick." But the AOL instant messages
with another teenage boy went much further, with Foley being extremely
sexually graphic.
ABC News called Foley's press secretary, Jason Kello, Friday and read
him excerpts from the instant messages. Two hours later, Foley resigned
from Congress.
And it is not likely that he will be welcome back on Capitol Hill.
On Saturday, U.S. Rep. Thomas Reynolds of New York, chairman of the
National Republican Campaign Committee and a possible future House
speaker, said, "Mark Foley betrayed the integrity of this institution as
well as the trust of his colleagues and constituents. There is no
excuse, and he needs to be held accountable."
Affable, hardworking
Foley, 52, led two lives: one very public and the other very private.
The public Foley was an affable, hardworking politician with an
overabundance of ambition. He always was clawing for the next higher
office. And when he finally was elected in 1994 to the U.S. House of
Representatives, he quickly began plotting his next move: a run for the
U.S. Senate.
His longtime chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, was in charge of guiding
Foley's political future. Fordham helped him make the right connections,
win a spot on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and ensure coverage
by the national news media.
Foley did not have to be pushed. He loved the limelight. Even his
colleagues had to admit grudgingly that he had a knack for grabbing a
headline and getting his picture on the evening news.
And he was always in the picture. Foley would get to the House chamber
hours early to claim a spot in the eye of the camera during the
president's State of the Union address, even when the president was
Democrat Bill Clinton and Foley had voted to impeach him just the month
before. In 1999, there was Foley on national TV, chatting with the
president as he entered and exited the House chamber.
Foley once admitted that the trick to getting the best position at a
presidential bill-signing or congressional group photo was to get there
first and refuse to move if someone tried to elbow his way to the front.
Although some may have thought his behavior obnoxious, most finally gave
in to Foley's easy smile and self-deprecating humor.
At home, he was everywhere. He insisted on being in the district — which
includes all or parts of Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee,
Glades, Highlands, Hendry and Charlotte counties — nearly every weekend.
And he wanted his calendar to be full. He was known just to drop in on
events if he had time that was not filled. Local charities almost always
could count on him to cut a ribbon, host a fund-raiser, give a speech.
When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hosted a 1996 fund-raiser for
Foley, Gingrich posed for pictures with Foley's major contributors. When
the picture-taking was over, Foley surprised Gingrich by insisting that
the waiters and busboys have their picture taken with the Georgia
Republican.
Few seemed to care about his personal life. In 1994, when one of his
Republican primary opponents sent out mailers saying Foley was gay,
voters overwhelmingly elected Foley.
The rumors continued to surface occasionally, and in 2003, when he was
the front-runner in a primary race for the Senate seat being vacated by
Bob Graham, Foley gave a news conference to condemn rumors that he was
gay but refused to say whether he was. A few months later, he dropped
out of the race, saying he needed to spend more time with his father,
who had prostate cancer.
The Palm Beach Post did not report the rumors. The Post's policy is not
to report about a politician's sexual orientation unless it is relevant
to a news story.
Timing hurts GOP chances
Foley, from his days as a 23-year-old Lake Worth city commissioner to
the moment of his disgrace in Congress, had an emotional pull on the
people he represented.
Which is why so many of them are hurt and confused now.
Foley's political career is over.
Although many of his Republican constituents may have been willing to
overlook the rumors that he is gay, it is not likely that voters will
forget his sexual banter with teenage boys.
"I don't know anything he could do that would allow him to come back to
politics as an elected official," said David Johnson, former executive
director of the Florida Republican Party and a political consultant who
has worked with Foley.
GOP leaders will not soon forget. Not only are they offended by Foley's
conduct, they are further annoyed with him because his resignation has
put his safe congressional seat in play at a time when the Republican
Party is worried about losing control of Congress to the Democrats.
Democrats, meanwhile, already are accusing GOP leaders of failing to
take action against Foley sooner. Republican leaders knew nearly a year
ago about his e-mails to one teenage boy and failed to act, the
Democrats say.
"This goes beyond Rep. Foley. It goes to the values of the congressional
leadership and the fact that when children felt that sexual advances
were being made against them by people in positions of authority, the
congressional leadership of this Congress did nothing," said U.S. Rep.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Pembroke Pines.
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the Page Board, which
oversees the congressional work-study program for high schoolers, said
he did investigate, but Foley falsely assured him that he was only
mentoring the boy.
Reynolds, head of the committee responsible for electing Republicans to
Congress, said Saturday that he was told about the e-mail exchange by
the boy's congressman, U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., in November.
"Despite the fact that I had not seen the e-mails in question, and Mr.
Alexander told me that the parents didn't want the matter pursued, I
told the speaker (Dennis Hastert) of the conversation Mr. Alexander had
with me. Mr. Alexander has also said he took the matter to the clerk of
the House. An investigation was then conducted by the clerk and John
Shimkus on behalf of the House Page Board," Reynolds said in a prepared
statement.
Hastert has said he did not know of the allegations.
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney said,
"Congressman Reynolds' inaction in the face of such a serious situation
is very troubling and raises important questions about whether there was
an attempt to cover up criminal activity involving a minor to keep it
from coming to light before Election Day."
There has been no indication of a criminal investigation into Foley's
behavior.
Political consultant Johnson called Foley's political demise "the worst
possible way to end a career for someone who has been a dedicated public
servant."
During President Clinton's scandal with intern Monica Lewinsky, Foley
sharply criticized him for his sexual misconduct with the young adult.
"It's vile," Foley said in 1998. "It's more sad than anything else — to
see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain."
/end this article
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/florida_news/article/0,2820,TCP_24432_5034317,00.html
Former page: We knew about Foley 'for years'
By M.E. SPRENGELMEYER AND AMIE PARNES Scripps Howard News Service
October 1, 2006
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.
Loraditch said during his time on Capitol Hill, Foley was one of the
members of Congress who expressed what appeared to be a sincere interest
in the young pages, often visiting the areas where they congregate in
the corner of the House of Representatives chamber to chat or offer
stories and advice.
Loraditch said he and other pages viewed Foley as gregarious and "flaky"
at the time, and that he offered several of them, not including
Loraditch, his personal e-mail when they were graduating from the
program and saying goodbyes.
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.
He added all his friends received the questionable messages only after
they had graduated and left the program, when, theoretically, that would
not raise the same in-house sexual harassment issues as if they had been
sent when the former pages still worked for Congress.
"This all happened after we were outside the protective umbrella of all
our supervisors, not when we were there," Loraditch said. "To me, that
indicates some sort of thought process going on in Foley's mind."
The case has prompted many congressional leaders to talk about
stepped-up vigilance to protect the young men and women who serve as
congressional pages, who get an up-close look at Congress while doing
messenger-like duties for lawmakers.
Loraditch is a big backer of the program for its one-of-a-kind
educational benefits, and he believes none of the supervisors who run
the program were aware of any inappropriate messages at the time.
"The supervisors I worked with, if any of them had been told, it would
have been dealt with at the time promptly," he said. "All of our
supervisors were great people. They love pages. Half of them were former
pages, and they've got kids of their own. If they had known about it, it
would have been dealt with."
In the wake of the Foley scandal, many pages worry the program could be
altered drastically or eliminated in an overreaction intended to protect
teenagers.
"The page program is a good program. I firmly believe that the program
could not have done anything more to protect the pages," Loraditch said.
"It all happened after we left and had done our service."
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
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