Foley Moly!

While New York has it own maybe-political scandal brewing, the new political hot potato scandal is Florida Representative Mark Foley's graphic emails and instant messaging conversations with underage Congressional pages (you can read them here at ABC News), which has lead to Foley's resignation and subsequent check-in to an alcohol rehab clinic. The bigger question is whether Republican leaders knew about Foley's inclination to pursue high school age male pages, and, if they did, why didn't they stop it? And in a (western) NY connection, people are wondering if Representative Tom Reynolds did too little to stop Foley.

The NY Times and Daily News both tackel the Foley Follies with editorials. The Times essentially notes that the Republican party has reached a "point of decayed purpose" and the House GOP "always picks wrong" and places the need for change on voters shoulders The Daily News calls it a "Capitol Hill creepshow" and mocks the Republican reaction of trying to distance themselves. The Post takes a pass on an editorial but has four letters the editor about the matter: The two that lead are from people who support the Republicans (one says Democrats are hypocrites, because of their reaction during the Monica Lewinsky incident, but the difference with Monica is that she wasn't a 16 year old) while the other two are critical of the GOP.

And the Daily Show made a good point - why did the ABC News re-enactment of Foley at the computer have someone only using one hand to type?

Photograph outside of Mark Foley's Congressional office by Lauren Victoria Burke/AP

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By Jen Chung in News on October 3, 2006 9:10 AM

Comments [rss]

anonymass

j,

As Chris Matthews might say: "Tell me something I don't know."

j

All republicans are closeted homosexual pedophile faggots.

eb

wow, that's a resounding silence from the republicans.

Guy

*Vomit*

Why isn't this guy in jail?

robin.g

Matt Drudge actually refers to the children who were preyed upon by Mark Foley as "16 and 17 year old beasts". He also says, "they (the pages) were talking about how many times they'd masturbated, how many times they'd done it with their girlfriends this weekend...all these things and these innocent children. And this poor congressman sitting there typing, oh am I going to get any, you know?"

Anyone who reads the IM transcripts can CLEARLY see that the young man IMing with Foley was NOT leading him on at all, in fact mostly just said "LOL" or "ha ha".

Matt Drudge is trash.

page boi cut

I sure hope the GOP are not comparing this to Lewinsky.

Has anyone read the IM transcripts?

Perv to the n'th degree.

He asked the page to measure the size of his kock.

when the page answered, he did it the last time, he asked him to measure it again. (it was 7.5 inches to which he said that's a good size)

He asked if the page got a HJ from his girlfriend.

Not to mention the standard sicko questions, are you stiff and what are you wearing.

These were all done in real time instant messaging, the tool of choice like those pervs on Dateline.

Michael

I hope the good citizens of New York City choose not to re-elect this creep.

Devin

I am almost in disbelief that the GOP attempted to defend this with Monica comparisons.

I'd think you should at least wait a week or so until you try to figure out a way to spin pedophilia into something not so bad. That's really stomach turning.

i

News flash: Foley is not an alcoholic and may only be in rehab to a) garner some sympathy for him (see! it wasn't his fault! he has a disease!) and b) get him as far away from the public eye as possible. if he were at home, news trucks would be parked outside of his house. even the media is going to respect a rehab center a little more.

anonymass

In case it's not already obvious, most Republicans don't know right from wrong, morally speaking. Hypocrisy is a way of life and as long as they are convinced that they are "winning" (versus terrorism, versus those awful liberals) they'll do *anything.*

I have more respect for the Taliban. At least they're consistent and up front with their rhetoric.

eb

for all you republicans out there: i thought the GOP was supposed to stand for "moral values" and "family values." so why is it a "moral value" to cover up for a senator who crusades against sexual predators while he chases underage teenagers? also, where does the bible say it's OK to covet other's belongings, to lie, to cheat and to crush the poor while giving to the rich? i thought bush is a god fearing born again christian who reads the bible...it's OK to lie about WMD in order to start a war and send thousands to their deaths/dismemberment? it's OK to covet someone else's oil? thanks for showing the rest of us the way to fine, upstanding moral values!

iggy

yep, that's the republican party for you. they don't understand why what they did is wrong and they have no decency. no wonder they're going to the way of the dodo bird.