Foley Resigns Amid Scandal With Male Minors
Delivering his resignation on Friday hasn't reduced media attention on Rep. Mark Foley, 52, (R-FL), who had "sent sexually explicit Internet messages to at least one underage male former page." The six-term Congressman served the 16 District, Palm Beach, and resigned late Friday.
I am astounded. Is the GOP taking cues on damage control from the Catholic Church? Are these guys (these five leaders are all guys) crazy? Look at these dates -- House leadership has known that something was rotten in Florida for the better part of a year. From the Washington Post and AP:
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who sponsored the page from his district, told AP he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago and that he passed on the information to Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), chairman of the House Republican campaign organization.
John Shimkus (R-IL), head of the Page Board said in a statement Friday night, "in late 2005, I was notified by the then Clerk of the House," that Alexander had told the Clerk "about an email exchange between Congressman Foley and a former House Page. I took immediate action to investigate the matter."
A 16 year old former page told the St. Petersburg Times last November: "I thought it [e-mail from Foley] was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back."
House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH) told The Washington Post he had learned this spring of inappropriate "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page.
Foley's resignation is all the more sudden given an earlier campaign staff allegation that this is a politically motivated "smear campaign by his opponent."
Tip Of The Iceburg?
The published correspondence with a 16 year old page seems to be the tip of an iceburg.
ABC also reports that "former male pages" have subsequently provided "excerpts of instant messages ... under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, [which] made repeated references to sexual organs and acts." The pages said that Foley is Maf54. ABC has made at least some of these public.
They are explicit. They are clearly inappropriate.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has asked for an investigation. (Letter, Page 1, Page 2)
Foley, who is single, chaired the House caucus on missing and exploited children. The WaPo reports that in 2003, Foley considered running for the Senate, and "faced questions about his sexual orientation ... At a news conference in May of that year, he said he would not comment on rumors that he was gay. He later decided not to seek the Senate seat to care for his parents."
Roll Call reports that "the House passed a resolution directing the ethics committee to begin an inquiry into Foley’s behavior." Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) is the chair; the committee came under fire for dragging its heels on investigating complaints against former Rep. Tom DeLay.
According to Roll Call, Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), "who serves on the page board, was never told of the interview with Foley."
Updated: Political Fall-Out
According to the Tallahasee Democrat, this "improved Democratic chances of taking over the House in November." Republicans can run a different candidate, but it's Foley's name that will appear on the ballot. This is similar to the situation Texas Republicans have over former Rep. Tom DeLay's seat.
State House Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, immediately jumped into the race. Negron said he has more than $1 million left from his unsuccessful bid for attorney general and, although some of it is corporate money and can't be used in a congressional race, he has a head start of "several hundred-thousand dollars" over any others.
The Palm Beach Post describes the Democratic nominee -- Tim Mahoney -- as a wealthy "disillusioned Reagan Republican." In a prepared statement, he said "We have been running a spirited campaign on the issues." He made no comments about Foley's resignation.
The Moderate Voice reflects on larger political consequences:
[I]f it comes out that the GOP Congressional leadership knew more about these complaints and sat on them, the story will grow if there are denials that prove to be false. In the long term, it's one more image of how a party that vowed to do things when Newt Gingrich was dreaming of a GOP takeover has morphed into a kind of bloated political boa constrict, fat, sated, and seemingly unmovable after a huge a meal of unlimited power...
Yet another danger: it could become part of the stand-up and late night talk show show biz culture. Some stand up comedians are likely to rewrite old Michael Jackson jokes and adapt them to the Foley scandal.
Former Republican Florida State Senator Andy Martin writes:
The national Republican Party, moreover, must especially be held accountable for concealing the presence of a pedophilic predator in the House, and for allowing him to prey for months on other children who were employees of the House. Speaker Dennis Hastert owes the American people a full explanation of why he allowed the Foley scandal to simmer for almost a year after reports reached Republican leaders of Foley’s follies. Foley’s antics were no secret; but they were covered up by Republican leaders for crass political motives. For shame.
Hastert’s despicable concealment of a pedophile predator on the public payroll is as equally disgraceful as Foley’s mendacity. Hastert was putting politics and the perpetuation of his own personal aggrandizement ahead of protecting children, and stands exposed, side-by-side with Foley, as a vile hypocrite. Once again America, and Republicans who come to politics as an honorable calling, are disgraced and diminished by their national leaders.
ABC remains mum on the source of the e-mails or instant messages that prompted their first story. Mahoney's campaign denies being the source. Although I'm generally dismissive of negative campaigning, this is one instance where I believe the campaign could be excused if they were ABC's source .... especially since Republican leadership chose to play the "hear-see-speak no evil" game.
Also, in the blogosphere, see Big. Big. Trouble., Land Of Opportunity, Tell Mark Foley to Donate His Campaign Account to Charity, Foley's Folley