Foley resigns from Congress over e-mails

AP on Yahoo ^ | 9/29/06 | David Espo - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page.

"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," he said in a statement issued by his office.

The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley's decision to abruptly abandon a flourishing career in Congress.

Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail correspondence surfaced in recent days.

His resignation comes less than six weeks before the elections. It was not clear how Republicans would fill his spot on the November ballot.

Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.

It was not clear what prompted Foley to abruptly decide to give up a successful career in the House.

Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. The page had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander (news, bio, voting record), R-La., and Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.

Foley's aides initially blamed Democratic rival Tim Mahoney and Democrats with attempting to smear the congressman before the election.

The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.

"The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote, adding that the committee, "must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House."

[Mo1]

I won't defend Foley and he should be thrown to the curb

But you can bet there are dems behind this story coming out now

[lastchance]

Some interesting information on this and other congressional sex scandals can be found at
http://stopsexpredators.blogspot.com

[A Citizen Reporter]

"But you can bet there are dems behind this story coming out now"

There is no doubt about that. .

I'm really sick of these 'Newt Gingrinch'-like, bad timing exposures.

[VOA]

Gad, I'm watching this current episode of "To Catch A Predator"
(in Petaluma, CA).

Looks like a USMC sniper that has been to Iraq gets caught tonight.
Sad, sad, sad.

[BigSkyFreeper]

WHEN THE HELL IS BARNEY FRANK GONNA RESIGN, HUH? EFFING DEMOCRATS...

Don't tell me you're surprised.

[Hand em their arse]

"bites the dust..."


ahh, bites the dust, bites the pillow... Ta-MAY-to/ Ta-MAH-to : )

[BigSkyFreeper]

At least Foley did not marry, create children and fool around with boys while his wife was delivering a babe. McGreevy is so disgusting because he put the health of his wife and baby at risk. I would guess that almost everyone around knew Mark Foley was a homosexual. Foley was a damned fool to email kids. He should have known he could be set up.

Whether he was set up or not, is not the point. The point is, he's a scumbag pervert. I cannot and will not support a scumbag pervert.

[highpockets]

Exactly the reason people of this sexual orientation can not be trusted. If one can not control their sexual desire, how can they be trusted with state secrets?

Or for that matter information of vital importance to a political party. How about a corporations intellectual property.

Adults control their emotions and desire, adolescents do not.

Somehow these homosexual predators of young boys go their, sexual/emotional/adult responsibility/ wrong-right/, wiring in their heads all screwed up.

[Mo1]

It is a great day for the terrorists. I'm sure they're dancing in the streets and firing there rifles in the air as we speak.

Because a gay guy was outted by the libs??

I don't think so

[Right-Wing Champion]

^^"Has anyone else ever noticed how Republican politicians always resign in shame after they have done something shameful, and how Democrat politicians defiantly remain in office after they have done something shameful no matter what the cost to those around them?"

Exactly.

Watergate (a political campaigning scandal)- Nixon resigned at OUR request.

Monicagate (president lying to grand jury and more importantly, the American people about perverted sexual affair)- To this day we still hear: "it was his private life!" "it's only about sex!" "none of the public's business!" "it was a political assault by republicans!"

History tells us that if Foley were a Democrat, he and his party would be defending the merits of man-boy love- while of course encouraging/demanding him to stay in office.

[danamco]

Based upon this observation, the only conclusion I can come to is that Democrats have no shame.

They have NEVER heard of the 10 Commandments!!!

[Texasforever]

History tells us that if Foley were a Democrat, he and his party would be defending the merits of man-boy love- while of course encouraging/demanding him to stay in office.

While that is true it should also be a lesson to GOP elected officials that take strong stands on social issues as Foley did they had better damned well be sure to walk the walk.I am fed up with the hypocrisy.

[jay06]

I don't think anything's changed. I just think, he's gay and in our society that's pretty much all that's needed to crucify the guy. Sad, but true. People are still largely homophobic, especially the "conservative Right". It's funny that the democrats, whom we're supposed to believe are so open-minded and tolerant, Ha!, are willing to jump on this bandwagon (sure that's not what they're calling it, but that's what it is). They don't care that it's a homophobically-inspired attack, they just care that it'll get rid of a republican and give the republicans a black eye at the same time.

I think being a republican and gay and having campaigned tirelessly for stronger legislation against perverts which was bound to create some pretty powerful enemies in that basketfull of vipers in DC, resigning was his only option, that or fight alone. I also think he may have resigned to...

A) save his family from further embarrassment, because we all have dirty laundry/ghosts and now all of his would be aired, from one night stands to affairs with colleagues (possibly ruining their careers as well?);

B) doesn't want the country's attention shifted from the IMPORTANT issues, like the WOT and how our reps and congresspeople have voted on those issues, which would affect the right's chances of keeping the balance of power shifted to the right and

C) he just doesn't want his (or his friend's, former/current lovers', associates') name smeared any more than necessary. By the end of this long, drawn-out battle, who'd actually believe that he's innocent after the press (our unbiased media, ha!, right) gets through with him?

I admire his sense of duty and self-sacrifice (those themes always gets me right *here*). I just wish he didn't have to. It's not fair, especially when the allegation is based on a prejudice which I think this one is. Personally, I think this kid got freaked out that this Rep was being friendly with him when he found out that Foley was gay, you know? He's 16-ish and his buddies started to tease him and that's all it took (cf., "I don't want to know what I should read into *that*", in his email talking about Foley telling him about his bikeriding--would he have said the same thing if it was Lance writing to him about bikeriding? I don't think so!).

Of course, this kid learned his lessons well on capitol hill. *Don't screw your mate until he's gone all out for you and given you a letter of recommendation to the college you want to attend and you've squeezed all you can from him. His time interning in DC wasn't a complete waste.

[jay06]

Actually, most pedophiles are heterosexual males and homosexuals are no more likely to commit sexual assault/molestation than heteros are. 99% of offenders are men and 93% of victims (of male offenders) are female children, most of them are aged 12 and under. Most, around 90% of offenders (if I remember correctly, brain don't fail me now! ), live in the same household or are in the same family structure (including relatives and pseudo-relations, ie steps, fosters, etc.) as the victim. While there's a possibility that Foley's in that small percentile of homosexual, single w/a steady job (the majority of offenders can't hold a steady job, let alone get one), and while older victims aren't unheard of (to be sure, though the percentage does decrease as age increases), it's something to consider when discussing pedophilia and child pornography, etc. Making broad generalizations that homosexuals are predisposed toward molestation simply because of their sexual orientation is faulty logic at best and doesn't follow common sense rationale, let alone scientific statistical analysis by such reliable sources as the DOJ, BJS, etc. It's a seriously dangerous misconception that all pedophiles are homosexual, because that leaves our kids vulnerable to trusting the very types of predators who *are* out to get them. The best protection for our children is to make sure they have the facts cited by current reliable non-prejudicial sources. Just a quick fyi as I've been very involved in researching this subject for several years. Pedophilia, like rape, is a crime about CONTROL, not sex, not love or intimacy, not even rampant hormones and sexual lust. It's important to keep that in mind when we're discussing this topic with others and especially with our children. Hope this helps sort out any myths. You can research these stats with the DOJ, BJS, FBI, and probably even your local jail or prison system has a doctor or psychologist who handles the research for them on this subject, so you could get exact info from your particular area. For instance, if you go to the NRV (I think it stands for New Rivers Valley or something liek that) site, you'll see their particular statistics, which are very closely aligned, btw, with national stats at that time, though I don't think, if I remember right, that they did any research on sexual orientation. Until recently, it was assumed, just assumed, that homosexuals were the only orientation for predators, but that just doesn't make any sense with both what we now are beginning to understand about the pedophile psyche and sexual abuse and assault. Most assailants and molesters are in scientific fact, heterosexual men.

[Connservative]

Gary Studds did not resign and he ran again and was elected by the nutty people of Cape Cod. Democrat Studds supposedly took male pages to his home. Of course we all know homosexual interests are not punishable. Look at how they treated Democrat Barney Franks for allowing the use of his DC home by his boy toy. This stupid arse Foley should resign. Franks and Studds should have resigned also. I just watched the vulgar Congressman Murtha video. He should resign also.

I believe Frank ran a prostitution ring out of Congress, but to my knowledge, it didn't include any underage boys.

As for Studds, did he actually have relations w/ minor boys. If so, the GOP needs to scream this from the rooftops.

Honestly, the best we can do at this point is point out that the 'Rats are just as bad if not worse.

It would be interesting to know how many 'Rat bloggers have or still support NAMBLA yet condemn Foley.

I know I am rambling here, but we need to dig up as much as dirt as we can on Dems who have done the same or worse as Foley and we need to do it NOW.

[jackdog]

tracking a person from email/IM/forum posting is easy and nearly instantaneous. Doesn't matter if you're using a freebie yahoo account or you congressional office account (as was Foley). the only way to get around things temporarily is to post from an internet cafe. But even then, that only delays the knock on the door from the FBI

[jackdog]

possibly, but the kid reporrted this 11 months ago and the republican house leadership sat on it, hoping it would go away. they are the ones really responsible for this blowing up right before an election. If this had of been dealt with last year, someone else could have been put up for the vacant seat. Jeb could have appointed a replacement who would now be running as an incumbant. Lots of snafus here and it does little good to blindly blame it all on the dems.

[penelopesire]

bookmark