Posted on 10/01/2006 7:45:10 AM PDT by Dane
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.
Advertisement "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."
Do you mean this one?
Section 22-3501 creates a number of sexual offenses when one of the participants is below age 16, which are not offenses if involving only persons over 16.
Of course. And good riddance to Foley.
Now, what about that selective and most curious Democratic and drive-by media outrage over the sexual peccadilloes of a politician and his teenage intern?
Ah, the stories that a sink just off the Oval Office could tell if it could but speak . . . .
'Pimp factory' is right! lol!
Let's not forget about the KKK Byrd either. That is also a double standard!
well Mr Former Page, why didn't you say anything about it if it was so well known? Apparently the pages, the MSM, and the RATS all knew about it for years. The House GOP leadership were the only ones in the dark about it. When they found out about Foley, they got rid of him immediately. They should be applauded for their actions, instead they're being demonized. Typical liberal tactics.
Yep --- " selective and most curious " media and democrat outrage are truly breathtaking. I love your wording.
For a married old man, any prey still in high school classifies him as a pedophile in my book.........The pervert is lucky I'm not the kids dad because I would sure make his life hell without even laying a hand on him......
In reality, given the Democrats charges, they are the homophobes. They seem to think Foley should have been investigated over non-explicit emails with a former page, that brought no formal complaint or charges. Apparently, because he was gay, the Republicans should have known that he was doing much worse.
Oh no, Sheila Jackson Lee is on Fox News now and she is saddened by the way the leaders in the house handled this problem.
She knows exactly what to do.
I have a question: why isn't Foley in jail? If that were you or me, we would have been arrested by now.
It would appear that they have been protecting Foley. But every secret like this is bound to come out eventually.
You can say that again!
It just *isses me off that DEMOCRATS who covered up for Clinton are now 'outraged' over this. For instance Carol Moseley-Braun was just on Fox News calling this a 'cover-up'.
During the Clinton scandal this is what she said about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair:
Senator Carol Moseley-Braun solemnly observed on Meet the Press that we need to put things in perspective. After all, "Thirty years ago, women couldn't even work in the White House."
Barney knows all the muddy roads in Congress.
LOL and let's throw in McGreevy.
"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. "
Here's the most important sentence of that article. No one higher up knew because these pages did not report it happening.
That's reprehensible.
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