Foley and the Blame Game

The American Thinker ^ | 10-1-06 | Clarice Feldman

[Renfield]

YOur suspicions about the timing of this issue appear to be valid.

[Zenith]

Just run this guy out of town and get on with the program.

It's the GOP tha really get hurt ! This guy was a SLOB
for a long time.

[sgtbono2002]

Democrats dont mind getting down and dirty.

Any dirty trick is ok by them as long as it isnt used against them.

Old Bubble eyes is the biggest fan of the dirty deal.

[camle]

teh dems are gonna gnaw on this like a pit bull on an attackers arm. we won't see the end of this till after the election.

[Peach]

No one in the Speaker’s Office was made aware of the sexually explicit text messages which press reports suggest had been directed to another individual until they were revealed in the press and on the internet this week. In fact, no one was ever made aware of any sexually explicit email or text messages at any time.

The GOP had better find a way to get that message out.

Worth reading for information about Brian Ross; I think you were mentioning you had suspicions about him.

[philman_36]

A ra^ther interesting article.

[Renfield]

Here's more from The American Thinker:
http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=6256

Attention is turning to “The website that started it all” – the title of Rick Moran’s post at Rightwing Nuthouse.

Stop Sex Predators came on line in late July with one post announcing its intention to “serve as a clearing house for the public to report sex predators and as a resource for concerned parents and citizens.”

The next blog post wasn’t until August 17th.

Rick then notices something fishy in the focus on Congress that develops.

More “political predators” on a site dedicated to sex predators in general? Why? [….]

After a short post giving a link to a safety website on 9/2, there is another Capitol Hill sex story about an issue that stirred the blogs a bit on 9/4; the “skintern” culture on the Hill that saw young women dressing provocatively in order to get ahead.

Then comes a post on 9/21 that mentions Foley for the first time:

I have been away for a while, so please accept my apologies for the lack of blog posts. BUT….while I was away, the blog has been noticed and some shocking emails have been received! I can hardly believe it! I’m posting each one below. It’s proof that the Congressional Corruption of the past is alive and well today. It’s up to us to expose it and stop this predatory harassment! Please promote the blog and email any further information to stopsexpredators@gmail.com . Together we will make a difference!

Why would anyone notice this blog? It has posted nothing original in its short existence. The rare postings means that it has not built up any audience whatsoever. The first Technorati reference to the blog is from two days ago. Even a Google search doesn’t show it on the first 10 pages when searching for “Stop Sex Predators.”

And yet, 3 separate people who had contact with Congressman Foley somehow found this website independent of one another and supposedly sent emails to the owner of this site to complain about Foley’s inappropriate behavior.

Possible? Yes. Probable? I’ll let you decide.

Update:

Alexa.com shows the rather abrupt, shall we say, arrival of Stopsexpredators.com on the web. A two week phenomenon in terms of real traffic.

Hat tip: Steve Gilbert

Update: Tom McGuire smells fishiness:

Apparently the Mark Foley story first broke on this new blog, StopSexPredartors.blogspot.com, which started in July and brought down the Congressional leadership with its sixth, seventh and eighth posts. Color me skeptical. Maybe the blog author was an unwitting catspaw, but I would want some assurance that this was not simply a successful attempt to promote a story that wasn’t quite ready for the Mainstream Media by laundering it through some blogs. And part of my suspicion arises because the blog posted emails about gay Congressmen in repsonse to a post about “skinterns”, scantily clad young women. Where were the emails about Dirty Old Men and Sweet Young Things of the female persuasion?
Tom also points us to the River City Mud Bugle.
Two hours later [following the first posting of the former page’s emails], someone writing under the name “WHInternNow” published a diary on Daily Kos linking to Stop Sex Predators. The diary was met with skepticism from Daily Kos users, and received only a few largely critical comments. “This diary makes an accusation,” one commenter wrote, “a serious accusation, but provides no evidence to back it up.”
In a previous Daily Kos diary about Foley, “WHInternNow” made an early attempt to draw attention to Foley’s peccadilloes.

Tom mordantly comments:
The story was evidently not quite good enough for the D Kos, but ABC found enough to run with it.
Here are some good questions Tom raises:
Why was Foley’s opponent so sure that he had a solid accusation? Or was it a lucky shot in the dark?

And how did ABC round up the follow-up reaction so quickly?

And was it the page in Louisiana who sent his Foley emails to an unknown web-site after declining to push this story with the St. Petersburg Times? Maybe – the St. Petersburg Times would not let him make an anonymous accusation.

Clarice Feldman Update: Ray Robison compares and contrasts the way the media treats Democrat and Repiblican scandals.

Links in the above posts:

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=3m&size=medium&compare_sites=&y=r&url=stopsexpredators.blogspot.com#top

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2006/10/i_smell_a_rat.html

http://www.rivercitymud.com/2006/09/30/foley-page-scandal-first-broken-on-independent-weblog/

http://rayrobison.typepad.com/ray_robison/2006/10/compare_and_con.html

[yldstrk]

The Democrats will lie steal cheat and murder to get their way.

[ClaireSolt]

How is the gay comminity reacting?

[randita]

teh dems are gonna gnaw on this like a pit bull on an attackers arm. we won't see the end of this till after the election.

My prediction: Dems are going to be hoisted on their own petard. I'll bet there are Dems shaking in their boots right now knowing that a full scale investigation will uncover their own skeletons. It's happened every time in the past 5 years that whenever Dems try to blow an issue out of proportion, it ends up blowing up in their faces.

[when the time is right]

I am proud to be part of a political party that asks members to resign when they are caught behaving badly.

Compare that to Democrats who look the other way when a member punches a policeman or another when caught driving drunk claims political immunity or another found hiding $90,000 in their freezer or another who drove his car off a bridge and ran away to let a woman die.

The Democrat list is endless but they still stay in office and even become icons.

[tobyhill]

"How is the gay community reacting?"

They're probably trying to contact Foley to get the page's numbers.

[oldironsides]

It really does look as though the Foley matter was planned for election season. That makes these Democrats look like pretty ugly characters. What happened to the 2 females from
Democrat Schumers office that used fraud to get Lt. Mike Steeles credit report? An all expense paid vacation for a job well done?

[ritewingwarrior]

This is too much. Foley is now following the Kennedy 'Git out of trouble plan'. Posted on Drudge. He is an alcoholic not a pedaphile. Just like Patrick K, he throws off the blood hounds by taking responsibility for some unrelated problem. Sickening.

"TV STATION: LETTER FROM FOLEY CLAIMS EX-LAWMAKER HEADED TO REHAB
Mon Oct 2 2006 00:45:11 ET

Letter purpordedly sent to WPBF, the ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach, from former congressman, Mark Foley:



X X X X X

October 1, 2006

Painfully, the events that led to my resignation have crystalized recognition of my longstanding significant alcohol and emotional difficulties.

I strongly believe that I am an alcoholic and have accepted the need for immediate treatment for alcoholism and related behavioral problems.

On Saturday, with the loving support of my family and friends, I made arrangements to enter a renowned in-patient facility to address my disease and related issues.

I deeply regret and accept full responsibility for the harm I have caused.

Over the weekend, I communicated extensively with one of the most respected mental health experts in Palm Beach County, Florida, who has been instrumental in counseling and assisting me.

Attorney David Roth, my good friend of four decades has been requested by me to fully and completely cooperate regarding any inquiries that may arise during my treatment.

Words cannot express my gratitude for the prayers and words of encouragement that have been conveyed to me.

Sincerely,

Mark A. Foley

X X X X X "

[eeriegeno]

Brian Ross of ABC ran the story, beginning with the same “overly friendly” but not sexually suggestive email exchange and adding a series of instant messages dating to 2003 previously unseen by anyone in Congress between Foley and anonymous recipients said to be former pages.

Hmmm, seems that this might be the same type of news that Dan Rather brought us a couple of years ago?????????

[dawn53]

Personally, I don't care about the timing or who brought it to light, even if it was intended as ammunition against the Republicans as a whole.

If the guy is a slimeball, then he's a slimeball who needed to be booted out of office and his resignation is a good thing.

Just because the Dems don't have standards for their elected officials doesn't mean we shouldn't have standards for ours.

[Jedidah]

I agree wholeheartedly with you. Does Foley think that slapping an "alcoholic" label on top of "pervert" somehow makes it better?

Sicko.

[Dog Gone]

It's pretty obvious it was an orchestrated political witch hunt. And the Democrats fully intend to allege a coverup by the Republican leadership, something which looks futile in substance, but the allegations will undoubtedly continue through the election.

On the flip side, Congressman Foley, who has checked himself into alcohol rehab, is a homosexual pedophile, and there's no way to spin that.

[carrier-aviator]

It was right for Foley to resign. But the feigned indigantion from the Dems is a tad much (considering the passes given to Gary Studds and Barney Frank), and their vocal esposual of gay issues.

Also, clearly, if the page was on ACTIVE service as a page when the salacious correspondence occurred, then it is a totally different matter than if the page had returned to home.

Second, how old was the page/former page when the salacious IMs occurred? Legally, Foley might be off the hook if the kid was over the age of consent. Since the Dems are so in love with threading the needle with regard to rights for gays, pedophiles, etc., if the kid was beyond the age of consenn then the Dems need to shut up. This,, of course, doesn't make the correspondence any less disgsuting, but it might not have been illegal.

And getting back to may earlier point...it also makes a difference if the kid was a page AT THE TIME the IMs occurred.

[Reo]

"How is the gay comminity reacting?"

They practically canonized Gerry Studds.