No. Admittedly it is sick for teenagers to play this kind of prank on a middle-aged homosexual. However, it is much worse for an adult man to show a sexual interest in a child.
Granted, it appears that the "kid" was over 18 when the nasty IMs were sent, but Foley didn't know that.
You might recall that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the 1996 (Republican-sponsored) law that made Internet sex with minors a crime.) So this huge scandal is that Hastert (allegedly) insufficiently responded to something that was not a crime!
Yes, he did, the "kid" mentioned his birthday in one of the IMs.
It's also careless of Foley, and the fact he was a former page is disturbing to me. Not a good idea. The kids did what kids do. Foley crossed several lines. There was at least one IM where he said careful I'm not 18 yet... EVEN if not illegal, a terrible disservice to the country, IMO. Parents of pages should not have to worry about Congressmen going after their kids. I would be shocked if this is the 1st time anything approaching the Studds/Crane incidents (which were MUCH WORSE) happened between officials and pages.
This ain't over ~ and these young men really do have to prove they are NOT GAY and didn't engage in extensive underage drinking.
All of these people trying to minimize this because of this specific boy or 18 year old or whatever are missing the point. It wouldn't matter if Foley was really IMing Ted Kennedy. Foley was allowed to be in close proximity with real life 16 and 17 year old pages and probably younger kids he saw in hearings while Republicans dilly dallyed about whose responsibility it was to report him.