It's not ok for either party - if the Republican leadership knew about this and kept it quiet, this is a huge mess. I don't care about the timing or the source. These emails and IMs are true. Foley resigned for a reason, not because he was innocent. If Hastert, Boehner and other Repubs knew about this months ago they have no excuses.
However, Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson's "friends" did ~ another poster says those nasty Instant Messages date from 2003.
So yeah, there's a crime here ~ most likely Foley's crime, but also a crime commited against the Speaker of the House by CIA agents.
They couldn't take out the President, or even that ol'hurricane-maker, Karl Rove, and they barely laid a hand on Cheney. However, that's not stopping them from trying to take out the Speaker and the Republican leadership in the House.
I wouldn't be surprised a bit if we find out that Mary McCarthy was "holding the paper" for them.