Posted on 10/04/2006 4:57:03 AM PDT by Perdogg
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a political conspiracy unravel as fast as this one that involves former representative Mark Foley.
Let’s recap.
1. On September 29th Foley is approached by ABC NEWS about salitious Instant Messages with a former page and abruptly resigns. Four days later he turns himself into rehab.
2. Through investigation by several bloggers, including yours truly, it is discovered that during the last few years, liberal watchdog group CREW may have had specific knowlede of the IM’s existance, and of Foley’s activities, and might have possibly been in possession corospondence between Rep. Foley and former page(s). Additionally a known “Republican Gay Outer”, Mike Rogers of Blog Active was found to have materially participated in the IM messaging of Foley and admitted to have been on a “campaign” to out Foley since at least as far back as March 2005, and specifically attempted to threaten Foley in January 2006, thus may be guilty of using threat or intimidation to influence a US Congressman’s vote on US legislation.
Yesterday Gateway Pundit uncovered that Mike Rogers had an a “partner” (although not known to be an accomplice at this point) in John Aravios of America’s Blog in a campaign against Foley as well. Gateway Pundit notes that there is no evidence that Aravios actually had specific evidence, but then holding evidence, and having knowledge of someone holding it are still crimes.
World Net Daily picked up on the story here, and puts together nicely what appears at this point to have been an orchestrated effort on the part of several leftwing activists to “pull the trigger” on this story just prior to midterm elections.
Additionally, while Mr. Foley appears by his resigning to have admitted to participating in IMing and emailing former pages, it’s not clear if all the recorded IM’s are authentic. The FBI, which is looking into the matter, as I mentioned here, will use specific forensic analysist to determine if in fact the corospondence discovered so far is in fact valid. Already it has been discovered that several IM’s may have in fact been tampered with.
At this point it’s not know the full involvement of those - or of others yet to be discovered - is. However, I do know that the specific focus of the FBI at this point is to determine who knew about Foley’s activities, when they knew it and specifically who withheld evidence in what may be a Federal Crime. Yet like in many investigations, there is sometimes the uncovering of other crimes that takes place. It should be said at this point that the attempt to attempt to extort or influence, or threaten a US congressman, in order to infuence legislation, or an election is a Federal Crime, and if in fact principals were involved in such an orchestrated plan it will be discovered.
Again, I must point out that even as a constituant of former respresentitive Foley, I detest his actions, and do not condone and accept them in anyway. In fact I support his prosecution if applicable laws have been broken. But again, those who particpated before the fact in the “outing” of Foley, seem to have had at this point specific knowledge of his activities and if proven at the least are guilty of conspriracy to withhold evidence, and obstruction of justice.
We shall see as the day(s) progress.
Good dog, Huck. Now, roll over.
Good Huck! Good boy! What a nice rino, yes!
Now huck, good boy! Good boy!!! Fetch the NY Times, Huck!
____________________________________________________-
Obedience class is over. The libs aren't moving on. You'd let them get away with a dirty trick like this.
Stop being a dhimmi. Fight back.
Bad dog, Huck.
AV
Just a comment about Foley's screenname signing on to AOL yesterday:
It may have LOOKED like he only signed on for 20-30 seconds but what he, or whoever it was, very likely may have done is sign on, go to his buddy list, go to the privacy controls and then select the option to block anyone from being able to see he is online. At that point, it would appear he had signed off. It would only take about 20-30 seconds to do this.
I strongly suspect this is what may have happened.
Now, none of the above really means all that much, but just wanted to put it out there.
The person using his account could have just been his attorney or even investigators. I am in the camp of believing Foley DID write some and possibly ALL of the nasty exchanges, but of course my guess is no better than anyone else's at this point.
I think Foley did write some of the IMs too but all of them, I am not sure. Something is terribly wrong with this story and since the majority for Congress is at stake when we are at war, it is vital we try and find out whom had the IMs, how they obtained them and why they were not released earlier, so Foley could have been removed from Congress and teens were not being stalked by a sexual predator. The donks are trying to destroy the republican party over this and allowing them to do it without fighting back is akin to cutting and running.
That's funny. You and your buddies, go running after this dumb story like dogs after a tennis ball, and I'm the lap dog? That's a laugh. Oh well. This is one of those times when ppl just lose their sanity. The DEMs have got to be enjoying it. Good work, dummy!
Oh I think the Republican leadership ought to introduce legislation that requires both parties to place sex patrols around each member.
See what these squealing libs do with that one.
Baseless claims are meaningless. They should just say "Nonsense. No one is resigning." And leave it at that. Next question.
Yeah, I'm sure there's more pervs in Congress than just this one. I am pretty sure, though, my guy, Scott Garrett, ain't one of them.
Most legal scholars and the FBI dont seem to think that a crime has been committed by Foley from what they have seen so far. If Foley committed no crime and hasnt been charged with any, how can these so-called conspirators be guilty of withholding evidence?
Roll over, boy.
AV
As with all these scandals, the truth will keep "evolving" as long as it is sticking to someone. IMO, that is why it is important to clearly know where the truth ends and partisan fantasy begins. Most of the people directly involved in this don't even know what an IM is, let alone know that any goofball with Notepad could manufacture the "evidence" being used here.
In the end, after the election most likely, I imagine we will learn that Foley is indeed a scumbag, but, a lot of what is being bandied about by ABC as evidence has in fact been manufactured or altered.
In order for "Maf54" to show up on someone else's buddy list, both parties would need to be signed on to AOL (or AIM). Also, if you wanted to know if he was online you would add "Maf54" to your buddy list; you don't have to be on his buddy list. If a person selects the option to "block" others, then that person won't show up as logged on even when he is in fact logged on.
Uh huh, that simple.
Except for the fact that the Dems won't shut up about it, and the fact that this needs to be investigated - which Hastert himself requested. The Dems are accusing the GOP leadership of "covering up" the explicit IMs, accusing them of not protecting the pages, enabling pedophilia, and on and on.
Well, I'm just glad you aren't the one making the call here, because the GOP is already getting buried under a mountain of bogus allegations. We MUST fight this, or pay heavily at the polls.
What Federal Statute are you referring to? Campaigns always hold on to hot dirt until near the end so the opponent doesnt have enough time to offer a defense. Doesnt mean its illegal. Hell if the bar was that low, none of the advertising run by either side would be legal.
You totally miss the point. The big issue that cannot be ignored is that the drive by media is making a charge of systematic and party-wide corruption of this. The issue they're bringing forward is:
What did the Republican leadership know, and when did they know it?
Hastert says he was told of the emails only, Foley said it was taken out of context and he didn't mean anything bad by it, Hstert told Foley to knock it off, Foley said Yessir, and that was it.
Now various groups, some attributing to themselves a conservative label, are calling on Hastert and other top Republicans to themselves resign over this. Further investigation by real conservative bloggers found that several of these so-called groups are actually democratic organizations (one, American Family Voices, is run by current Hillary Clinton and ex-Clinton White House staffer Mike Lux), and that the media knew of the IM's long beofre the House Republican leadership did, and are sandbagging them about it now, deliberately confusing the emails that were known with the IMs that were not known by the House leadership.
If you think Republicans can just move on from that without fighting back then you must truly think they are the Stupid Party.
But they actually had to show up at the kids house with intent to commit the crime.
It may bother you but what is the crime?
I doubt that the FBI or anyone else in government is going to investigate anything beyond Foley unless its determined that Foley's large campaign contribution to the Republican Congressional Campaign Organization was a bribe. Other than that, the FBI may want to verify the IM's and emails since they might be used against Foley if determined to be a crime. But you are deluded if you think the Feds are going to uncover a conspiracy of who put this information out into the public.
"Statement by Mark Foley's attorney, David Roth
Mark explicitly reaffirms his acceptance of responsibility and remorse. He reiterates unequivocally that he has never had sexual contact with a minor. Mark voluntarily entered a substance abuse and mental health facility on Sunday at approximately midnight Sunday Eastern Time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.