View Full Version : Rep. resigns after sending sexually explicit messages to underage pages
haplesshobo
09-29-2006, 05:22 PM
Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/foley_resigns_o.html
Foley Resigns Over Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors
September 29, 2006 3:02 PM
Brian Ross and Maddy Sauer Report:
Saying he was "deeply sorry," Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.
A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.
In a statement, Foley said, "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."
The full details will be included in a report tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.
Click here for the previous report on the e-mails sent by Rep. Foley.
pikachupacabra
09-29-2006, 06:34 PM
Joey have you ever been in a turkish prison?
mizhi
09-29-2006, 06:55 PM
Joey, did ya ever hang around a gymnasium?
Atealtha
09-29-2006, 09:05 PM
Joey, let me teach you how to filibuster.
SunWuKong
09-29-2006, 10:39 PM
Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children
you GOT to be kidding me.
mizhi
09-29-2006, 10:42 PM
you GOT to be kidding me.
Empasis added.
this lady who works for child protective agencies told me that it's actually not uncommon to find child abusers and pedophiles working for child protective services or other agencies that are meant to protect children. kind of like how there are those cases of adults with problems from being sexually abused as children who get abused by their therapist.
haplesshobo
10-01-2006, 12:43 PM
ABC has released a IM exchange between the republican representative and a underage page. It gets pretty graphic as the rep. gets off on it:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/BrianRoss/story?id=2509586&page=1
yoMAMA
10-01-2006, 01:25 PM
you GOT to be kidding me.
gotta love family values.
:wink:
moser
10-01-2006, 03:24 PM
Allegedly the Speaker of the House knew of the e-mails for some time now.
Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093001265.html?sub=AR)
mizhi
10-01-2006, 03:58 PM
ABC has released a IM exchange between the republican representative and a underage page. It gets pretty graphic as the rep. gets off on it:
Wow. So, now I not only know that one of our representatives is a creepy perv who might have been shielded by GOP leadership, but that he barely has the grammar and spelling skills of a turnip.
yoMAMA
10-01-2006, 04:25 PM
Allegedly the Speaker of the House knew of the e-mails for some time now.
Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093001265.html?sub=AR)
score two for family values!
yoMAMA
10-01-2006, 04:26 PM
Wow. So, now I not only know that one of our representatives is a creepy perv who might have been shielded by GOP leadership, but that he barely has the grammar and spelling skills of a turnip.
Gotta love the coming GOP majority.
:biggrin:
yoMAMA
10-01-2006, 04:26 PM
Wow. So, now I not only know that one of our representatives is a creepy perv who might have been shielded by GOP leadership, but that he barely has the grammar and spelling skills of a turnip.
LOL
:=)
mizhi
10-01-2006, 04:40 PM
Gotta love the coming GOP majority.
:biggrin:
Call me disillusioned.
Faithless
10-01-2006, 10:13 PM
Who once said the following?
"It's vile, ... It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction." (http://www.sptimes.com/Worldandnation/91298/Congress_sees_through.html)
So, will Foley become some future goatse guy in prison?
mizhi
10-02-2006, 12:04 AM
Oh that's freakin' classic. Love the hypocrisy.
mr. x
10-02-2006, 05:36 PM
man, and he had to throw it all away for what amounts to cyber dry humping really, didn't even get to stain anyone's clothes ala Clinton (who at least didn't go huffing and puffing about how he was Mr. Family Values)
mr. x
10-02-2006, 07:11 PM
edit: good God, I just read the transcript. did anyone else picture the old guy from Family Guy? (Bring me sum, good neeeeeews!)
and what's the deal with the intern or whatever? I mean he isn't gay I assume (mentions ex-girlfriend) but he's just chatting away about rubbing out as if it were nothing.
mizhi
10-02-2006, 07:26 PM
Now he's trying to deflect attention by claiming he's an alcoholic.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217175,00.html
Now, apparently, one argument being proffered is that technically, the pages were of age in DC, thus Foley didn't actually break the law. Where this argument falls through is that it is still sexual harassment since he holds a position of power over them.
As an aside, I'm of the mind that if these had been female pages he was hitting on, sexual harassment would have been brought up from the start. But because he was hitting on young men, the charge of pederasty, predatory sexual behavior, and pedophelia were the first things on peoples' lips.
mizhi
10-02-2006, 07:49 PM
And it's Hastert to the rescue!
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061002/D8KGPRBG1.html
Between this and his defense of William Jefferson a few months ago, and I'm sure a number of other ethical and moral offenses, I think the Washington Times calling for his resignation is long overdue.
otter p.
10-02-2006, 08:04 PM
Who once said the following?
"It's vile, ... It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction." (http://www.sptimes.com/Worldandnation/91298/Congress_sees_through.html)
So, will Foley become some future goatse guy in prison?
I don't think I'd feel comfortable calling his homosexuality a sexual addiction.
Despite the personal tragedy of this sordid affair, this is going to be awesome for the Dems this election. That district was considered an automatic for Foley and the Republicans, and now its fallen to the Democrats. And, this scandal will have larger implications cause it damages Republican leadership, which tried to sweep this affair under the rug. If more stuff comes out, maybe we'll see Hasert have to resign in disgrace.
mizhi
10-02-2006, 08:19 PM
I don't think I'd feel comfortable calling his homosexuality a sexual addiction.
The issue isn't that he likes men or even that he likes young men (still legal!)... the issue is that he, in a position of power, made sexual advances towards people under his influence.
Faithless
10-02-2006, 09:22 PM
I don't think I'd feel comfortable calling his homosexuality a sexual addiction.
The issue isn't that he likes men or even that he likes young men (still legal!)... the issue is that he, in a position of power, made sexual advances towards people under his influence.
Right.
Although, I think Mr. Foley-o is suspected of consorting with an underage page.
yoMAMA
10-02-2006, 09:52 PM
So, will Foley become some future goatse guy in prison?
LOL
he'll be some aryan guy's bitch and gets branded a swastika on his ass.:biggrin:
(references to a tv show that shall remain nameless) :wink:
Faithless
10-02-2006, 10:30 PM
At least he did a good thing in resigning.
It would have been that or face expulsion. And for good cause.
mizhi
10-02-2006, 10:41 PM
(references to a tv show that shall remain nameless) :wink:
Yeah right. That's what you think.
Oz.
:smile:
haplesshobo
10-03-2006, 04:04 AM
At least he did a good thing in resigning.
It would have been that or face expulsion. And for good cause.
Not necessairly. There have been other Congressman who've even acted worse than Foley, and were never expelled for what they did.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/congress.htm
Gerry Studds had a sexual relationship with a 17 year old male congressional page, and he got reprimanded but continued to get reelected until he retired years later.
And, Barney Frank, hired a male prostitue to live and work for him in his apartment. He got reprimanded because he used his political powers to fix 33 parking tickets for this prostitute. And, he's still serving, even getting higher margins of victory since his scandal.
Faithless
10-03-2006, 07:45 AM
H Res 495: In the Matter of James A. Traficant, Jr. (http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?vote_id=3193&can_id=CNIP8121)
Mark Foley voted to expel Mr. Traficant.
SunWuKong
10-03-2006, 08:50 AM
Now he's trying to deflect attention by claiming he's an alcoholic.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,217175,00.html
Now, apparently, one argument being proffered is that technically, the pages were of age in DC, thus Foley didn't actually break the law. Where this argument falls through is that it is still sexual harassment since he holds a position of power over them.
As an aside, I'm of the mind that if these had been female pages he was hitting on, sexual harassment would have been brought up from the start. But because he was hitting on young men, the charge of pederasty, predatory sexual behavior, and pedophelia were the first things on peoples' lips.
the voting public is more concerned about the moral or ethical issues in his actions anyway. now there are questions as to how many GOP leaders knew of this and said nothing. this could potentially hurt the republicans in the Senate races.
SunWuKong
10-03-2006, 08:54 AM
The issue isn't that he likes men or even that he likes young men (still legal!)... the issue is that he, in a position of power, made sexual advances towards people under his influence.
actually i believe the possibility that he likes men has a huge impact. we're talking about Republican voters here.
mizhi
10-03-2006, 10:21 AM
the voting public is more concerned about the moral or ethical issues in his actions anyway. now there are questions as to how many GOP leaders knew of this and said nothing. this could potentially hurt the republicans in the Senate races.
Actually, I'm not sure of where, or if we disagree.
actually i believe the possibility that he likes men has a huge impact. we're talking about Republican voters here.
My point wasn't whether or not it would have a huge impact. My point was the difference between him going after male interns vs female interns. If it's true that 16 is considered the age of consent in DC, then how does this substantially differ from Monica Lewinsky other than in the gender of the victims and the legal adulthood?
Other people have noticed this discrepancy as well:
http://www.indegayforum.com/blog/show/31075.html
The cynic in me is saying that GOP base's homophobia is being used as leverage by the same people who claim to decry it.
I'm not trying to defend Foley in the least, but I would rather the story focused on his sexual harassment rather than the gay aspect of the case.
Of course, I may just be reading into things.
SunWuKong
10-03-2006, 10:46 AM
My point wasn't whether or not it would have a huge impact. My point was the difference between him going after male interns vs female interns. If it's true that 16 is considered the age of consent in DC, then how does this substantially differ from Monica Lewinsky other than in the gender of the victims and the legal adulthood?
the difference is that republican supporters are generally less inclined to support someone they perceive to be homosexual or issues that defend homosexuality. if they had been female interns, i'm willing to bet that Foley's actions, or the number of GOP leaders who knew about this and did nothing, wouldn't impact the upcoming Senate races nearly as much, especially since he didn't physically perform any sex acts with the pages (not that we know of anyway). so a big part of the issue, at least in terms of the larger picture here, is indeed the gender of the pages that he sent those messages to.
an old guy sending dirty messages to 16-year old girls just means he's a dirty old man. sending dirty messages to 16-year old boys means he might be gay. i don't think it should matter, and a lot of other people probably don't think it should matter either. but it matters to those who, for example, voted for Bush because he vowed to ban gay marriages.
mizhi
10-03-2006, 11:39 AM
an old guy sending dirty messages to 16-year old girls just means he's a dirty old man. sending dirty messages to 16-year old boys means he might be gay. i don't think it should matter, and a lot of other people probably don't think it should matter either. but it matters to those who, for example, voted for Bush because he vowed to ban gay marriages.
We're actually looking at two different aspects of the same issue and sharing the same viewpoint. I agree with you, his sexuality should not matter, but I think it will with the GOP base. What bothers me is that democrats and media are taking advantage of this homophobia rather than taking a step back, doing the right thing and saying "This shouldn't be about his sexuality, or pedophilia (which it's not), it should be about his abuse of power."
That's what wrankles me.
Yeahman
10-03-2006, 05:38 PM
I'm glad the hypocrisy of the Democratic party and its supporters is getting noticed here.
I think the reaction is very revealing. Liberals are acting all wrong! Democrats and Republicans read the story and they had a gut reaction that Foley did something grossly perverted. You have to supress your feelings and repeat left-wing mantras to yourself, to convince yourself that a liberal society should accept 52 year old men having cybersex with 16 year old boys.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/03/foley.scandal/index.html
alas! the missing link: foley was molested by a priest....AND he's GAY!!!
but, most importantly, he's NOT a pedophile.
Yeahman
10-03-2006, 10:23 PM
His first excuse was that he was an alcoholic. Now the clergyman thing. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him?
SunWuKong
10-03-2006, 10:24 PM
to me personally, one of the things that's most wrong about this is that he was actually the chairman of the "House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children".
i mean, go ahead and make comparison to Lewinsky, but she was a willing and consentual adult. the difference between age legality is only a matter of one day, which hardly reflects the ethical difference. and i read that Foley's messages were not exactly welcomed.
SunWuKong
10-03-2006, 10:24 PM
His first excuse was that he was an alcoholic. Now the clergyman thing. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him?
they're basically scrambling to do damage control. this whole thing has been very untimely for the GOP.
mizhi
10-03-2006, 10:29 PM
i mean, go ahead and make comparison to Lewinsky, but she was a willing and consentual adult. the difference between age legality is only a matter of one day, which hardly reflects the ethical difference. and i read that Foley's messages were not exactly welcomed.
Yeah, I agree, but to call him a pedophile is incorrect. It just makes for greater headlines.
mizhi
10-03-2006, 10:30 PM
His first excuse was that he was an alcoholic. Now the clergyman thing. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him?
He's a sad excuse for a human being. He's gay, he's a pedophile, he got molested, he's an alcoholic... oh dear lord... I can't imagine the field day FRC will have with this. I haven't been this embarassed since Jim McGreevey played the gay card to dodge questions on corruption. I just pray that Foley doesn't decide to write a book and start waving the rainbow flag as McGreevey has been doing lately.
"He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct," said Roth, who spoke to Foley on Tuesday. "This was a life decision, not a tactical one made by others."
Asked why Foley waited to divulge the alleged molestation, Roth replied, "Shame."
---------------------------------------
come again? this is such a load of shit.
yoMAMA
10-03-2006, 10:42 PM
i bet tomorrow foley's gonna reveal his horrible sexual ordeal in an alien spaceship.
Faithless
10-03-2006, 11:03 PM
A word or two or three from our friends at the family research council. (http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR06J01&f=PR06C02)
"We are all shocked by this spectacle of aberrant sexual behavior, but we shouldn't be. This is the end result of a society that rejects sexual restraints in the name of diversity. When a 16-year-old boy is not safe from sexual solicitation from an elected representative of the people, we should question the moral direction of our nation. If our children aren't safe in the halls of Congress, where are they safe? Maybe it's time to question: when is tolerance just an excuse for permissiveness?
Notice how they don't even consider the age of concent thing and go straight for how the boy "... is not safe from sexual solicitation ...".
I may have a change of opinion on this guy if all this was all consentual. Maybe the republicans that have deserted Foley owe him an apology.
In the end, he may just be gay.
mizhi
10-03-2006, 11:10 PM
I may have a change of opinion on this guy if all this was all consentual. Maybe the republicans that have deserted Foley owe him an apology.
So far, it sounds as though the advances were unwelcome and repeated. In that case, Foley is guilty of sexual harassment.
Yeahman
10-03-2006, 11:14 PM
Actually, if you read the IMs, the boy was very welcoming.
Notice how they don't even consider the age of concent thing and go straight for how the boy "... is not safe from sexual solicitation ...".
A wise man once said:
the difference between age legality is only a matter of one day, which hardly reflects the ethical difference.
mizhi
10-03-2006, 11:28 PM
Actually, if you read the IMs, the boy was very welcoming.
It's difficult to tell for sure. Was the boy just being polite to someone who had power over him, or was he genuinely welcoming?
mizhi
10-04-2006, 02:11 PM
This is just getting uglier and uglier:
http://www.davidcorn.com/archives/2006/10/the_list_of_gay.php
On CBS News on Tuesday, correspondent Gloria Borger reported that there's anger among House Republicans at what an unidentified House GOPer called a "network of gay staffers and gay members who protect each other and did the Speaker a disservice." The implication is that these gay Republicans somehow helped page-pursuing Mark Foley before his ugly (and possibly illegal) conduct was exposed. The List--drawn up by gay politicos--is a partial accounting of who on Capitol Hill might be in that network.
It's a gay conspiracy!
moser
10-04-2006, 03:06 PM
Actually, if you read the IMs, the boy was very welcoming.
He could just be playing along because he wanted to say on Foley's good side (considering Foley does (well, did) have some power).
Edit: Or just another way of saying what mizhi just said.
kasia
10-04-2006, 03:36 PM
why are we assuming that he is homosexual? bc he had IM chats with a 16-year-old boy? it sounds more like he's just a pervert.
Atealtha
10-04-2006, 03:50 PM
I didn't know he was Democrat (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=18&entry_id=9488). Thanks, Fox News!
mizhi
10-04-2006, 04:15 PM
why are we assuming that he is homosexual? bc he had IM chats with a 16-year-old boy? it sounds more like he's just a pervert.
It's been known for a while that he is gay. Open secret if you will. But he's just now "come out":
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4236721.html
Faithless
10-04-2006, 06:12 PM
It's difficult to tell for sure. Was the boy just being polite to someone who had power over him, or was he genuinely welcoming?
Wonkette has a timeline (http://www.wonkette.com/politics/mark-foley/mark-foley--the-story-of-the-story-204627.php) and a reference to the page's possible unease.
His slightly creepy emails freaked out the Louisiana page enough that he told his mother — after kicking around among god-knows-who for a while, the emails were sent off to the St. Petersburg Times (http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/28/Worldandnation/Candidate_wants_inves.shtml) last year. The Times assigned two reporters (http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2006/09/a_note_from_the.html) and prepared a story, but as this particular boy had gotten cold feet before the cybering started in earnest, there was nowhere for the story to go. They had slightly creepy emails from an alleged closet homosexual and an underaged teenager who, understandibly, didn’t want his identity revealed.
*** *** ***
Even though it seems freaky, age of consent keeps some of the Foley issues above the law, no matter it be one day or 364 (after 16).
otter p.
10-04-2006, 08:04 PM
Now, apparently, one argument being proffered is that technically, the pages were of age in DC, thus Foley didn't actually break the law.
Thanks to legislation Foley helped write and pass, by using the internet to solicit minors, he commited a federal offense where DC age of consent is no longer relevant.
mizhi
10-04-2006, 08:16 PM
Thanks to legislation Foley helped write and pass, by using the internet to solicit minors, he commited a federal offense where DC age of consent is no longer relevant.
If that's the case, why has he not been arrested yet?
Yeahman
10-05-2006, 11:09 AM
Drudge is reporting that the "kid" was 18.
I think there must be some thrill they get from doing things like this. Doing something naughty and getting away with it but with a possibility of getting caught. It seems like risky yet not uncommon behavior for closet homosexuals to insert themselves in far-right circles.
It's like the guys who choose highly visible places to view porno on their laptops cuz they get some kind of kick out of someone possibly catching them doing it.
SunWuKong
10-05-2006, 02:15 PM
I think there must be some thrill they get from doing things like this. Doing something naughty and getting away with it but with a possibility of getting caught. It seems like risky yet not uncommon behavior for closet homosexuals to insert themselves in far-right circles.
It's like the guys who choose highly visible places to view porno on their laptops cuz they get some kind of kick out of someone possibly catching them doing it.
gay republicans are not exactly unheard of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_Cabin_Republicans
kimpossible
10-05-2006, 04:13 PM
why are we assuming that he is homosexual? bc he had IM chats with a 16-year-old boy? it sounds more like he's just a pervert.
He had a lawyer read a statement that included his so-called coming out. Whether or not he's really gay... who knows.
Faithless
10-05-2006, 07:24 PM
Drudge is reporting that the "kid" was 18.
That's because it would look less perverted to put the age as such.
Just like when that 14-year old Iraqi girl was raped before being murdered. They said she was an adult originally -- like that makes it so more respectable. :rolleyes:
otter p.
10-05-2006, 07:43 PM
If that's the case, why has he not been arrested yet?
Well, they just started the investigation. The republicans have been sitting on it for a year, and its only now that we've heard about it or its been reported to the proper authorities. If they end up nailing the guy, he won't be able to hide behind that techincality.
If that's the case, why has he not been arrested yet?He's being investigated by the FBI (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100100951.html) to determine whether he committed any crime.
Golden Monkey
10-08-2006, 11:35 AM
GW Bush and Mark Foley:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7419/159/1600/foleyfish2.jpg
Yeahman
10-08-2006, 12:16 PM
I love the late-night jokes on this.
Democrats use bookmarks. Republicans just bend over the page.
Foley has entered rehab. The bad news? Rehab is a 14-year-old boy from Pakistan.
Hastert: We all need to be on the same page.
CNN is reporting that former Congressman Mark Foley's instant messages were not only sexually inappropriate, but were also full of typos. In his own defense, Foley said, 'It's hard to type with one hand.'
He spent most of his career protecting children from Internet stalkers. Turns out he was doing it so he could have them all to himself.
Apparently he had text message phone sex with a boy during a vote on funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one can say he's soft on terror.
yoMAMA
10-08-2006, 01:50 PM
I love the late-night jokes on this.
Democrats use bookmarks. Republicans just bend over the page.
Foley has entered rehab. The bad news? Rehab is a 14-year-old boy from Pakistan.
Hastert: We all need to be on the same page.
CNN is reporting that former Congressman Mark Foley's instant messages were not only sexually inappropriate, but were also full of typos. In his own defense, Foley said, 'It's hard to type with one hand.'
He spent most of his career protecting children from Internet stalkers. Turns out he was doing it so he could have them all to himself.
Apparently he had text message phone sex with a boy during a vote on funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one can say he's soft on terror.
LOL
those are good
:biggrin:
moser
10-08-2006, 03:04 PM
A former page says he and Foley had sex
(in Foley's defense, the page wasn't working there and he was 21 at the time)
article (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0610080346oct08,1,6574252.story?track=rss)
mr. x
10-08-2006, 10:46 PM
I read the NYtimes page the other day, has an interesting article on a movement of gay republicans working in the senate
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/washington/08culture.html?em&ex=1160539200&en=d963b54375a6e0ef&ei=5087%0A
Faithless
10-09-2006, 11:08 AM
A former page says he and Foley had sex
(in Foley's defense, the page wasn't working there and he was 21 at the time)
article (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0610080346oct08,1,6574252.story?track=rss)
That's the kind of thing you'd see on "Entertainment Tonight". :rolleyes:
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