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"It was no secret that Foley had a special interest in male pages," said Beck-Heyman, adding that Foley on several occasions asked him out for ice cream.Guy in auto-repair shop: "Looks like you've blown a seal"
Well jeez, that sounds innocent enough. I mean it's ice cream!
"FBI agents have begun to contact former congressional pages in the growing investigation of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, according to federal law enforcement officials.
At least one former page has reportedly offered evidence that Foley sought to solicit sex during instant message exchanges over the Internet.
The 'preliminary investigation' appears to be heading towards a full field investigation, according to one official.
Officials say Foley's extensive knowledge of child exploitation laws may have helped guide him as to how far he could go without violating the law.
Instant messages obtained by ABC News indicated Foley met or arranged to meet young men under the age of 18 who had been pages.
Despite the fact that Foley's attorney has said Foley admits to sending the 'totally inappropriate' e-mails and IMs, the FBI has still not seized his computer and hard drive.
...The FBI confirmed today that it has not drawn up a search warrant for the equipment because the investigation is still preliminary, and they are still examining the messages they've obtained so far."
[ABC News | October 4, 2006]
"[ABC correspondent Brian] Ross dismissed suggestions by some Republicans that the news was disseminated as part of a smear campaign against Mr. Foley.Denny, sorry, you're wrong. Next excuse?
'I hate to give up sources, but to the extent that I know the political parties of any of the people who helped us, it would be the same party,' Mr. Ross said, referring to Republicans."
[New York Times | October 3, 2006]
"The FBI is investigating a possible threat against the north Louisiana teenager who was on the receiving end of suggestive e-mails from disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley, a Louisiana congressman said Tuesday.
Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, said Tuesday that the young man's life wasn't threatened, 'but close to it.'
'There are people out there who feel like he is the one who (accused) Foley,' Alexander said.
...The teen served as a House page in 2005 and afterward received e-mails from Foley, a six-term Republican, asking for a picture of the then-16-year-old and what he wanted for his birthday.
...Foley sent the e-mails to the teen in late summer 2005. Saying they 'freaked me out,' the youngster forwarded them to a lawyer on Alexander's staff in late August, two days after Hurricane Katrina hit, asking her to alert Alexander.
'If you can, mention this to Rodney so he is aware,' one of the page's e-mails said. 'I wonder what he would do about it.'"
[Times-Picayune | October 4, 2006]
”The chief of staff for Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds, Kirk Fordham, resigned after questions were raised about his role in the handling of the congressional page scandal, according to Republican sources on Capitol Hill.Who’s next? Denny?
Those sources said Fordham, a former chief of staff for Congressman Mark Foley, had urged Republican leaders last spring not to raise questionable Foley e-mails with the full Congressional Page Board, made up of two Republicans and a Democrat.
‘He begged them not to tell the page board,’said one of the Republican sources.
People familiar with Fordham's side of the story, however, said Fordham was being used as a scapegoat by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
They said Fordham had repeatedly warned Hastert's staff about Foley's ‘problem’ with pages, but little was done."
[ABC News | October 4, 2006]
"Several conservatives are using the Mark Foley scandal to push vicious anti-gay smears. Just today, Human Life International (”pro-life missionaries to the world”) put out a statement blaming Foley’s behavior on his sexual orientation:Foley’s actions were that of homosexual predator, not a pedophile. Homosexuals reproduce sexually by molesting children. This creates a cycle of violence and disordered behavior that creates future generations of abusers and predators.But as John Walsh — host of 'America’s Most Wanted' and an advocate of children’s safety — told Larry King last night, the Foley case is about pedophilia, not homosexuality."
Video.
"A senior congressional aide [who was fired today] said Wednesday that he alerted House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s office two years ago about worrisome conduct by former Rep. Mark Foley with teenage pages.
Kirk Fordham told The Associated Press that when he was told about Foley’s inappropriate behavior toward pages, he had 'more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene.'
The conversations took place long before the e-mail scandal broke, Fordham said, and at least a year earlier than members of the House GOP leadership have acknowledged."
[Associated Press | October 4, 2006]
"ABC's Brian Ross broke the story of Mark Foley's digital escapades with underage boys last Friday. He was the first mainstream journalist to do so, but the story has been circulating on the Internet for over a year.Yeah -- right, the House leadership knew nothing about Foley's behavior until last Friday.
...there was also a digital record of the allegations against Mark Foley. I am not referring to Foley being gay. That, it seems, wasn't much of a secret. Rather, it's the specific charge of pursuing underage boys.
The online rumors began, to the extent they can be pieced together, in March of 2005.
On a website called Blogactive, I found this quote:'Foley is often seen entertaining young men, some of whom appear close to underage.'Later that month, on March 22, this ominous comment from the blogger:'Everyone already knows Foley's a self-hating closet case. When we get closer to the midterm elections, I am sure more will surface.'In July of this year, a new website went up called Stop Sex Predators, over at Blogspot. The site was small and generated very little traffic. The first postings stated the mission was to catch predators, and rehashed a few well known cases.
The site quickly seemed to focus on possible Congressional scandals. In August, the blog solicited information about any member of Congress suspected of being a predator.
By September, it began posting e-mails from people claiming to be former interns. They each specifically referenced Mark Foley. On September 24, days before the ABC story ran, Stop Sex Predators posted a few of 'the' e-mails, the ones asking what the page wanted for his birthday, etc.
And yet another piece of the puzzle, early last month there was a discussion at Daily Kos about Foley's sexuality. The blog entry referred to a "dirty little secret" that some people knew about Foley.
While some speculated that it was simply that he was gay, one blogger who went by the name 'WHInternNOW' wrote:'Foley's eye for the young boys in the White House and around the Capitol is what has the Republican bosses scared to death.'After ABC ran the initial emails, Brian Ross says he received messages from other pages and interns. One can infer that those sources provided the more elicit instant messages that now have a life of their own on the Web and in cable news.
...The digital trail reveals that the story was alive for well over a year, and perhaps longer.
Wrong is wrong, and Foley needed to be exposed in order to protect the teens he may have encountered next. But why did it take so long for this story to surface?
...Have both parties put political advantage ahead of the protection of children?"
[MSNBC-TV | October 4, 2006]
"Former Rep. Mark Foley's online conversations with teenage male pages have all the trappings of a political scandal, but making a federal case out of the sexually charged exchanges could prove difficult, veteran investigators say."
"[Blunt] said he was not criticizing the House Republican leadership for its handling of the matter, but he said he would have handled it differently."
"Despite claims by senior congressional aide Kirk Fordham that he notified House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office more than two years ago about possible inappropriate contact between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and underage congressional pages, the Speaker's office is insisting it did nothing wrong in its handling of the situation.Kirk Fordham Issues Statement:
'That never happened,' Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean told ABC News about the report.
But Fordham — a former chief of staff to Foley, who resigned as chief of staff to another member of the GOP leadership, Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y. — said that as far back as 2003, Hastert chief of staff Scott Palmer had been told that Foley was too friendly with pages. According to Fordham, Palmer spoke to Foley about the matter.
Neither Foley nor Palmer could be reached for comment, yet Hastert's office disputes the account."
"The fact is, even prior to the existence of the Foley email exchanges I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest levels of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley's inappropriate behavior.
One of these staffers is still employed by a Senior House Republican Leader.
Rather than trying to shift the blame on me, those who are employed by these House Leaders should acknowledge what they know about their action or inaction in response to the information they knew about Mr. Foley prior to 2005."
Whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 5 years and not more than 30 years. (emph. mine)If the sex wouldn't be criminal, then using the internet to solicit it isn't either.
“Sixty-one percent of American adults believe that Republican leaders have been ‘protecting [Mark] Foley for several years.’ A Rasmussen Reports national opinion survey conducted Tuesday and Wednesday nights shows that only 21% believe that the leadership ‘just learn[ed] about Foley’s problems last week.'"
"ABC News said Thursday one instant message transcript between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Florida, and a former congressional page that was posted on their Web site Friday 'had not been properly redacted' - leading to the IM screen name of the former page to be visible for a short time.
While the transcript has since been corrected, one little-known conservative blogger was able to access the un-redacted version and use the screen name to uncover the young man's identity. That blogger subsequently posted the former page's name, online profile and photo on his Web site -- a move some prominent bloggers today labeled irresponsible."
"Faced with claims by the conservative political website The Drudge Report Friday that lurid instant message exchanges between disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) and the former page who was outed on a conservative website yesterday were the result of an elaborate prank, insiders at ABC News say the network stands behind their story.
Drudge alleges that the young Republican 'goaded Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos' and that 'the prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.'
Sources inside ABC News tell RAW STORY that evidence of widespread misconduct by Foley is overwhelming and rules out the possibility that the entire scandal is based on a prank or a sting.
'This couldn't be a prank,; one high-placed insider said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the story. 'Everything I've seen indicates that it can't be. Clearly there's been an effort on the part of this gentleman [Drudge] and another blogger...to come back at us.'
'He doesn't say anything about the fact that there's more than one conversation out there,' said another source, speaking about the Drudge story.
RAW STORY has also learned that ABC plans to release new stories that indicate that Foley's behavior extends to other congressional pages who served on Capitol Hill during different sessions of Congress."
Developing ...
"50% of voters say that the Foley scandal will be 'very or extremely important' when it comes time to vote on Nov. 7. By nearly a 2-1 ratio, voters say Democrats are better at combating corruption."
"The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."I could go on, but it'd be an exhausting experience. I think I'll wait and see how everything pans out on November 7th. I don't think anyone has a crystal ball clean and clear enough to accurately predict how things will turn out.
There are WMD in Iraq.
The Iraqi people will greet us as liberators.
We are in the last throes of the insurgency.
We will drawn down troops by the end of 2006.
"Yes, Speaker Dennis Hastert is on the offense, blaming liberals and ABC News for aiding and abetting a Democratic power grab. He wants to keep his job.
Resetting the dynamics of this story will be hard.
Here’s why:The details: They are awful. And they're going to get worse. And the American media is obsessed with SEX. Nothing sticks to the gut of an American voter more than an abuse of power combined with tawdry sex details.[National Journal | October 5, 2006]
The facts: The Hill reports that a Republican provided ABC News and other news outlets with the original e-mails. The page who first provided ABC News with the Instant Messages seems to be a Republican, too. Warning signs about Foley's conduct -- even if they were ambiguous -- were missed.
Open dissension in the ranks: Rep. John Boehner wants to play the role of loyal soldier. Rep. Roy Blunt has defected. Rep. Tom Reynolds is somewhere in between. Hastert is Hastert. We aren't overstating the point: these men do not trust each other. Their staffs marginally trust each other, in part because they share the same staff-to-principal sensibilities and the same self-preservation instincts.
Open dissension in the base: It's hard to blame the media when the elites in your base are as outraged or disgusted as the media seems to be. Keep in mind this distinction. There are many Republicans in Washington whose professional identifies and livelihoods depend on Republicans keeping control of Congress. There are many Republicans outside Washington whose livelihoods and professional identities depend almost entirely on channeling outrage against elitists in the media and the Democratic Party. These two groups are likely to be support the status quo. But there are many, many conservatives and Republicans inside and outside Washington who are animated by ideals and principles and who, in a situation like this, are not inclined to give a party they find disappointing and immature the benefit of the doubt. The tension between these two sectors of the Republican establishment is evident and harmful.
An emboldened media: ABC’s dominance of this story (and the concurrent ramping up of their coverage by Drudge) is no doubt increasing competitive pressures in the media. Editors and producers don’t want to check Drudge every day only to see yet another Brian Ross report. Just check out the number of bylines in the Post covering all the angles the past two days. More media scrutiny begets more revelations – i.e. more bad news for Republicans.
"The family of a Louisiana teenager who reported "sick" e-mails from former Rep. Mark Foley called their son a hero Thursday and said they want reporters to go away.
...The full text of the family's statement:
'We would like to express our support for our congressman, Rodney Alexander, whose office sponsored our son's position as a House page. As far as we know, Congressman Alexander's conduct in this matter has been beyond reproach. He has tried his best to do what we have asked him to do from the very beginning: Namely, to protect the privacy of our son and family from the intense media scrutiny we are now having to endure.
In the fall of 2005, as soon as Congressman Alexander became aware of the e-mails received by our son, he called us. He explained that his office had been made aware of these e-mails by our son and that while he thought the e-mails were overly friendly, he did not think, nor did we think, that they were offensive enough to warrant an investigation.
Rather, we asked him to see that Congressman Foley stop e-mailing or contacting our son and to otherwise drop the matter in order to avoid a media frenzy. He did so. If we had any other knowledge or evidence of potential impropriety, we would have asked for the matter to be treated differently. For instance, we were not aware of the instant messages that have come to light in the past few days.
These instant messages, which have only recently surfaced as a result of the news of the ambiguous e-mails received by our son, are separate matters.
As a young man with integrity who had the courage to question the intention of the e-mails, we respect and honor our son as a hero. Despite his courageous actions, he is becoming a victim due to the harassment by some of the media. Please honor our request that we be left alone. There is nothing more that we can contribute to this ongoing matter. He is not the story, and we feel this intense media scrutiny could endanger our son and family.
We have no intention of discussing this further. Thank you.'"
"Three more former congressional pages have come forward to reveal what they call 'sexual approaches' over the Internet from former Congressman Mark Foley.Drip, drip, drip...
The pages served in the classes of 1998, 2000 and 2002. They independently approached ABC News after the Foley resignation through the Brian Ross & the Investigative Team's tip line on ABCNews.com. None wanted their names used because of the sensitive nature of the communications.
'I was seventeen years old and just returned to [my home state] when Foley began to e-mail me, asking if I had ever seen my page roommates naked and how big their penises were,' said the page in the 2002 class.
The former page also said Foley told him that if he happened to be in Washington, D.C., he could stay at Foley's home if he 'would engage in oral sex' with Foley."
"Maf54: then we can have a few drinks
Teen: are you going to be in town over the veterans day weekend
Maf54: I may be now that your coming...
Maf54: then we can have a few drinks
Maf54: lol
Teen: yes yes ;-)
Maf54: your not old enough to drink...
Maf54: we may need to drink at my house so we don't get busted."
An online story on the Drudge Report Thursday claimed one set of the sexually explicit instant messages obtained by ABC News was part of a "prank" on the part of the former page, who reportedly says he goaded the congressman into writing the messages.It doesn't get any clearer than that. Drudge is a craptoad.
"This was no prank," said one of the three former pages who talked to ABC News today about his experience with the congressman.
"Two-thirds of Americans aware of the congressional-page sex scandal believe Republican leaders tried to cover it up — and one quarter of them say the affair makes them less likely to vote for G.O.P. candidates in their districts come November...
The poll suggests the Foley affair may have dented Republican hopes of retaining control of Congress in November. Among the registered voters who were polled, 54% said they would be more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for Congress, compared with 39% who favored the Republican — a margin that has jumped by 11 points from a similar poll conducted in June. That increase may be fueled by the rolling scandal over sexually explicit e-mails sent to teenage pages by Republican Representative Mark Foley. Almost 80% of respondents were aware of the scandal, and only 16% approve of the Republicans' handling of it."
Osama-Foley single-causation bias: it is the tendency of a group of people to find one single cause for a number of events that affect them negatively. By finding an external, single and out-of-control cause they shift all their responsabilities while portraing themselves as victims, both allowing the group members to feel better with themselves and to share a single, unquestioned belief readily expendable as widely-accepted justification.
"Bloggers are raising questions, poring over documents and generating tips that newspapers and television news programs are following up with their own reporting.
It makes it harder for Reynolds and other Republicans to conduct damage control."
"With great power comes great responsibility. Memo to GOP House leaders: Have the decency to accept responsibility and resign from leadership. Or come November, I vote to let the other side put their bums in charge."
"...Hastert's language betrays something troubling. He speaks of someone leaking the information to the press. Leaks occur when insiders give secret information to reporters, information that others wish to keep from the press.
Is Hastert saying that he would've preferred to keep the Foley matter a secret? And, if so, does he believe it should've stayed a secret until after the election or until he decided to retire from the House?"
'Trandahl's departure came within days of his confrontation with Foley over e-mails that the congressman had sent a former page. House aides say the circumstances of Trandahl's exit were oddly quiet. The departure of a staff member of long standing, especially one as important as the House clerk, is usually marked with considerable fanfare, said Scott Lilly, a former Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. Debate is suspended in mid-afternoon to accommodate a stream of testimonials from lawmakers.Pretty clear a lotta this story has yet to unfold."
Trandahl's departure was marked by a one-minute salute from Shimkus and a brief insert into the Congressional Record.
'My one-hour Special Order changed to a five-minute Special Order, now to a one-minute,' Shimkus said. 'I just want to say thank you for the work you have done.'
Lilly said: 'He seemed to suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke.'
"Come hell or high water-ran the conventional wisdom-Republicans could rely on two issues to win elections: the war on terror and values. Then came Mark Foley. The drip-drip-drip of scandal surrounding the former Congressman from Florida, which became a deluge this week, now threatens to sink Republican hopes of keeping control of Congress, says the NEWSWEEK poll out today.
And that was the good news for the GOP. More worrisome still, the Foley fiasco is jeopardizing the party’s monopoly on faith and power. For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power. If the election were held today, 51 percent of likely voters would vote for the Democrat in their district versus 39 percent who would vote for the Republican. And while the race is closer among male voters (46 percent for the Democrats vs. 42 percent for the Republicans), the Democrats lead among women voters 56 to 34 percent.
...Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new all-time low for the Newsweek poll: 33 percent, down from an already anemic 36 percent in August. Only 25 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, while 67 percent say they are not.
...The scandal’s more significant impact seems to be a widening of the yawning credibility gap developing between the President, his party and the nation. While 52 percent of Americans believe Hastert was aware of Foley’s actions and tried to cover them up, it’s part of a larger loss of faith in Republican leadership, thanks mostly to the war in Iraq. For instance, for the first time in the NEWSWEEK poll, a majority of Americans now believe the Bush administration knowingly misled the American people in building its case for war against Saddam Hussein: 58 percent vs. 36 percent who believe it didn’t. And pessimism over Iraq is at record highs on every score: nearly two in three Americans, 64 percent, believe the United States is losing ground there; 66 percent say the war has not made America safer from terrorism (just 29 percent believe it has); and 53 percent believe it was a mistake to go to war at all, again the first time the NEWSWEEK poll has registered a majority in that camp."
"One of the stories going around Democrat Party circles is that party operatives like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and American Family Voices weren't quite ready for primetime with the opposition research materials they had gathered for the 2006 election cycle.
According to one political consultant with ties to the DNC and other party organizations, 'I'm hearing the Foley story wasn't supposed to drop until about ten days out of the election. It was supposed the coup de grace, not the first shot.'
So why the rush? According to another DNC operative: bad polling numbers across the country"....more
"...the GOP has played a trick on itself. The party brought so-called gay Republicans into positions of power in Congress only to realize that the confidential information they held about a secret gay network was political dynamite that could backfire....
A New York Times story by Mark Leibovich confirmed that gay Republicans have occupied 'crucial staff positions' in Congress and 'have played decisive roles in passing legislation, running campaigns and advancing careers.'....
If you are getting the idea that gay Republicans may be closeted Democrats, then you are beginning to understand how the Mark Foley scandal could have been a Democratic Party dirty trick.... gay Republicans are in reality 'liberal activists' who want to use the party to advance the same homosexual agenda embraced by the Democrats....
Ominously, the Foley scandal suggests that this network has inside information about the sexual behavior of members of Congress and their staffers that can be exploited in order to create scandals at a moment's notice.... It is now apparent that this power has been used to sabotage the party from within....
It is also beyond dispute that the current scandalous state of affairs will outlive the Foley scandal unless the secret network of bludgeon and blackmail is exposed....
It's early in the probe, but we may be looking at emerging evidence of a homosexual recruitment ring that operated on Capitol Hill. It's time to get beyond partisan politics and follow the evidence wherever it leads. Our media should not be intimidated by charges of 'gay bashing.' They must lead the way in getting to the bottom of this terrible abuse of power."
That's what Foley has done--provided an emotional space within which people can reevaluate their views without having to question themselves or their previous beliefs too deeply. I believe there has been a growing sense in the country that things are going badly, very badly, on all sorts of fronts. Foley, frankly, doesn't have much to do with that. But now it's OK to step up and say, "Hell with it, I'm tired of this crap." And change your vote. (from TPM)That may be the most significant part of the Foley scandal, it breaks the inertia voters feel after having so invested themselves in the GOP. No one wants to just up and admit they were wrong, they want to change their view based upon a change in circumstance. Foley's actions and the apparent coverup has perhaps provided it.
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posted by jpburns at 5:39 AM on October 4, 2006