Taylor Jones/Associated Press
Tim Mahoney, the Democratic opponent
of Mark Foley, at a campaign event with
Senator John Kerry on Saturday.
Posted on 09/30/2006 6:33:09 PM PDT by mathprof
Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.
The exchanges began with what Republicans now describe as an “overfriendly” e-mail message from Mr. Foley to the unidentified teenager. But news reports about the exchanges have led to the disclosure of e-mail correspondence with other former pages in which the discussions became more and more sexually explicit. Shortly after he was confronted by ABC News on Friday about the subject, Mr. Foley, who represented a south Florida district, resigned from the House.
The revelations set off a political upheaval, with Democrats and some Republicans alike calling for a full investigation of Mr. Foley’s conduct and whether House leaders did enough to look into it. Members of the Republican leadership sought Saturday to detail how they had handled the case in an effort to defuse the matter, even as it was emerging as an issue in Congressional races.
Among those who became aware of the communication in the fall of 2005 between Mr. Foley and the 16-year-old page, who worked for Representative Rodney Alexander, Republican of Louisiana, were Representative John A. Boehner, the majority leader, and Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Mr. Reynolds said in a statement Saturday that he had also personally raised the issue with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert earlier this year.
“Despite the fact that I had not seen the e-mails in question, and Mr. Alexander told me that the parents didn’t want the matter pursued, I told the speaker of the conversation Mr. Alexander had with me,” Mr. Reynolds said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Tim Mahoney, the Democratic opponent
of Mark Foley, at a campaign event with
Senator John Kerry on Saturday.
So the message is the Dems are strong against gays and weak against terrorists. Works for me.
Best enjoyed with a large serving of Crow for all those who defended this pervert.
Oh man. Politics has now come down to deciding between Sodom or Gomorrah. If God doesn't do something about the radical immorality in this nation, He's going to have to apologize to those two cities.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
Hastert must resign
"Hastert must resign"
For what?
Just as Democrats love humanity in the abstract, but loathe actual people, so they are all for homosexuals until the fit hits the shan, then they fingerpoint and yell "Fag!".
You left off the sarcasm tag.
Will the Dims condemn or congratulate Foley?
Ping
For what?
Anyone that knew about this dirtbag and didn't take appropriate action needs to go - if Hastert knew he needs to go.
Well, I've got no problem with letting the truth come out, and letting the chips fall where they may.
If some people knew something illegal was going on, and did nothing about it, then they can "wear it".
Also, this appears to be a NYT story. I wonder if its true or made up. No way of knowing.
for allowing a kiddie fiddler to remain in such a prominent position in the party as the latest of his transgressions...
Again, for what? IMing a 16 year old which is the age of consent in DC.
I'll be more interested when a real newspaper writes about it. The NY Times has little credibility, IMHO.
The DEMS will high five for the next 6 weeks as they "use" this incident to bury the GOP..
The might even try to find this boy...to even further their goal of proving how corrupt the Republicans are..
At least that is what I assume their plans are...
Did he commit illegalities?
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.