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 ...
Sorry - this guy is a dirtbag child predator - doesn't matter if he is Republican or Democrat.
I admit that I feel the same way about the NY Times...
however, just like the Dems are now using Bob Woodward as their foreign policy advisor, because he has written a book about how Bush and gang "conspired" to hide the bad things in Iraq from us...
I have no doubt that the dems will use this NYTimes article as their ethics investigation...all wrapped up in a bow.
After all...you did read in this article that SHAYS (R) is calling for all of the House Rep. Leaders to step down.
I have been saying that for months Hastert is an albatros.
Don't know and don't care if 16 is the age of consent in DC - this guy is a pervert. If he was trying to seduce a 13 year old boy in Thailand (where that is the age of consent), would that be okay with you?
"Sorry - this guy is a dirtbag child predator - doesn't matter if he is Republican or Democrat."
It's obvious that our political leadership needs a moral cleansing. This incident is disgusting, both in Foley's immoral conduct and the delinquency of other House members in acting to halt it when they were confronted with evidence.
I am conservative as almost anybody out there, but I am feeling totally demoralized about voting in November when I read about this horrible situation in Congress.
The final straw for me was really his reaction to the FBI searching Jefferson's office. This is just another huge log on the fire.
"If they knew or should have known the extent of this problem, they should not serve in leadership," Mr. Shays said.
He resigned, isn't that enough?
"Again, for what? IMing a 16 year old which is the age of consent in DC."
Don't you suspect that perhaps these IMs are the tip of the iceberg?
As of today, we know about these IMs. Tomorrow, we may be hearing about actual sex/molestation (not cyber-sex), and perhaps even with a 15yo (or perhaps a 16yo in a different jurisdiction such as Florida, Virginia, or Maryland.)
I am just shocked at how many on FR jump to defend this perversion.
The repubs should try to turn this around on them by playing the gay card.
My understanding is that emails of this nature were known about over a year ago and were reported to the GOP house leadership - that's just what I've read, and could be wrong, but if true, then whoever knew and didn't do anything needs to come clean.
"Don't you suspect that perhaps these IMs are the tip of the iceberg?"
I don't know anything, do you?
"He resigned, isn't that enough?"
No, it's not enough.
This man belongs IN PRISON.
And any other congressional representatives that looked the other way.. they ought to resign.
"This man belongs IN PRISON."
Cite the statute.
"What evidence did they have?"
They had the emails for over a year.
You don't find it a bit odd for a 50 year old man to be asking for photos of a 16 year old boy? Particularly if you already knew that man was gay?
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