Top GOP leaders botched the Foley scandal

UnionLeader.com ^ | October 5, 2006 | Robert Novak

[tennmountainman]

AFTER IT WAS learned that Rep. Mark Foley had dispatched an inappropriate e-mail message to a 16-year-old male former page, the House Republican leadership was still urging him to seek re-election from his Florida district. He agreed. It was a success that surely will cost the Republicans Foley's seat in Congress and perhaps control of the House for the first time since the 1994 election.

[Eagles Talon IV]

I have been unable to access FR for a few days and have not followed this "scandal" because I was unable to access anything but the network news, which I refused to do.

What exactly has been determined to be fact? Was Foley's contact with the underage boy sexual in any way? Where the other contacts that I heard were sexual in nature, with an underage youth?

In short, precisely WHAT is proved to have been done that was inappropriate? Has the young man involved come forward?

[Eagles Talon IV]

"You have GOT to be kidding me. First of all, the kid WAS 16. Second of all, now that we know Foley IS a sexual predator, the wording of the emails, which the kid described as "sick", was not just "unwise", it was clearly Foley trying to groom yet another young sex partner."

Been away a while. Have the emails sent to the 16 year old been made public? If so can you tell me exactly what was contained in them? The last i heard was the family refused to release the details when asked and just wanted the contact to stop and their privacy maintained.

[Eagles Talon IV]

Dave S has no sources to back up his claims. I have gone round and round with this guy before. You will see nothing in the way of proof.

[dogbyte12]

The original emails asked the page for a photo of him. The page emailed Rodney Alexander saying that Foley was sick, sick, and then named two other pages who Foley bothered. One of the pages, "Will", allegedly told this page that Foley was telling him he had a hot body, and looked old for his age.

The page and his family asked Alexander to get Foley to quit emailing him, and they didn't want to press charges, or be involved anymore, just to be left alone.

[Eagles Talon IV]

If I understand you correctly, Foley never made sexual remarks to the 16 year old?

[buck61]

You are correct, "Get ready to be flamed"

It's getting hard to post here at FR without getting flamed.
Thus for this week I have received two from so called "Conservatives".
Reminds me of, Wolfs in Sheep clothing. Hard for me sometimes to believe some here call themselves conservatives.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

I think Novak is a jerk off...

[YdontUleaveLibs]

Well, Buck my guess is there are more than a couple that are DU operatives.

[dogbyte12]

Correct. The 16 year old was creeped out by the photo request, because another page had already been told he had a hot body.

The page thought he was trolling, but there was no lewd comments.

[LM_Guy]

The GOP leadership new everything (or almost everthing) and choose to bury their heads in the sand instead of taking action so they would not loose control of the House in 2004.

[Just mythoughts]

I heard on Monday night on an MSM media outlet a individual in a euphoric state of baited anticipation that this would keep the 'morals voters' home.

So that tells me that more than a few inside knew exactly what was happening in this exposure.

Pelosi coming out and demanding Speaker Hastert's head for NOT having a sex patrol monitoring Foley's sex habits told me there is an orchestrated effort to manipulate this election by attempting to offend the 'morals' voters.

MSM has lots of company in how the 'morals' voters are view with complete disdain.

[Eagles Talon IV]

Umm, what exactly are you claiming they knew, aside from the Nov 2005 complaint from the family of the 16 year old which we know contained nothing of a sexual nature?

[Mia T]

'KILL BILL'
THE CLINTON-FOLEY NEXUS: A THEORY

[SuziQ]

"I might not vote for the Democrat but I just cannot vote for the name of Foley on that ballot even though I know he's not running."

That is just a STOOPID attitude!! If they are paying attention, they KNOW Foley is not coming back, and the man who is running is apparently well known and well respected. They will most certainly be cutting off their own noses to spite their faces.

[no dems]

It's a pysche thing. Just the thought of pulling the lever for a gay pedophile disorients some folk.

[LM_Guy]

They knew 3 years ago not one year ago. Haskert was notified in 2003 about Foley's inappropriate behavior with the pages, they just will not publicly say exactly what they told him (Haskert).

It is slowly leaking out, but it appears that the GOP leadership has been lying in my opinion about all of this and what the knew. With this circle the wagons mentality, this scandal will run all the way thru to November, with Death by a Thousand Knife Cuts.

[JohnnyZ]

The last i heard was the family refused to release the details when asked and just wanted the contact to stop and their privacy maintained.

It was known they were inappropriate, "overly friendly", which should have resulted in further investigation of Foley's dealings with pages to see if it was an isolated incident.

The family's privacy would not be at risk.

[SuziQ]

Just the thought of pulling the lever for a gay pedophile disorients some folk.

They need to get it into their minds that this time, a vote for Foley is a vote AGAINST him. It's a perfect election for John Effin Kerry!

[eyespysomething]

marking

[Eagles Talon IV]

'Overly friendly" is a strictly subjective term and is open to wide interpretation. They Parents said specifically the emails were NOT of a sexual nature.