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LOL!
Posted on 09/30/2006 6:50:54 AM PDT by madprof98
Sept. 29, 2006 — Mark Foley now finally knows what former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards meant when he said, "The only thing that will cost me the governorship is if I am caught with in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
ABC News found the live boy in the form of an e-mail and exchange between the Florida Republican congressman and an underage male page. And now, finally, Foley can no longer cajole the media into keeping his private life a secret.
Ten years ago, I outed Foley as a gay man for The Advocate, the national gay and lesbian newsmagazine. But aside from one story in the St. Petersburg Times, no other Florida or national publications would touch the tale, either because Foley and his camp did a great job of shooting the messenger or because of the inherent fear the media have to delve honestly and without judgment into a person's sexual background.
Foley got tagged as gay in 1996 because he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, the first federal law that sought specifically to define marriage as a male-female thing. He wasn't the only one. I also reported that Rep. Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican who also voted for DOMA, was a closeted gay man. I based these assertions on extensive interviews with gay men who knew the congressmen, who could speak to their personal associations and who had seen them in private settings where there was no doubt as to their sexuality.
I wrote the story not as an activist seeking to punish someone for not being who I thought they should be. I wrote it as a journalist seeking to dig deeper into a topic that was at the top of every newspaper in the country. If Congress was getting involved in deciding who could and could not be married, then it was relevant to ask lawmakers about their personal lives. I remember that former GOP Rep. Bob Barr, the congressman who was the chief sponsor of DOMA, got asked once which of his three previous marriages he was defending, and no one raised a stink.
But asking a lawmaker if he was gay and how his sexuality affected his vote was just not acceptable. It wasn't in 1996, and I doubt many reporters would do it today. It's not homophobia per se. It's really more like homo-aversion.
Foley was a master of aversion. For The Advocate story, as I recall, Foley didn't grant a face-to-face interview but instead answered written questions. "Frankly, I don't think what kind of personal relationships I have in my private life is of any relevance to anyone else," he said.
In contrast, Kolbe sat down with me to talk. Like Kolbe, I was from Tucson. I had followed Kolbe's career since my days as a college journalist. Kolbe was sincere, and he was scared. He worried what would happen to his career and he feared what his family would say. And he didn't want a magazine to do what he realized in that moment that he needed to do himself.
Kolbe went public with his sexual orientation before the magazine hit the stands. He was praised for his honesty and he went on to win re-election handily in every election since. I ran into Kolbe at a University of Arizona homecoming game a few years ago. He told me that though he didn't like having someone pry into his personal life, he understood why I went after the story. And he said that in the long run, he was happier because he didn't have to hide anymore.
This year is Kolbe's last in Congress. He's retiring after a distinguished 22-year career in the House. It's a little odd for me to think that it's also Foley's last, but for very different reasons.
By staying so deep in the closet and browbeating others to keep his secret for him, Foley probably thought he was invincible. But secrets have a way of bringing down the powerful.
Just ask Edwin Edwards. He was never caught with a dead girl or a live boy. But he was caught shaking down riverboat casino owners and sent to prison after he'd left office.
J. Jennings Moss is a freelance journalist based in New York City and Tucson, Ariz. A former senior editor for ABCNews.com, Moss spent 18 months as Washington correspondent for The Advocate, the national lesbian and gay newsmagazine.
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LOL!
This guy seems to that gays may not under and circumstances state that marriage is between a man and a woman. And yet, many gays think just that.
I agree with you about the free-wheeling attitude by heteros about marriage and divorce is a problem. I have often said that I think getting married should be as difficult as getting divorced, thereby weeding out people marrying on a whim.
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If true, it's an outrage.
The fault did/does lay with Mr. Foley, but ABC has to admit they were not "fair or balanced"...they did not report the news when "news" was made; rather they sat on it until they could use it to determine the outcome of an election. Not only did they use the "news" for their political reasons, but they left a pedophile in office and gave him an opportunity to destroy another young person's life!
"The reporter is a sleaze ball."
Well, more to the point, the reporter is a quota-hire who enjoys using the pathetic amount of "power" he has to cause others trouble, then congratulate himself on being a crusading journalist.
Convenient logic.
Lol..
This whole issue is a little ridiculous. What he did was absolutely inappropriate and probably was right to lead to his resignation. That said, the man is not a pedophile and probably not dangerous, both of which people have said. Finding a 16 year old attractive is hardly unusual.. Talking dirty to them online might be, but if 16 year olds are so helpless to the seductive wiles of 50 year old congressman then why is that the age of consent in most states? I don't really know what it is in most states, but in my teen years (which end today, happy birthday me) I've lived in 5 and it's been 16 or under in all of them.
For me the worst parts about this are 1) a congressman abusing his position to get his sexual jollies, 2) the disgrace it brings to his office, especially considering the hypocrisy of his House activities regarding pornography and exploitation of minors, 3) essential betrayal of his party and his constituants, and 4) the dishonesty this writer feels so strongly about.
We know for a fact by the St. Petersburg Times' Speaker Foley's own admission that they knew about this very episode in Nov 2005 and didn't bring it public until yesterday.
Fixed that for you.
Re St. Pete Times....always supports Dimocrats.
Yes, should be called Democrat Times. Their bias is so blatant it's disgraceful. We need another paper in St. Pete/Tampa area.
The phrase "self-adsorbed narcissist" applies as well to politicians as it does to the Hollywood celebrity or professional athlete.
Happy Birthday!
This reporter is now trying to take credit for "outing" gays, following the Clinton impeachment. His excuse, voting for the defense of marriage act, is bogus. The series of "outings" was purely vindictive.
The Washington Post did an article on former sex scandals and their ultimate result, I suppose in an attempt to show that Republicans with sex scandals are treated more harshly by the voters than are Democrats for whatever reason. Anyway, they leave out the fact that John McCain was brought up on ethics charges, while serving in the Congress in the seventies. He was accused of having raped the wife of a former POW and escaped censure by claiming that the woman was drunk and came on to him. The problem with the story is that the woman is and always has been a tea totaller.
thanks :)
So what *is* the story on Lindsay Graham?
There was some indication, however, the Republican leadership, including Denny Hastert, knew about these allegations/facts for months, even a year, and sat on them.
Why?
Yep, if he'd just trolled some internet gay sex hookup site, he probably would not have been in trouble. But, no, he had to go after underage pages.
Dumb and dumber. Good riddance, Mr. Foley. As far as I'm concerned, I hope they hang him high. He could be and should be prosecuted for criminal activity in using the internet to sexually solicit children.
The military, too.
There's really no difference between "open" gays and NAMBLA.
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