Republican Congressman Sends Sex Messages to Underage Boys

You might not agree but that's a fact of our culture and that's why people are calling him a pioneer. If Studd's scandal had happened at the same time as Foley's he probably would be getting treated as bad as Foley, In fact Studd's scandal happened at the same time as a Republican senator was also found to be having sex with a page and they both were censured.

 

classic current GOP leadership tactics.

"It's the Democrats fault for telling on us and then not letting people forget about the creepy perv we had in our party that we knew about!"

pathetic.

 

To protect 12 year-olds? 17 YOs can and do have sex-- maybe they should, maybe they shouldn't. 12 YOs generally don't have sex-- most would agree that they shouldn't, but there is a class of people out there who desire them so we create the law which makes sexual electronic communication against the law just because it is so easy to accomplish. I don't understand a law which makes it illegal to communicate with someone who is of-age about sexual matters. I know they can be taken advantage of but so could any lonely person of any age. At some point you have to turn them loose and make them fend for themselves. One day you are 17 years, 364 days and it is illegal to send that IM or email. The next day is your birthday and now you are 17 years, 365 days... oops make that 18 years and I've now committed a crime for sending that same message.

When did I say I didn't mind it? I do question the criminality of it. If someone did that with one of my daughters there would be a reckoning.

 

I'll have to go back and look but I think that Wikipedia article was written long before Studds died and I believe he is lionized there as a pioneer. Isn't it true that he was only a pioneer once he was outed by virtue of his being censored?

 

foley and studds are both beasts of similar level

but republican leadership is worse for knowing foley's actions for 5 years and covering it up

 

Yeah, probably but we don't really know what they knew and it seems like some people along the way ineffectively intervened.

What did the leadership do to "cover it up?" Do you mean that they just didn't effectively step in and stop it or do you mean that they somehow enabled Foley proactively?

How is it that no Democrats knew about Foley's behavior? Or did some know and likewise did nothing or at least nothing effective?

How did Studds get a 10-years pass on his behavior? Is that more of a comment on a lack of motivation in oversight or just incompetence in not knowing what one should have known?

 

Democrats knew about Foley's behavior after some Republicans leaked the story.

Your assertion that STudds got away with it for 10 years and that others should have known is ludicrous. It is not customary or something one should no about a co-worker. There is no reason that other congressional members should have known about Studds private sex life.

Furthermore Studds had a one time affair, Foley had a habit of doing this over a prolonged period of time.

Giddy, trying to equate the two isn't going to work. Furthermore trying to make the Democrats look dirty isn't going to make the GOP look clean. I am not sure why you are stretching, and adding in your own theories with such determination here.

I'm sorry Giddy, but one political party is more culpable in their behavior regarding these stories. That seems hard for you to accept.

 

I owe an apology to Max...
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Priest Acknowledges Relationship With Foley

By Howard Schneider and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 19, 2006; 11:46 AM

A retired priest from Malta acknowledged today that he had intimate contact with a youthful Mark Foley in the mid-1960s that involved nudity and -- on at least one occasion -- "light touching," but denied that he had "sexual intercourse" with him.

The Rev. Anthony Mercieca, in a telephone interview with The Washington Post from the Maltese island of Gozo, said he was surprised that his long-ago interaction with Foley had become linked to the former Congressman's troubles. Foley, a former altar boy at the Sacred Heart Catholic church in Lake Worth, Florida, where Mercieca served in the mid-1960s, resigned from Congress after reports about sexually intimate electronic messages he had sent to Congressional pages.

Following his resignation, Foley entered alcohol rehabilitation, said he was gay, and alleged that he had been sexually abused by a member of the clergy as a youth.

Catholic Church officials have encouraged Foley to name the priest involved, and Foley was expected to turn that information over to Florida law enforcement authorities yesterday. As of last night, however, Florida officials said no name had been provided, according to wire service reports.

This morning the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, citing confidential sources close to Foley's family, identified Mercieca as the priest in question. Though Mercieca confirmed his past ties to Foley this morning in an interview with The Post, there has been no independent confirmation that Foley was referring to Mercieca in his allegations, or whether there may be another priest involved.

In the interview, Mercieca said that issues like molestation and sexual harassment are "in the eye of the beholder," and that Foley -- who was 12 or 13 at the time -- might have interpreted some of their contact "the wrong way." Mercieca said he is currently 69, meaning he would have been close to 30 at the time he served in Foley's Florida parish.

"I was a little out of myself there," Mercieca said, from his use of medication following what the Sarasota paper described as a nervous breakdown. "The whole idea is . . . that I did something that he did not like, but at the time he did not say anything."

Mercieca said that he regarded their trips to skinny dip in Lake Worth, Fla., or to local saunas, as well within the cultural bounds he learned in Brazil, where he said he attended seminary and spent his first years as a priest.

"We had some kind of friendship. I was very friendly with him and his family," said Mercieca. "Then almost forty years passed without him saying anything. . . . And now because he got caught he recited these things."

In Brazil "they skinny dip all the time and no one gets scandalized. It is part of the culture. It is natural," Mercieca said. "They don't make an issue out of a skinny dip in the park or a massage."

"It was not what you call intercourse. . . . There was no rape or anything. . . . Maybe light touches here or there," said Mercieca.

Mercieca said he could not explain why Foley might be attributing his broader problems to their contact.

A House ethics panel is investigating how Congressional leaders dealt with reports about Foley's conduct with pages. Catholic officials in Florida have said they would release the name of the accused priest after consulting with prosecutors in Palm Beach County, and reviewing the priest's history. They said they would encourage any other potential victims to come forward.

An employee at the civil law firm that is representing Foley said his attorney, Gerald F. Richman, had no comment on Mercieca at this point.

Mercieca said he did not expect to be sued or prosecuted criminally over his ties to Foley. For criminal cases, the statute of limitations has expired.

Mark Serrano, a board member with the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, encouraged a full investigation, including whether he had similar involvement with other minors, and whether any allegations had been reported to church officials.

"I can't speak to the culture in Brazil but I can speak to the culture in America and speak to basic standards of morality. A crime is a crime is a crime," Serrano said. "Advanced age is no indication that kids are safe from a perpetrator . . . An investigation would be required."

Mercieca, who grew up in Malta, said he is retired now, but helps out occassionally at a cathedral in Gozo, a Mediterranean island and part of Malta about sixty miles south of Sicily. Mercieca said recent allegations of sexual abuse by priests had prompted extensive scrutiny of all clergy, and that he had never been accused or referred for counseling. He said he had no other friendships similar to the one he had with Foley.

"If anyone had even a shadow of a complaint he was thrown out of the priesthood. I had been in many parishes and the bishop never found anything. And if he found [something] he would have taken action," Mercieca said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101900533_pf.html

 

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