Republican Congressman Sends Sex Messages to Underage Boys

Sir - could you sit down please! I'm trying to watch the monkeys flinging poo!!!!

 

QFT.

None of the **** Republicans come up with can contradict this fact.

 

What a stupid freak...and hypocrit for criticizing Clinton.

 

Your agenda is so far out ahead of your thinking....

All I did was answer vlaurello's question. I didn't side with anybody... take a break or something!

 

Obviously, overtures to a minor are worse, but in fact weren't most of these kids over 16? even over 18? What is the age of consent in DC? Virginia? Maryland?

I don't know if the guy is a creep or pathetic but he needs to be gone either way.

His real crime seems to have been the communications he initiated where he was thereby hung by his own lawmaking. That plus the expectancy that pages were off-limits is a PR nightmare, but these kids aren't 11 or even 14 are they?

 

And this is responsive to the original question?

You can point out where Clinton went wrong and I won't disagree with you that he lied about an extra-marital affair, but a) what Foley did is probably worse and b) Its hypocritical to criticize Clinton and then defend Foley.

 

It was a response to this question:

Is that the original question to which you are referring?

I have not defended Foley. I've sorted the facts as I understand them. At age 16 or older, these kids may in fact not have been minors. I don't know what the laws of those nearby jurisdictions say.

Foley's main problem was his own hypocrisy or sickness (whichever) and his abdication of his responsibility. He also probably broke a quirky law which he helped to write that makes it illegal to talk about "stuff" with a young person but not illegal to actually do it... if I understand what they were saying on the news this evening.

 

So foley admitted he's gay now? And abused by Catholic clergy?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061004/ap_on_go_co/congressman_e_mails

 

giddy, you know I love ya, man, (not in a Foley way!), but how can you possibly even think about making excuses for what Foley allegedly did? That's what you're doing.


"I have not defended Foley. I've sorted the facts as I understand them. At age 16 or older, these kids may in fact not have been minors. I don't know what the laws of those nearby jurisdictions say."

Splitting hairs? (Hayes would be proud!) Heck, that's not splitting hairs, that's trying to find some way for Foley to have been doing what you gleefully accused Clinton of doing (admit it was gleeful!), which was having sex, of some sort, with an adult that was inappropriate, but broke no laws, at least until he lied about it. These are 16 year Congressional pages. They are not adults, not that it should make a difference. It didn't make a difference to you about Clinton, did it? You should be ashamed of even making the attempt!


"Foley's main problem was his own hypocrisy or sickness (whichever) and his abdication of his responsibility. He also probably broke a quirky law which he helped to write that makes it illegal to talk about "stuff" with a young person but not illegal to actually do it... if I understand what they were saying on the news this evening"

giddy, splash some water on your face, and come back and read your post. Please. "A quirky law?? ...that makes it illegal to talk about "stuff" with a young person but not illegal to actually do it..." (??!?!) It may not have been your intention (trying to give you an out here, buddy!), but you are attempting to make excuses for a Congressman who is, by all accounts, a sexual predator. A sexual predator preying on young Congressional pages away from home, and entrusted to people like Foley, Speaker Hastert, and the others in Congress to make sure they have a rewarding experience. Not the kind of experience Foley was attempting to give them, or god forbid, did in fact give them.

Make that ice cold water, giddy. Please!



Keep D&D Civil.

 

Did you miss this:

I'm just standing up to the usual anti-Republican hysteria. I don't believe these were minors. Isn't the common age of consent 16? I have read or heard nothing that has Foley involved with anyone under age 16.

I don't know if he's a creep or if he's pathetic, but I say again... he's gotta go!

How is that making excuses for Foley?

 

Foley acquaintances question alcoholism

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - When disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record) announced he was entering rehab for treatment of alcoholism and "other behavioral problems," some of those who have known him for years were shocked and suspicious, saying they rarely saw him drink.

Another longtime friend, though, agreed that Foley had a drinking problem, and a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction noted that it's not unusual for alcoholics to hide their drinking.

Among the skeptics, Rep. Peter King, Republican-N.Y., a former colleague, said on Fox News Channel: "I don't buy this at all. I think this is a phony defense. The fact is, I think he's responsible for what he did here and I think it's a gimmick."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061004...Ljdujb6InOyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

 

Whatever, Foley resigned as he should have. He's in big trouble - if he indeed break the law, he should go to jail. If he had any contact with those kids, he should go to jail for a long time.

There's no one in their right mind who can defend him because the evidence is pretty damning.

The question is no longer about Foley....it's about if there was a cover-up of some sort.

On another note - do people think this is affect the election in November for republicans....?

 

Giddyup, you are pursuing a legal defense to a moral crime, which is one of the things that Clinton supporters were accused of by morally outraged Republicans. I have absolutely no doubt that if the shoe were on the other foot you would be spitting fire, not pursuing the tepid legalistic denouncement that you come with here. I hope that you at least have enough sense to realize that to yourself, even if you can't reasonably post it on this BBS.

I looked up the age of consent. For Maryland and the District of Columbia it is 16. For Virginia it is 18. I would also like to point out that under any circumstance he is knowingly supplying alcohol to a minor.

I am amused by the contortions that everybody on both sides is going through to try and work this. I know that if Republicans were attacking a Democrat on a gay/age of consent issue it would turn into a giant gay pride march. Instead gay rights groups are attacking Foley. I hope everybody realizes how ironically funny this is.

I will for the rest of my life believe that the faux moralist attack on Bill Clinton completely changed the bounds of what is fair game in politics. Under the 'terms of engagement' set by the core Republicans against Clinton, every single Republican member's sex life is now fair game and under intense scrutiny for the next couple of years. I hope that when these guys are getting kicked out of Congress, their marriages are destroyed and they are disgraced in front of their families that they were the ones who threw the chum into the shark tank. What goes around comes around, etc.

It would be interesting to see what Foley had to say about Clinton during his witch hunt.

 

You say Foley should go yet you also bring up several mediating circumstances when you weren't nearly so accomodating to Clinton. This sounds to me like you're letting partisanship affect your moral judgement of the situation.

 

revelations from rehab ...

he was drunk at the time except when he wasn't ...

he was molested as a child ...

despite his best attempts, "he never had sex with a that boy" ...

sounds like excuses but it is not really ...

I like the recovereing gay part too.


Mark Foley Claims Being Molested As Teen
Oct 4, 4:32 AM (ET)

By BRIAN SKOLOFF

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Former Rep. Mark Foley, under investigation for sending lurid Internet messages to young male Capitol Hill pages, issued a series of revelations from rehab, including a claim that he had been sexually abused as a teen.

Attorney David Roth, speaking on Foley's behalf at a Florida news conference Tuesday, said Foley was molested between ages 13 and 15 by a clergyman. He declined to identify the clergyman or the church, but Foley is Roman Catholic.

"Mark does not blame the trauma he sustained as a young adolescent for his totally inappropriate" e-mails and instant messages, Roth said. "He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct."

Roth, who spoke for Foley while the congressman is in rehab for alcohol abuse and mental illness, said Foley denied having inappropriate sexual contact with minors and said he was under the influence of alcohol when he wrote the notes.

Asked why he didn't disclose this information sooner, Roth said, "Shame, shame."

"As is so often the case with victims of abuse, Mark advises that he kept his shame to himself for almost 40 years," Roth said.

"There was absolutely no inappropriate sexual contact with any minor... and any suggestion that Mark Foley is a pedophile is false," Roth said.

Roth also acknowledged for the first time that the former congressman is gay, saying the disclosure was part of his client's "recovery."

"Mark Foley wants you to know he is a gay man," Roth said.

Foley, who is 52 and single, represented parts of Palm Beach County for 12 years until he abruptly resigned Friday. The FBI and Florida law enforcement officials are investigating whether he violated any laws.

The lurid communications were first reported last week by ABC News, which released more instant messages Tuesday that indicate Foley allegedly interrupted a vote on the House floor to chat online with a teen.

"I miss you," Foley said in one message, according to ABC.

"ya me too," the teen replied.

"we are still voting," Foley responded.

Roth said Foley was never under the influence of alcohol while conducting business on Capitol Hill. He could not explain his previous comments that Foley was intoxicated at the time he sent all the messages.

The race Foley abandoned is suddenly receiving national attention as Democrats seek to win 15 Republican seats to regain power in the House. Foley was considered a shoo-in for re-election. Tim Mahoney, the Democratic candidate for the seat, said the only thing that has changed since Foley's resignation is that he is now receiving national media attention.

Mahoney declined to comment Tuesday on the latest revelations.

Florida's Republican Party leaders on Monday selected state Rep. Joe Negron to replace Foley as their candidate in the Nov. 7 general election, but under state law, Foley's name cannot be removed from the ballot even though he has withdrawn. Votes for Foley will be tallied for Negron.

At the Capitol, House Speaker Dennis Hastert cast aside calls for his resignation Tuesday amid talk from Democrats that Republicans knew of Foley's questionable communications months ago but failed to act.

President Bush, speaking at a Stockton, Calif., elementary school, on Tuesday said he was disgusted by Foley's actions. The House ethics committee scheduled its first meeting on Foley's actions for Thursday.

 

Fox outs Foley

 

ABC suggests the leak (if there was one) came from the republican party.

--------------------

Mr. Ross dismissed suggestions by some Republicans that the news was disseminated as part of a smear campaign against Mr. Foley.

“I hate to give up sources, but to the extent that I know the political parties of any of the people who helped us, it would be the same party,” Mr. Ross said, referring to Republicans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/washington/03media.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

No, outside the one lost seat, I think voters will see him as an exception to the Republican stereotype.

 

Not if there was a cover up, bub.

 

I don't follow...

I said Foley should go and I said Clinton should be impeached. Those are both critical "judgements."