Rep. Foley causes problems in Florida

Gay, Roman Catholic, and pro choice, Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) who represented plush Palm Beach had exchanges of "inappropriate emails" (raunchy electronic messages AP) with a 16 year old former House male page, about a year ago. Pages are high school students who attend classes under congressional supervision and work as messengers. Texts of the messages are available here

Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Reps. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) (rep of the boys parents), John Shimkus (R-IL) and Tom Reynolds (R-NY) all claimed that they knew about this at the time but failed to take action because the boy’s parents did not want to pursue the matter.

Rep. Shimkus is the chairman of the House page board and at the time accepted Rep. Foley’s explanation that he was merely mentoring the boy (WTF?). Shimkus also withheld the information from the only Democrat ( and Knight of Colombus) on the 3 person page committee, Dale Kildee.

Foley was a leading opponents of child pornography, and had served as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. Foley introduced a bill in 2002 to outlaw websites featuring sexually suggestive images of preteen children, saying that "these websites are nothing more than a fix for pedophiles." Badly written and without support this got nowehere but upset a lot of people who legitimately trade in photographic images on the web - news agencies etc.,

BUFF DIVING

In June 2003 he wrote letters to the governor (Jeb Bush) and attorney general of Florida, asking them to review the legality of a program for teenagers of a Lake Como nudist resort in Land O'Lakes, Florida. ""It's putting matches a little too close to gasoline," he was reported saying inthe local press...where the camp operators claimed they were "nude not lewd".

At the time Foley, was running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bob Graham and vacant due to his retirement. Amid press claims that he was gay, he dropped out of the race saying his sexual orientation was unimportant - although it was to some.

STABLE DOORS FIRMLY SHUT

Tim Mahoney, who is running against Foley in the November elections has (natch) called for an investigation.

Foley resigned on September 29th and issued a statement, saying "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."

The FBI have opened an investigation and abc report the curious twist that Foley could be prosecuted under laws that he helped enact. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert , 64 year old Methodist, and wrestling coach, has asked the Attorney General to investigate.... one year after he knew about the problem.

Whilst a lot of people on the Hill are blowing hard, don't expect much more, as there are many and varied skeletons in a variety of closets that no-one is anxious to have discovered. As someone said of House manouevres to block Ethics Committee investigations of Foleys extraordinary correspondence, "That's to protect a member, not to protect a child."

Update 2/10/2006 Foley, told a Florida TV station by Fax from Clearwater, that he was in an alcoholic treatment facility.

KNIGHTS OF COLOMBUS

Named in honour of Christopher Colombus it is the world's largest fraternal service organisation, founded in 1882. Pope Benedict XVI has referred to the Knights of Columbus as the "strong right arm of the church".

PRESIDENTIAL LINE OF SUCCESSION

Under the terms of the 25th amendment, Cheney follows Bush and Hastert follows Cheney should they die , resign or be unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President. (see pic of Cheney and Hastert stand to welcome Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh of India before Dr. Singh addresses a Joint Meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, July 19, 2005.)