The story of Mark Foley has blown up so fast, it’s dizzying (WaPo):
Six-term Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned yesterday amid reports that he had sent sexually explicit Internet messages to at least one underage male former page.
This kicked off Thursday with reports about emails, and Foley’s staff was right on top of it. They soothingly explained things away as innocuous and innocent, and Polimom thought, “election-year tempest in a teapot”.
But then, ABC released chat messages and folks, there’s absolutely nothing innocuous or innocent about them. Add Foley’s involvement with Child Safety Legislation and Sex Offender penalties, and we’ve got a red hot scandal going.
Knowing that Adorable Child (AC) might read Polimom’s blog today (it’s the weekend, after all), I’m not going to quote the interchanges between Foley and what may be more than one page. The Blotter’s post (and a number of comments) can be found via memorandum, here.
Given America’s sick political environment just now, though, there are a couple of problematic little issues cropping up. Let’s start here, in the WaPo article:
House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate “contact” between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.
“Last spring”. More:
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), who sponsored the page from his district, said he had learned of some of the online exchanges from a reporter some months ago and passed on the information to Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, the Associated Press reported. Alexander said he did not pursue the matter further because “his parents said they didn’t want me to do anything.”
Carl Forti, a spokesman for the GOP campaign organization, said Reynolds learned from Alexander that the parents did not want to pursue the matter, AP reported.
“Some months ago”, but it was okay cuz the parents didn’t want to pursue the matter…
It’s not clear to me at the moment whether all these people knew about the chat exchanges, or just the emails… and there’s an exponential difference between them, so this is a distinction worth making. However, there was obviously a problem — and they knew it. From Roll Call, my emphasis:
Ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned Friday after reports of his improper communications with a former male House page were made public, was interviewed about some of those contacts by the chairman of the House Page Board and the then-Clerk of the House last year.
[snip]
At least four Republican House Members, one senior GOP aide and a former top officer of the House were aware of the allegations about Foley that prompted the initial reporting regarding his e-mail contacts with a 16-year-old House page. They include: Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) and Reps. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), as well as a senior aide to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and former Clerk of the House Jeff Trandahl.
Which brings me to the damage all this partisanship is doing.
Pedophilia is an equal opportunity illness. It’s one of a number of paraphilia, and I’ve covered this in the past, here. Contrary to what some of the more unhinged are saying, pedophiles do not come in red only, and focusing there demonstrates ignorance and pettiness.
Polimom is, however, extremely worried that the GOP leadership might have tried to skate over this man’s illness in the interests of power-retention. Mark Foley’s seat was not expected to go to a Democrat in November; he was quite secure. If it turns out that the Republicans attempted to protect Foley for the purpose of maintaining numbers in the House of Representatives, then we — as in Americans — have a real problem here.
This needs a thorough investigation, and if it turns out that someone did protect Foley, not only do those folks need to resign, it’s time for a real-live Come to Jesus moment in this country about what we’re doing with this broken two-party system.
We should not be willing to expose our youth for the sake of political games.
Update: As someone who was absolutely appalled by the holier-than-thou attacks on Clinton by the GOP, it’s not difficult to understand why the Democrats and/or liberals are pouncing — hard — on this scandal. (Here, for example.) There’s rather a big difference between consenting adults and a kid who ends a chat session because he needs to go do his homework.
The vast majority of conservative bloggers are united in their condemnation of Foley’s acts, but there’s a fair amount of defensiveness there, too, about the liberal blogosphere’s tone. Do they really not see the problem?
* * * * *
Everybody’s blogging this, of course; among them:
Blue Crab Boulevard
AMERICAblog
Outside the Beltway
Talking Points Memo
Captain’s Quarters
The Moderate Voice