anonymous
2006-10-01 04:19:55 UTC
Foley Resigns From Congress Over E-Mails
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. speaks at a news conference in Ta...
(09-30) 03:45 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
In a scandal guaranteed to anger parents, a prominent House Republican has
resigned after the revelation that he exchanged raunchy electronic
messages with a teenage boy, a former congressional page.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who is single, apologized Friday for letting down
his family and constituents. Once his resignation letter was read to the
House late Friday afternoon, Republicans spent the night trying to explain
six weeks before congressional elections how this could have happened
on their watch.
Near midnight, they engineered a vote to let the House ethics committee
decide whether an investigation is needed.
Among the Republican explanations during the night:
_The congressional sponsor of the page, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., said
he was asked by the youth's parents not to pursue the matter, so he
dropped it.
_Alexander said that before deciding to end his involvement, he passed on
what he knew to the chairman of the House Republican campaign
organization, Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y. Reynolds' spokesman, Carl
Forti, said the campaign chairman also took no action in deference to the
parents' wishes.
_Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the Page Board that oversees the
congressional work-study program for high schoolers, said he did
investigate but Foley falsely assured him he was only mentoring the boy.
Pages are high school students who attend classes under congressional
supervision and work as messengers.
_The spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert, Ron Bonjean, said the top House
Republican had not known about the allegations. Shimkus said he learned
about them in late 2005.
Just as Shimkus' explanation was released, House Democratic Leader Nancy
Pelosi of California proposed to the House that its ethics committee
investigate and make a preliminary report in 10 days. She demanded to know
who knew of the messages, whether Foley had other contacts with pages and
when the Republican leadership was notified of Foley's conduct.
Instead, majority Republicans engineered a vote to allow the ethics panel
to decide whether there should even be an investigation.
Foley's departure sent Republicans scrambling for a replacement candidate.
Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail
correspondence surfaced in recent days. The page was 16 at the time of the
correspondence.
Foley's resignation further complicates the political landscape for
Republicans, who are fighting to retain control of Congress. Democrats
need to win a net of 15 Republican seats to regain the power they lost in
1994.
Florida Republicans planned to meet as soon as Monday to name a
replacement in Foley's district, which President Bush won with 55 percent
in 2004 and is now in play for November. Though Florida ballots have
already been printed with Foley's name and cannot be changed, any votes
for Foley will count toward the party's choice.
Hastert said Friday he had asked Shimkus to investigate the page system.
"We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is
safe," Hastert said.
ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually
explicit instant messages with current and former pages, all male. In one
message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page, "Do I make you a little horny?"
In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip
down and get relaxed."
Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had
introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by
adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to
protect minors from abuse and neglect.
"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said.
Foley, who represented an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page
in August 2005. Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina
and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to
send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were
originally released by ABC News.
The e-mails were posted Friday on the Web site of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington after ABC News reported their
existence.
Naomi Seligman, a spokeswoman for CREW, said the group also sent a letter
to the FBI after it received the e-mails. CREW did not post their copies
of the e-mail until ABC News reported them, instead waiting for the
investigation.
"The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers
who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote.
According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's
office about Foley's e-mails, saying, "This freaked me out." On the
request for a photo, the boy repeated the word "sick" 13 times.
He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank-you card.
The boy also said Foley wrote that he had e-mailed another page.
"he's such a nice guy," Foley wrote about the other boy. "acts much older
than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding
my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym...whats school like
for you this year?"
In other e-mails, Foley wrote: "I am back in Florida now...its nice
here...been raining today...it sounds like you will have some fun over the
next few weeks...how old are you now?" and "how are you weathering the
hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well."
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. speaks at a news conference in Ta...
(09-30) 03:45 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
In a scandal guaranteed to anger parents, a prominent House Republican has
resigned after the revelation that he exchanged raunchy electronic
messages with a teenage boy, a former congressional page.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who is single, apologized Friday for letting down
his family and constituents. Once his resignation letter was read to the
House late Friday afternoon, Republicans spent the night trying to explain
six weeks before congressional elections how this could have happened
on their watch.
Near midnight, they engineered a vote to let the House ethics committee
decide whether an investigation is needed.
Among the Republican explanations during the night:
_The congressional sponsor of the page, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., said
he was asked by the youth's parents not to pursue the matter, so he
dropped it.
_Alexander said that before deciding to end his involvement, he passed on
what he knew to the chairman of the House Republican campaign
organization, Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y. Reynolds' spokesman, Carl
Forti, said the campaign chairman also took no action in deference to the
parents' wishes.
_Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the Page Board that oversees the
congressional work-study program for high schoolers, said he did
investigate but Foley falsely assured him he was only mentoring the boy.
Pages are high school students who attend classes under congressional
supervision and work as messengers.
_The spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert, Ron Bonjean, said the top House
Republican had not known about the allegations. Shimkus said he learned
about them in late 2005.
Just as Shimkus' explanation was released, House Democratic Leader Nancy
Pelosi of California proposed to the House that its ethics committee
investigate and make a preliminary report in 10 days. She demanded to know
who knew of the messages, whether Foley had other contacts with pages and
when the Republican leadership was notified of Foley's conduct.
Instead, majority Republicans engineered a vote to allow the ethics panel
to decide whether there should even be an investigation.
Foley's departure sent Republicans scrambling for a replacement candidate.
Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail
correspondence surfaced in recent days. The page was 16 at the time of the
correspondence.
Foley's resignation further complicates the political landscape for
Republicans, who are fighting to retain control of Congress. Democrats
need to win a net of 15 Republican seats to regain the power they lost in
1994.
Florida Republicans planned to meet as soon as Monday to name a
replacement in Foley's district, which President Bush won with 55 percent
in 2004 and is now in play for November. Though Florida ballots have
already been printed with Foley's name and cannot be changed, any votes
for Foley will count toward the party's choice.
Hastert said Friday he had asked Shimkus to investigate the page system.
"We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is
safe," Hastert said.
ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually
explicit instant messages with current and former pages, all male. In one
message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page, "Do I make you a little horny?"
In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip
down and get relaxed."
Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had
introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by
adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to
protect minors from abuse and neglect.
"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said.
Foley, who represented an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page
in August 2005. Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina
and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to
send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were
originally released by ABC News.
The e-mails were posted Friday on the Web site of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington after ABC News reported their
existence.
Naomi Seligman, a spokeswoman for CREW, said the group also sent a letter
to the FBI after it received the e-mails. CREW did not post their copies
of the e-mail until ABC News reported them, instead waiting for the
investigation.
"The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers
who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote.
According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's
office about Foley's e-mails, saying, "This freaked me out." On the
request for a photo, the boy repeated the word "sick" 13 times.
He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank-you card.
The boy also said Foley wrote that he had e-mailed another page.
"he's such a nice guy," Foley wrote about the other boy. "acts much older
than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding
my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym...whats school like
for you this year?"
In other e-mails, Foley wrote: "I am back in Florida now...its nice
here...been raining today...it sounds like you will have some fun over the
next few weeks...how old are you now?" and "how are you weathering the
hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well."