The latest revelation from ABC News sounds as if, while working, former Rep. Mark Foley seemingly wanted to do to a teenage page what he has now done to the Republican Party:
Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages.
ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.
The question is: why did they save the messages? But there may be one easy explanation: how many politicos did they meet in the Congress or House who’d send them provocative and often graphic emails? It would be something (presumably) a bit unusual.
ABC includes some of the emails, which will perhaps wind up being turned into an R-rated movie one day:
Maf54: I miss you
Teen: ya me too
Maf54: we are still voting
Maf54: you miss me tooThe exchange continues in which Foley and the teen both appear to describe having sexual orgasms.
Maf54: ok..i better go vote..did you know you would have this effect on me
Teen: lol I guessed
Teen: ya go vote…I don’t want to keep you from doing our job
Maf54: can I have a good kiss goodnight
Teen: :-*
Teen: [kiss]The House voted that evening on HR 1559, Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations.
According to another message, Foley also invites the teen and a friend to come to his house near Capitol Hill so they can drink alcohol.
Teen: are you going to be in town over the veterans day weekend
Maf54: I may be now that your coming
Maf54: who you coming to visit
Teen: haha good stuff
Teen: umm no one reallyMaf54: we will be adjourned ny then
Teen: oh good
Maf54: by
Maf54: then we can have a few drinks
Maf54: lol
Teen: yes yes 😉
Maf54: your not old enough to drink
Teen: shhh…
Maf54: ok
Teen: that’s not what my ID says
Teen: lol
Maf54: ok
Teen: I probably shouldn’t be telling you that huh
Maf54: we may need to drink at my house so we don’t get busted
This can’t be be spun as the Democrats did it, Clinton did it, etc…and obscure the fact that a guy who was in charge of a major committee dealing with children, a guy who appeared on America’s Most Wanted, and a guy whom parents entrusted to be a role model for their kids working in Washington appeared to be essentially using the Internet to go teen-fishing — or, more accurately, look for “chicken.”
But, then, this is all explained and excused by the fact that he was an alcoholic and was molested as a youth. Isn’t it?
Or is there a limit — even in 21st-Century America, where the
operative word is “expediency” — in people tossing overboard their most cherished values to ensure that people who they have voted for stay in office. We already know there isn’t with some radio and cable talk show hosts (“…but under Clinton…”).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.