Foley...

Some, um, answers ...

maestrowork said:

1. Guilty? Not guilty? Is he a child predator?

Click to expand...

The first car will reach California before the other reaches New York.

maestrowork said:

2. If guilty, what do you think about the hypocrisy, that he's an advocate against child abuse and exploitation?

Click to expand...

ab(2)=bx(a2)

maestrowork said:

3. Is there a witch-hunt going on, election-time politics? The Dems are blood-thirsty? Or sooner or later this will come out and we wonder what else he's hiding?

Click to expand...

Boo Radley should have defended himself more vigorously.

maestrowork said:

4. What will this to do the mid-term election? They're already calling it a political storm. How would the Republicans deal with this?

Click to expand...

Michael Schumacher in a walk.

maestrowork said:

5. Would there be a criminal investigation? But what of? His real conduct and alleged activities? Or "who" leaked the information about his emails and chat-room conversation?

Click to expand...

Usually, it's referred to as 16th Century Gothic; however, the Dutch vary on the term because authenticity of many of Vermeer's works as presented to many respectible art critics.

I read one of the IM's between Foley and a young man. There is no gray area as to what he was up to, and it is apparent it was not their first episode online.

I don't care what party he is a member of and I don't care that it was a boy. I care that it was a minor.

One of the boys went to the proper authorities to turn in the email(s) he had received. The boy reported on Foley. How is that a leak?

A man in my area was arrested for indecent exposure. He drove to elementary schools and showed himself to young girls. A little girl reported him and the press covered the story. The man resigned his job.

It is the same with Foley. No leak... just the press reporting that another sexual deviant had been charged and he resigned his job because of the charges.

Bad timing for the Republican Party? Certainly. Should the story be suppressed because an election is on the horizon? No. We deserve to know everything about candidates. Good and bad.

Speaking as somebody whose daughter was a page in Raleigh during two different sessions (House then Senate), his behavior was reprehensible. If that had happened to my princess, I would have probably flipped out and taken some steps to get that person removed from office (at least).

And yes, Foley is a hypocrite for taking a vehement stance against the very thing he ended up doing, but that may have evolved from some inner conflict, and not necessarily a cloak to hide his dark thougts.

Election politics being what they are, you better believe the Dems will milk this as much as they can, but it's only worth a little mileage compared to the war.

I hope whatever statutes Foley violated are prosecuted for the world to see. There are thousands of pages and assistants who are minors serving elected officials across the land, and God knows how many of these kids find themselves the target of this kind of behavior.

Foley was the Co-chair of the drive to make Florida Sex Offender laws the harshest in the nation.

There are tens of thousands of people, male and female, on the Florida Sex Offender registry for doing EXACTLY what he did. Many more thousands are registered for much less of an ofense.

Any punishment less than the harshest he advocated is an injustice. Lets see if he still believes in these laws 6 months after he has to be punished.

This is history all over again. The loudest ones are the worst offenders. Its a shroud.

I read the emails. No question, like Ray said, about what the guy was up to. No good is a mild way of phrasing it.

I also think checking himself into alcohol rehab is a big joke. That's become the big solution these days. Apologize in public and check into rehab. Because hey, the booze made him do it, and it's "socially acceptable" these days to need rehab for booze or drugs, but society still frowns on men in power sexually exploiting kids. (or anybody doing it, for that matter.) So, he needed a better excuse.

I think it's horrible nothing was done when it was first reported. And I do love the poetic justice that he may have to face the very laws he helped craft. Which he was using as a smoke screen for his own inclinations.

He knew perfectly well what he was doing, too, and it wasn't outside his control, because he waited until the pages were no longer in the program but had left.

Susan G.

The booze excuse won't fly. Booze doesn't make people do things they don't want to do, it lets them do the things they really want to do but won't do when they're sober and possess enough common sense not to. Think of Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Jewish tirade some weeks back.

caw.

Here's a link to the instant messages:

http://pageoneq.com/news/2006/foley_093006.html

(found via http://blondesense.blogspot.com/)

The second most offensive thing about this whole controversy is that Foley is a barely-literate baboon.

The dude obviously needs a serious time out. Just saying the stuff he said via IM fits the legal description of sexual abuse.

I'm more concerned about the whole looking away thing fellow GOP members did along with the obvious "We're going to hold on to this until it's as damaging as possible" with the Florida newspapers.

It seems everybody knew about it, and it wasn't until a third party started making noise did they come out of the woodwork to condemn it.

And with today's news, he's screwed.

If it turns out politics kept this covered up, it will change the way I vote in the future. If the preservation of power and the preservation of the Republican party's image is more important than the protection of our youth, then I will vote Democrat on every single ballot until this administration, senate, and congress have been shaken out and put to the street.

And please, no one say it has happened in the past with the Democrats. The Republican party has maintained they are the protectors of family values and morals. By covering this up, they are proving otherwise.

Welcome to the Democratic party.

Was it only Repubicans that knew about it and try to keep it on the QT? Did all of them know?? I'm sure the party "leaders" might have, but those aren't the people I would vote for anyway.

As for it being an election issue, I know the American people will deal with the parties involved and any coverup, and then the media will let it drop in favor of more relevent coverage for the informed voter base. Not the war or SS, but probably what Paris Hilton is doing, or exclusive interviews with John Mark Karr.

No need for a welcome...

Unique said:

Welcome to the Democratic party.

Click to expand...

I am already a registered Democrat. However, I did not always vote party, but instead voted for the person I felt most qualified.

MattW said:

Was it only Repubicans that knew about it and try to keep it on the QT? Did all of them know?? I'm sure the party "leaders" might have, but those aren't the people I would vote for anyway.

Click to expand...

My understanding is that Hastert was made aware of the earlier e-mails, but Foley told him he would straighten his act up. Now Hastert is complaining that Foley lied to him about changing his ways, so he shouldn't be blamed. Republicans are also claiming that several newpapers knew about the e-mails, but chose not to publish anything, so it's not their fault.

You may not vote directly for the leaders themselves, but when the party gains a majority, every committee ends up being headed by that party. So yes, you actually are voting for the head guys.

maestrowork said:

Trust me, if the Dems knew, they would be the first to squeal.

Click to expand...

Wellllll...timing is often everything. It depends on which democrats you are talking about, no? Certainly, I wouldn't put it pass some members of both parties to hold off breaking a story like this until the time is right, like right before an election...

'Course, it goes without saying, imo, that Foley deserves all of the trouble he's getting, and more. And anyone who was trying to protect him for politically expedient reasons deserves plenty of trouble, as well.

maestrowork said:

Yup, I am sure the election card could have been well played, but whoever was trying to protect Foley A) absolutely deserves troubles and B) made a bad move keeping this wrapped...

Click to expand...

A) i agree
B) Unfortunately, the troubles are legal troubles. If one has knowledge about inappropriate activity with a minor, under Florida law, one MUST report it. Failure to do so is a 1st degree misdemeaner. If one is a professional Doctor, Lawyer or therapist, the license is at stake and it becomes a possible felony.

Anyone that knew of this should go to jail under the laws they themselves passed.

1. Yes. No. Yes.
2. It's creepy.
3. It's kind of hard to dig into this one and just call "witch-hunt." The emails are there. The IM's are there. He resigned. It's not like digging in the past to try to find if he's a Commie (or digging to see if there are other people preying on 16-year-old pages.)
4. It's not going to help the GOP, exactly. Whether it will help the Dems, it may just give them Foley's seat, which they could easily give back in 2008. But it's not "good" for anyone.
5. Yes, of course a criminal investigation. Of whether he broke the law, a law he helped push through Congress. It won't be an investigation of who leaked the info; it's hard to see how that's "criminal," it wasn't classified info by any means.

That is all in a nutshell. As billythrilly would say, Lock thread.

I also think checking himself into alcohol rehab is a big joke. That's become the big solution these days. Apologize in public and check into rehab.

Click to expand...

Think of Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Jewish tirade some weeks back.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Someone compared it to Mel Gibson at a party the other day, and I piped up and said, yes, but the difference is that Mel Gibson was pulled over for being drunk. You don't just decide to have online J---off sessions because you're a drunk. Mel Gibson could plausibly check into rehab as a drunk because he was DRUNK. He didn't check into rehab because he's an anti-Semite.

Certainly, I wouldn't put it pass some members of both parties to hold off breaking a story like this until the time is right, like right before an election...

Click to expand...

Definitely. Absolutely. October surprises and all that. C.R.E.W., which is funded by George Soros (and already a lightning rod for the right), apparently passed on knowledge of the emails to the FBI back in July - a statement by them says they didn't have the IMs, which ABC News obtained. The lead Dem on the Page Committee (if I have that right) says he wasn't informed. So those two parties seem to be clear. So who let that info out? I don't know.

MacAllister said:

Mostly, this is just a damn shame on all fronts. I don't see it as a partisan issue in any way. These kids go off to be pages, and it's a big deal to most of 'em.

Something like this happens...

*sigh*

Click to expand...

And there are those White House interns and what happens to them... *sigh*

Actually, I remember the page-boy scandal back in the early 80's. We developed our own version (my buddies and me) of Pac-Man, called Page-Boy. Page-Boy moves around the halls of Congress collecting paperwork, trying to avoid the lecherous bastards that work there. When he's in trouble, he can grab a camera crew, then the Congressmen turn blue and run away. If they're caught, they're gone--but a new creep arrives to take their place...

Actually, I remember the page-boy scandal back in the early 80's. We developed our own version (my buddies and me) of Pac-Man, called Page-Boy. Page-Boy moves around the halls of Congress collecting paperwork, trying to avoid the lecherous bastards that work there. When he's in trouble, he can grab a camera crew, then the Congressmen turn blue and run away. If they're caught, they're gone--but a new creep arrives to take their place...

Click to expand...

You're old.

I was a Page in 1972 for the Florida Legislator, Tallahassee. All we did was collect folded up papers from one Congressman and delivered it to another. I was 15? A female page, 15 or 16 slipped me a folded note from her with flirting on it. For the next week we sent each other folded flirts. I presume some of the Congressmen did too.

Being in that scene makes one lush with power. But thankfully, no one older than 16 hit on me.