Creep-tastic.

The AP reports:

WASHINGTON - Overseers of the House page program this week discussed a camping trip that Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. took with two former pages and others in 1996 — an outing now under review by the Justice Department, a congressional source said Tuesday.

The House Page Board, consisting of three lawmakers and two senior House officials, did not have any new information beyond recent news stories on the Kolbe trip. The source is familiar with the discussions but is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The conference call Monday involving the Kolbe trip shows that the people responsible for the teenage page program are casting a wider net following revelations that ex-Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record) was sending overly friendly e-mails and sexually explicit instant messages to former male pages.

After a day of repeating over and over 'please, god, not a Democrat' we find out it wasn't a Democrat. I figured that if the Rovian Right had any dirt on a Democrat with regards to pages, it would have come out long ago, but you never know. Rove might have sat on that info 'til November 4th, then let "Democratic Pedophile" run 24 hours a day right before the election.

He still might. You never know.

But we do know that the only openly gay Republican in the House who was already retiring, will be facing allegations of "improper activity."

I don't know if this guy is guilty or not. There aren't lewd IMs and creepy emails circulating on the internet about Kolbe. If he is guilty, he deserves to face the repercussions for his actions, but if he's being targeted by a GOP witch-hunt because he's gay, that's reprehensible. Hopefully we'll get some details so that we can figure out what's going on.

The end result of this is that despite Bush signing a law destroy habeus corpus in the United State, the news cycle will rehash the Foley story with this new twist for a few more days.

Jim Kolbe Mark Foley Republican Sex Scandal

Foley's Fondlings?

The Michigan Daily reports:

A former House page said he witnessed inappropriate contact between former Republican Congressman Mark Foley and another page in the back of the House floor in early 2001.

The page, Richard Nguyen, a first-year student at the University's Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, said he saw Foley pat a male page's behind.

Foley's attorney did not return calls for comment.

Nguyen said he was not sure during which month the incident took place. He was a page between January and June of 2001.

Nguyen did not report the incident to authorities. At the time, the then-16-year-old thought it was "questionable activity," but he was unsure how to interpret it.

"I wasn't sure if it was a social norm I wasn't accustomed to," Nguyen said. "I mean, you see athletes patting each other's asses all the time on the field."

Mark Foley had a whole different idea in his
head when he said 'nice play, son' and slapped the kids ass, I'm sure.

So much for the 'naughty emails' defense.

I hate dwelling on this story. It makes me so disgusted that my elected officials are so corrupt and so focused on maintaining power that they'll let this guy keep his job when they knew what he was doing to the pages...

Mark Foley

Required Reading

Stirling Newberry, at TPM Cafe has posted one of the best pieces I've read all year. Titled "The Revolution Eats Its Own" it examines the reasons for the ascension of the right over the last decade, the Mark Foley scandal and why it is so much more than a sex scandal for the Right, and the emerging civil war among the various factions in the Conservative (reactionary) movement in the United States.

It's a very long article (and I won't try to summarize it here) but one that should be required reading. Read it once today, come back and read it again tomorrow. It's that good and that dense and that important.

Stirling Newberry Mark Foley Christianists Conservatives Republicans

You Knew It Was Coming

The GOP couldn't let this Foley scandal go on too long without a 'Dems did it too!' narrative coming out. Here it is, via the First Coast News:

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Some Florida Democrats call Kevin King a rising star amongst the ranks of Democrats, but others, like the head of the Pinellas Democratic Party, Ed Helm, have doubts.

King was arrested in 2001. A judge ordered the St. Petersburg Police Department to seal all records regarding the arrest. King admits that the arrest stems from when he was a substitute teacher. He was arrested for computer solicitation to commit a lewd and lascivious act and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

According to published reports, King sent e-mails or instant messages to two female students, aged 14 and 15, trying to get them to skip school and drink alcohol with him. In addition, the reports say that King also asked the 14-year-old to perform a sexual act on him.

King, who admits he was arrested, insists he did nothing wrong and points to the fact that the records were sealed and he was not found guilty of anything.

First let me say that I find the soliciting of children for sex a horrible offense and any person, rich, poor, Democrat, Republican, powerful or otherwise, that is found guilty of such a crime should be held to the fullest extent of the law.

That said, let's examine what's different about Foley and King. First, Foley is a U.S. Congressman, Kevin King is a Democratic Committee Member in Pinellas, Florida. Second, King was not the subject of a cover-up. He was arrested, charged, and had his day in court. The judicial process found King not guilty. Public records show the accusations against King and public records show that he was found innocent.

King's arrest came in 2001. His election came two weeks ago. Voters presumably knew of the events in King's past and, understanding the not guilty verdict, elected him anyway.

Contrast that with Congressman Foley.

Right wing shills will try very hard to use this story to prove that Democrats are just as bad as Republicans. It doesn't pass the sniff test. We must call out media sources that try to pass this story off as anything other than what it is - an attempt by the right to muddy the waters and shift blame.

Mark Foley Kevin King Sex Scandals

Foleygate: ALL DEMS FAULT!

I had CNN on last night while I was washing dishes. (Yeah, blogging pays REALLY well, but not well enough to add another domestic.) That asshat Michael Medved was on spouting bullshit about how the whole Foley situation was a Democratic conspiracy.

To hear Medved tell it, Democrats had known about Foley for a long time and waited until now, right before the election, to take it to the public.

While I stand in awe of Medved's ability to willfully remain ignorant of the facts of the story he's on national television talking about, what amazes me most is how stupid Michael Medved thinks Democrats are.

If we were 'sitting' on this story, why, for the love of God, would we dump in on the media at end of September rather than two weeks before the election?

Even though this is a 'sex with children' scandal, I don't think that Americans or the American media can stay focused on it for more than three weeks. That has the scandal dropping off of most voters radars right as the last push for votes is beginning.

That's just bad strategy - almost as bad as invading a large, ethnically diverse nation with all the makings of a civil war with no plans to secure the country after hostilities are over before finishing the last war we started...

* * * * *
Foleygate certainly isn't helping Republicans win votes in the upcoming election but I don't think that it will be swinging 50 seats towards the Dems, as a story Fox News is running to try to scare Conservatives into voting despite the scandal claims. All the arguments of 'who knew what when' are valid, but most people like their Representative. 'All the other idiots in Congress are shitbags except for my guy' is a popular thought regardless of party.

Most Republicans outside the leadership can make the same calls for investigation and demands that people be held responsible that Democrats can with just as much authority.

This scandal will probably keep down voter turn out among Republicans about as much as a good rainstorm that's only in GOPville. It will distract Republicans from their campaign plans and keep them off message for weeks. But the problem is that many districts are so gerrymandered that Republicans would get elected in certain districts even if they ate raw puppy meat live on TV.

Besides, when you have Diebold in your corner, why worry?

Michael Medved Mark Foley Democrats Republicans 2006 Election

I'm Confused

Can somebody tell me what seat the Dems were protecting? I'm prepared to accept the fact that not everything on FoxNews is either 'factual' or 'logical' (both have know liberal biases) but this one leaves me at a loss.

Fox News Mark Foley Republicans WTF?

What was different then...?

In today's Washington Post, Joseph Califano has an editorial comparing the current sex scandal in the House of Representatives with the one in 1982:

The most troubling aspect of the Mark Foley scandal is not his conduct, disgusting as it was, but what the response of the leadership reveals about the rancid state of partisanship and the consequent decline of the House of Representatives. Speaker Dennis Hastert presides over a legislative body so infested with mistrust that it doesn't even have a functioning ethics committee. Since the House is incapable of washing its own dirty laundry and policing itself, the speaker has to turn over that responsibility to the attorney general and the executive branch of government.

Compare the current situation with the way Speaker Tip O'Neill and the House handled the last scandal involving sexual misconduct with pages, in the summer of 1982.

[...]

Within a week [of the breaking scandal in '82] the House had authorized its ethics committee to conduct a full investigation of allegations of "sexual misconduct, illicit drug distribution and use, and offers of preferential treatment in exchange for sexual favors or drugs by Members, officers or employees of the House." House Speaker O'Neill and Minority Leader Robert Michel asked me to be special counsel to the ethics committee, co-chaired by Ohio Democrat Lou Stokes and South Carolina Republican Floyd Spence. I was allowed to select my own staff and given a commitment that I could follow the evidence wherever it led, because, as O'Neill and Michel said, "The integrity of the House is at stake."

[...]

When I reported our findings to O'Neill and Michel, the dishonor that these members had brought on the House infuriated the two leaders. "Get it out," they said, "and let the committee recommend disciplinary action," which its four Democratic and four Republican members did, unanimously, in July 1983 ... The course the House took in that scandal, and its reaction to the current one, show the difference between a leadership that saw a threat to the integrity of the House of Representatives and one that sees a threat to its continuing control of the institution. It's useful today to remember that there was a time when partisanship took second place to trust and the House leadership had the strength to wash its own dirty laundry.

Let's think about what is different between the House of Representatives in 1982 and the House of Representatives in 2006. Hmmm... could it be that all of the leadership positions were held by... Democrats?

Sex Scandal Mark Foley Republican Corruption Culture of Corruption Joseph Califano

FoxNews Reaches New Low

I hope that Nancy Pelosi or Harry Ried or Gov. Dean or SOMEBODY is demanding an apology. You know this didn't happen by accident.

It happened on the O'Reilly Factor (shock!) and for the life of me I can't find Billy's email address. It makes sense, though. Why would Billy care about what you have to say? Here's the email for comments to FoxNews in general:

comments@foxnews.com

I'd imagine you could send them an email demanding they air a correction. Of course the chance of FoxNews admitting a mistake and correcting it is about the same as George W. Bush admitting a mistake and correcting it...

Finder's Fee to Shakespeare's Sister.

Fox News Bill O'Reilly Mark Foley Media

And in Other News...

Wow. The GOP must be absolutely pissed that instead of this story, every media outlet in the country is going to be talking about a creepy, cyber-stalking Republican and the party that covered up for him.

Via the AP:

NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average surged past its all-time trading high of 11,750.28 Tuesday, taking yet another step in its recovery from seven years of market turmoil.

The index of 30 blue chip stocks moved into uncharted territory after briefly passing its record high close of 11.722.98 on Thursday and Monday. Both records were set on Jan. 14, 2000, before the stock market began a precipitous decline caused by the dot-com bust and recession and worsened by the aftermath of terrorism and corporate scandals.

'Dow reaches new high' sounds so much better than... well, 'Republican talking about handjobs with underage boys' (and apparently has been for years.)

News of new Dow highs may be good but most Americans would probably tell you that they don't feel like the economy is humming like it did under Clinton. This because most of the benefit of the 'new Bush economy' is for the richest 5% of Americans.

But it doesn't matter. News that six years into his presidency, George W. Bush has finally manufactured something like the success of his predecessor will be drowned out by news of Republican sex scandals and school shootings.

Take a moment to revel in the fact that your day is going much better than Karl Rove's...

And in Other News... George W. Bush & friends enjoy dining on endangered fish - just to piss off treehuggers.

Economy Sex Scandal Republicans

Foleygate - Day 7 UPDATE

Via the New York Times:

History suggests that once a political party achieves sweeping power, it will only be a matter of time before the power becomes the entire point. Policy, ideology, ethics all gradually fall away, replaced by a political machine that exists to win elections and dispense the goodies that come as a result. The only surprise in Washington now is that the Congressional Republicans managed to reach that point of decayed purpose so thoroughly, so fast.

That House leaders knew Representative Mark Foley had been sending inappropriate e-mail to Capitol pages and did little about it is terrible. It is also the latest in a long, depressing pattern: When there is a choice between the right thing to do and the easiest route to perpetuation of power, top Republicans always pick wrong.

Yep. That's about it.

UPDATE: 3:55 pm It turns out that Foley wasn't just engaging in 'inappropriate activities' while relaxing at home, he was doing it in the House Chamber.

Via The Blotter:

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.

The vote? HR 1559, Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations. Nice to know that Republicans take our security seriously...

This is a weird parallel to the problem a wingnut ex-coworker of mine had with the whole Lewinski thing. He said he only cared because it was in the oval office. If it had been somewhere else, it wouldn't have mattered. It bothered him that somebody got a blowjob in the same room where his hero Ronald Reagan "saved the free world" took naps.

For those who haven't had lunch and/or aren't planning on eating dinner, here's the transcript of Foley's, uh, conversations...

Mark Foley Republicans

Kos on the Foley Scandal

I know a lot of people don't particularly like Kos. I have my issues with him but when his analysis is spot on, you can't ignore it just because you don't like him personally. Here's most of his post on the Foley scandal. (Please don't sue me, Kos!)

Via Daily Kos:

Foley represented a moderately conservative district, FL-16. In 2000, Bush beat Gore 53-47. In 2004, Bush beat Kerry 54-46. It was a district which Foley had represented since 1994, with his worst showing his first election with a 58% victory. In 2002 he won with 79%, in 2004 with 68%. This was a safe Republican district. Foley also raised a lot of money, and as the recent $100K gift from Foley to the NRCC attests, the party needed his fundraising skills.

Then 2006 rolls around. The GOP is facing a tough reelection with history, Bush, and their own incompetence weighing down their chances. The DCCC has had a banner fundraising and candidate recruitment year. And suddenly, Foley faces the GOP's worst nightmare in Tim Mahoney -- a Democratic challenger who 1) was a former Republican, and 2) is worth $8 gazillion and can self-fund his race. Mahoney announced his candidacy October 12, 2005, right around the time the House leadership was trying to figure out what to do about Foley's predatory practices.

Without Foley on the ticket, not only would the GOP suddenly face a competitive contest in a relatively safe district, but it would cost them $2-3 million to defend -- money that they no longer have available.

So they made a decision. They were going to look the other way despite knowing about Foley's predatory actions against the House's pages, and in return, Foley would keep them one seat closer to the majority and save them millions.

Kos concludes that the Republican powers-that-be decided it was better to have a predator of young boys in their caucus than to try to defend one House seat.

That bears repeating. The 'values' party decided it was better to knowingly allow Foley to represent the people of Florida, to raise money for the GOP election efforts, to chair the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, to have a leadership position in their party and to continue to interact with Congressional pages than to face a tough election battle in Florida.

Foley is small potatoes in this scandal. I hope that a victim speaks up. I hope a victim sues the Republican Party for failure to alert the proper authorities. It worked against the Catholic Church. This isn't any different.

Mark Foley Daily Kos Republicans Corruption

Mark Foley's Crimes

FACT: Republicans had fits, FITS, when it was discovered that Bill Clinton (adult) got a blow job from Monica Lewinsky (adult) - yet Mark Foley (Republican adult) only described getting blowjobs from congressional pages (Republican NON-ADULTS) so it's ok to just sweep it under the rug, move on as quickly as possible, and try to get a new Republican to replace him in congress.

I'm not condemning Foley for wanting to have sex with men. I think there should be more LGTB representatives in congress. I'm condemning Foley for wanting to have sex with boys. He's preying on kids working as pages, a position where Foley is essentially their boss. The fact that Foley is a member of the virulently anti-gay Republican Party does make the hypocrisy hard to ignore...

That's right, friends. The 'Family Values' party covered up for the scariest of all bogey-men, the online predator.

While that may shock some, the fact that the Republican Party has ignored all aspects of this travesty except the one that they think is most important - making sure Republicans don't lose a seat in congress - shouldn't shock anybody. From the Sarasota Harold Tribune:

[Charlotte County Republican Party Chairman Bob] Starr said Republicans will have to convince people to vote for the disgraced Foley with the idea that the vote will count toward a candidate not on the ballot.

"It's going to be very difficult to do," Starr said.

Although state party officials are leaning toward naming state Rep. Joe Negron as the replacement candidate, Starr said he would lobby for state Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda.

Regardless of who the replacement is, Sabato said the party will have a hard time convincing people to vote for Foley to keep the seat in Republicans hands.

"I'd say it's near impossible," Sabato said. "Who's going to want to do that?" [Emphasis mine]

Indeed. Who would want to do that?

The FBI is now beginning an investigation into Foley's emails.

The FBI announced last night that it is looking into whether former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) broke federal law by sending inappropriate e-mails and instant messages to teenage House pages.

The announcement came hours after House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert asked for a Justice Department investigation into not only Foley's actions but also Congress's handling of the matter once it learned of the contacts.

In his letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Hastert (R-Ill.) acknowledged that some of Foley's most sexually explicit instant messages were sent to former House pages in 2003. That was two years before lawmakers say they learned of a more ambiguous 2005 e-mail that led only to a quiet warning to Foley to leave pages alone.

It seems that Foley, co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, broke a law that he sponsored.

[I]n-person, actual sex between Foley and a 16-year-old page would be perfectly legal in D.C. and in most places in the U.S., but it seems that it is a criminal act for Foley to discuss or solicit sexual acts with the same page over the Internet.

[U]nder the so-called "Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006" (of which Foley was a co-sponsor), along with 18 U.S.C. 2251, discussion or solicitation of sexual acts between Foley and any "minor" under the age of 18 would appear to be a criminal offense…

Read Mr. Greenwald's post for details on the 'age of consent' issues. All I'll say on that is that a 54 year old soliciting sex with a 16 year old is icky and also illegal, though a 54 year old having sex with a 16 year old is infinitely more icky, though legal.

Though I'm rambling, the central issue with this scandal is that Republican leadership knew about Foley's actions yet made no effort to stop them. THAT'S the scandal. The MSM may try to deflect this away from the GOP leadership. We'll see.

I'll promise you one thing, though. Despite the fact that an actual crime was committed here, you won't see a congressional commission looking into this, a la the Clinton impeachment. This doesn't hinge on what the definition of 'is' is but it doesn't matter. Republicans will always protect their own, no matter the law, no matter the crime.

Mark Foley Sex Scandal Republicans 2006 Election