On Oct. 1, Republican former Rep. Mark Foley checked into the Sierra Tucson Treatment Center in Arizona, purportedly to deal with the alcohol abuse that he cited as a contributing factor to his sexual pursuit of teenage boys.
Rehab at the center usually lasts 30 days (at a cost of $30,000) but on Nov. 1 we learned that Foley was going to stay at the center for at least another week — thereby conveniently keeping his name out of the press in the final days of campaigning for the midterm elections.
Well, the elections are over and the damage done by his scandalous behavior has taken its first toll. His party lost both houses of Congress, in no small measure due to the revelation of his salacious emails to young House pages.
The elections may be over but the Foley scandal is not. We are still waiting on findings from the House Ethics Committee. We need to know when the House leadership, including Speaker Hastert, Majority Leader John Boehner and others, knew about Foley’s inappropriate behavior toward the pages. We need to know whether there was a cover-up by GOP House leaders and, if so, who else may have been involved.
So many questions but let’s start at the top: Where is Mark Foley?
Foley is outa here…..It is the “others”, Hastert, BONER, BLUNT,et al, that should now be placed on “the hot seat” UNDER OATH….
Anybody wanna make book on this one?????
Ok, once again, Foley is NOT a pedophile. There is a difference and a big one at that between pedophilia & what Mark Foley did. I never defend Republicans but the reality is that Foley is a harrasser but not a molester and his behaviour no doubt had some effect on the elections but I think the Republicans would have tanked on November 7th with or without the Foley scandal.
Sort of depends on your definition of pedophile. No – he didn’t go after prepubescents. But he did go after minors, groomed them and waited until their 18th birthday to act.
The emails and IMs were illegal based on the pedophile law he sponsored which made internet contact with minors illegal up until age 18, even though he could have boinked them at 16 in DC.
And he was a harasser – he had power and impressionable young pages didn’t.
Whatever your definition – he is gross and broke laws. I am gay – he is gay based on his longterm adult relationship and probably some short term ones. But trolling for teenagers is not just gay or harassment. And I would not leave him alone with my 12 yr old son. I am gay, BTW.
Garry is correct that pedophilia is the technical term for sexual attraction to prepubescent children. (Ephebophilia and its variants refer to sexual attraction to teens. My colleague Trish had a post about this that I’m having trouble digging up but will link to when I nail it down.)
There is also a jurisdictional issue related to the Foley scandal because the age of consent in the District of Columbia is 16.
In any case, Carolyn is correct that it appears that Foley was clearly engaged in sexual harrasment in the workplace, at the very least.
Whatever else he is — whether felon, ephebophile and/or harrasser — Mark Foley is a hypocrite of the first order, as are the Republican leaders who enabled him to perv on teenage boys under their care.