Shoes Dropping All Over Tonight

More shit hits the proverbial fan on the front page of tomorrow's Washington Post. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), the only openly gay Republican* member of the House*, saw sexually explicit messages from Rep. Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA) to a young page in the year 2000 and confronted Foley about the emails.

Reading between the lines of the rest of the article, it seems that WaPo is pointing to Kolbe as another member of Congress with an 'unusually close' relationship to the underage pages:

In interviews with The Post last week, multiple pages identified Kolbe as a close friend and personal confidante who was one of the only members of Congress to take any interest in them. A former page himself, Kolbe offered to mentor pages and kept in touch with some of them after they left the program, according to the interviews.

Kolbe once invited four former pages to make use of his Washington home while he was out of town, according to an instant message between Foley and another former page, Jordan Edmund, in January 2002. The pages planned to attend a first-year reunion of their page class. But because of a snowstorm, they did not take Kolbe up on his offer, according to one of the four pages.

Hastert's spokesman's statement also seems to portend the later throwing of Kolbe under the GOP megabus:

In addressing the revelation about Kolbe, Bonjean said, "This allegation reiterates why the speaker has also called for a full review of the House page program to ensure that it is as safe and secure as possible."

Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000
Page Shared Exchanges With GOP Rep. Kolbe


*Edited 10/9/06; at first I said only openly gay member of the Senate. There are no openly gay members of the Senate (cough, cough, Lindsey Graham, cough, cough). After I demoted Kolbe to the Senate, I realized that there are a few openly gay Democrats. Whew. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Memorable

Hastert and his chief of staff, Palmer, say they don't remember being told about Foley being a predator. Newsweek has an article up saying that the meeting with Palmer was called because Foley had showed up drunk as a skunk at the page's dorm in 2002 or 2003.

Having a Congressman show up drunk at the residence of a bunch of high school students is pretty memorable, no?

Newsweek: A Secret Life
Mark Foley's explicit e-mails could bring down the GOP. His story, and the fallout.

Mark Foley: Giving Alcoholism a Bad Name

WaPo: Foley Lawyer Cites Alcohol, Childhood Abuse
Attorney Says Lawmaker Never Tried to Have Sex With a Minor

Foley Acquaintances Question Alcoholism

Steve Lopez, LATimes: Foley on the Prowl: 2 Creepy 2 B 4Gotten

After getting caught hitting on congressional pages with lurid shorthand e-mails and instant messages, the Florida congressman first blamed his keyboard adventures on alcohol, insulting alcoholics everywhere.

Again .... Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww

ABC News: New Foley Instant Messages; Had Internet Sex While Awaiting House Vote

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.

This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp.

Maf54: I miss you
Teen: ya me too
Maf54: we are still voting
Maf54: you miss me too

The 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:

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 really

Maf54: 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

Email excerpts

Rehab - The Last Refuge of the Truly Unrepentant

Disgraced Representative Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA), purportedly in 'rehab' in Florida, signed onto a chat room three hours ago using his AOL chat name Maf54.

Raw Story: Foley still logging into chat account with screen name linked to scandal

Blogactive: A word of advice... (with screen capture)

Howie My-Wife-Is-A-Republican-Operative Kurtz: Despicable Victim-Blamer

Howard Kurtz, your presstitute of the day.

Mr. Sherri Annis contributes this vile opinion to Predatorgate:

WaPo Media Notes: Cone of Silence

Among the many depressing aspects of the downfall of Mark Foley--who has now done the inevitable checking-into-rehab thing--is that a number of young people could have blown the whistle on this deceptive congressman in recent years, but didn't.

The Washington Post tracked down a couple of them. Former page Patrick McDonald said that at a 2003 reunion he learned of sexual messages that Foley sent three or four ex-classmates and thought, "if this gets out, it will destroy him."

Matthew Loraditch says he has known for years about the "creepy" messages the Florida Republican sent three of his 2002 classmates. But no one wanted to come forward. "You take down a Congress member, and you can't end up trying to do something later," Loraditch said.

Now I don't want to come down on 16-year-old kids (though some are now as old as 21) who must have been intimidated by the whole thing. Indeed, the power imbalance between a big-shot member of Congress and a lowly page is part of what makes this infuriating.

But did they really think that if they told the outside world that the co-chair of the Exploited Children's Caucus was sending them, or their friends, graphic sexual messages, that their future careers would be ruined? That they would be washed up in politics? Isn't it more likely that they would be hailed as brave for doing the right thing?

You fucking sheltered moron, they would be humiiated in the eyes of the world as the targets of a sex predator. All their friends asking, why did he target you? And some of these kids may be gay, and that may be why Foley with his practiced gaydar targeted them. Maybe they're not ready to talk about that yet. Look at Lindsey Graham. He's been in the military and the U.S. Senate, and he's still not ready to talk about being gay.

Howard Kurtz makes me sick. Who could write such drivel? Doesn't he have an editor? Oh, that's right, he works for the Post.

Rehab

Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA) has announced he's going into rehab. He's going into rehab like Mel Gibson went into rehab. Like alcohol causes someone to be a predator. Like alcohol causes someone to hate Jews.

Not gonna fly.

AP: Ex-Rep. Foley Checks in to Alcohol Rehab

WaPo: Ex-Rep. Foley Checks Into Rehab

PredatorGate Expands

Foley's conduct as revealed to date goes back to at least 2001. The Republican supervisor of the Republican pages warned them about Foley in 2001; the Democratic pages got no warning. 16-year-old boys left hanging in the wind by the Rethugs.

Hastert was caught lying about what he knew; now he admits he knew about the first set of emails.

Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), the National Republican Campaign Chair, who was the second Republican member of the House to learn about Foley's inappropriate emails, gave Foley $5,000 after he learned of them, then accepted $100,000 from Foley into the NRCC war chest.

I think Hastert will be the first casualty; even some right wing bloggers have called for him to resign.

ABC News: GOP Staff Warned Pages About Foley in 2001

A Republican staff member warned congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page.

[]

Several Democratic pages tell ABC News they received no such warnings about Foley.

ABC News: FBI Opens "Preliminary Investigation" of Foley

Daily News Politics Blog: Reynolds Knew, But Gave?

Reynolds's personal PAC, TOMPAC, wrote Foley a check for $5,000 on May 10, 2006.

According to the AP, Reynolds was told of the allegations against Foley "sometime this spring."

[]

UPDATE: Also: On July 27, 2006, the NRCC, which Reynolds chairs, accepted an unusually large contribution of $100,000 from Foley. Hard to imagine something of that size just slipping past the chairman.

Grand Ol' Police Blotter: Who Else Goes Down With Foley?

Mark Foley (R-FL) was some piece of work. Check out his dirty email exchange, which was turned over to ABCNews after it published a story about these creepy emails Foley sent to a 16-year-old page. Members of Congress emerging from a closed-door meeting yesterday said there are 35 pages or 36 pages of this garbage.

It's clear that this page's complaints were made to Republican leadership several months ago. But they were brushed off, or worse, actively covered up.

Now the unraveling of the cover-up begins. The original, complaining page worked for Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who says he contacted Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, several months ago. Alexander says he didn't do anything more because the parents of the page didn't want to pursue the matter. Reynolds says Alexander told him the same thing so he didn't do anything more.

John Shimkus [R-Ill.], head of the Page Board, says he was told about the page's complaint by the Clerk of the House and did an 'immediate investigation', which seems to have consisted of asking Foley, "Hey, Mark, what's the deal here?" and accepting his denial of perversion without doing any real investigating or even reading the emails themselves.

This tale of Republican incompetence at dealing with a known threat (sound familiar?) comes from today's Page One article in the Washington Post Rep. Foley Quits In Page Scandal; Explicit Online Notes Sent to Boy, 16.

And boy, are the heads of the party wriggling on the spit:

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of inappropriate "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he then told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.

Man, wouldn't you have wanted to hear that conversation between Hastert and Boehner? You told the Post WHAT?

Oh, and the Democratic member of the Page Board, who has served in that position for 20 years, wasn't told about the page's complaint about Foley. Which made it easier to cover up, n'est pas?

The only thing everyone can agree on here? Foley has $2.8 million in his campaign war chest; he should donate the entire amount to charity. Foley's House website has been taken down, so you can't contact him that way, but I bet his AOL email account is still active: MAF54@aol.com

Drop him a line, why don't you? But you might want to use one of your alternative email addresses, or you never know what you might get back from him. Ewwwwww.

Foley Out

While I was writing my previous post, Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned his House seat. Apparently investigation revealed more instant messages, more sexually explicit, to more young pages. And get this: he was Co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus in the House. Ewwww.

Yahoo: Foley submits resignation to Congress

ABC: Foley To Resign Over Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors

Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) planned to resign today, hours after ABC questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former Congressional pages under the age of 18.

GOP: Grand Ol' Police Blotter

Trout Lips Pirro, doomed candidate for New York State Attorney General, caught on tape trying to get Bernie Kerik to eavesdrop on her cheating hubby.

RNC Chair Ken Mehlman's been giving out federal money for political contributions; indictment to follow.

Ewwwwww, Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) caught writing creepy emails to a 16-year-old boy who was formerly a Congressional page. Oh, and Foley is one of those: Republican by day, Democrat by night. Since he's been in the closet his whole life, he's probably a 16-year old inside, too.