Holy Cow. FL Congressman Mark Foley has decided not to seek re-election and has submitted a letter of resignation…
WASHINGTON – Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., submitted a letter of resignation from Congress on Friday in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page, according to a congressional official.
Foley, 52, had been considered a shoo-in for re-election until the e-mails surfaced in recent days.
Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.
SNIP
Foley was running for re-election to a seventh term. He has represented his district, which includes West Palm Beach, since 1995. Florida Republicans could replace Foley on the ballot
UPDATE: According toTPM Foley’s name will stay on the ballot…
That creates a headache for the Florida Republicans. According to state law, they can pick a new candidate — but Foley’s name will stay on the ballot.
UPDATE: Ok Holy Shit.
ABC has the sexually explicit instant messages from the man who was the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children…
They say he used the screen name Maf54 on these messages provided to ABC News.
Maf54: You in your boxers, too?
Teen: Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late.
Maf54: Well, strip down and get relaxed.
Another message:
Maf54: What ya wearing?
Teen: tshirt and shorts
Maf54: Love to slip them off of you.
And this one:
Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?
Teen: A little.
Maf54: Cool.
The language gets much more graphic, too graphic to be broadcast, and at one point the congressman appears to be describing Internet sex.
Federal authorities say such messages could result in Foley’s prosecution, under some of the same laws he helped to enact.
UPDATE: OK I’m out of Holy Whatevers
Again fromTPM…
So Rep. Alexander knew about this 10 or 11 months ago. And he says he notified the House leadership. That means Hastert and (at the time) either Tom DeLay or Rep. Blunt (R-MO). We don’t know it was either of those three men yet. But that’s what Alexander means when he says he “notified the House leadership.” They’re the House leadership.
If I’m understanding this correctly, that means that the leaders of the House Republican caucus have known for almost a year that a member of their caucus was having cybersex with an underage congressional page. And apparently they did nothing about it.
I think this story is about to get a lot bigger.
…well…shucks!
He didn’t even give us any time to whip this up into a good ol’ “Republican Pedophile” fecal storm and get a little snark mileage out of it before he defenestrated himself…
Doesn’t happen to often, but I just HATE it when they do the right thing…
Not sure of the rules down there, but I expect doing the right thing had nothing to do with his quick departure.
If he has a safe republican seat, my bet is that somebody who knew there was much more to the story *cough-Rove-cough* gently “suggested” he resign quickly so another Rethuglican could be put on the ballot.
To paraphrase Captian Jack Sparrow, would just require the right “leaverage” to get hime to move quickly. (the kids have been rewatching the first movie)
You KNOW if there’s leverage to be found, Rove’s got it.
40 days before an election, I’m not sure “Holy Cow” quite captures it!
This is fabulous news, and on so many levels.
You know what they say, don’t get caught in a hotel room with a dead woman or a live boy…
— joshowitz
Don’t know that the Republicans can put up a new candidate?
Anyone know?
It’s been about 5 years and 10 months since I had occasion to read Florida election law, and look how that turned out! 🙁
A VERY quick read of Florida statutes (at 100.111(4)(a)) leads me to say (guess) that the Republican party gets to designate a replacment candidate in the next week or so (it says ‘5 days’, but I don’t know when the clock starts, how weekends are counted, etc.), BUT that Foley’s name remains on the ballot, and that votes for ‘Foley’ will be votes for the replacement.
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/publications/pdf/2006_election_laws.pdf
Don’t assume this means another seat for the Democrats. Never forget that in Florida news means Fox News, and you can be sure there will be lots of favorable news about “X” and little or no unfavorable news about Foley. Those voters will vote for Foley without a pause. The few who are aware of this story, and remember it for almost 40 days, will vote for Foley, knowing their vote counts for the new candidate. So, Florida Democrats, now is not the time to celebrate!
My relatives in that state will continue to vote Republican, the party with good family values, you know.
I hope it will be hard to get a Religious Right Republican to choke down a vote for someone that resigned over questionable contacts with kids, even if he’s not the candidate.
Be sure to check out Mark’s Page Page … if you “Need Help” …
http://www.house.gov/foley/services/page.htm
And the question is, will Dana Rohrabacher be next, or has he managed to cover his tracks with his marriage of convenience. The story of one of Rohrabaher’s aides and his penchant for underage boys, has come out in the OCWeekly again this week, although not in the MSM.
Link’s been Atriosed. … er, slashdotted.
Heard this on the NPR 5:45 roundup headline thingy.
Damn near drove off the road in sheer unadulterated amazement.
‘Course there was that quote from the guy who runs the pages service saying they were going to undertake a reexamination of the entire program to be sure the pages were safe.
I was like, “Holy shit — what happened??? And did it come out on a YouTube, or what????”
Will this sonofabitch be going to jail?????
Oh, man.
Go read this. For 11 months, “house leadership” knew about this, and apparently did nothing.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010054.php
I just read the update:
“Federal authorities say such messages could result in Foley’s prosecution, under some of the same laws he helped to enact.”
Takes one to know one.
Oh please please please let each Repub on the Sunday shows get asked about this, a la Obama and Belafonte!
— joshowitz
Well, I think you need (at least) one more “Holy #$@&%!!!!”
More than one page? At least two…
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010060.php
Scratch a ‘family values’ candidate, find a pervert. I swear ‘family values’ must be a code word, they all turn out to be pervs.
Jezaaz I can’t keep up. Thanks for helping.
What’s up with conservatives and sex? If it’s not controlling or kinky, they want to outlaw it or don’t want anything to do with it.
Was there a blow job involved?
Yo, Mark Foley. I gotcher “family values” right here, buddy.
GOP = Gay Oily Pederasts
The Democrats seriously need to take a page out of an old playbook, and go after Hastert, Boehner, et al, the way everybody went after Cardinal Law and the archdiocesan officials who turned a blind eye to the molesting priests. If they knew about this since 11 months(!) ago and didn’t force him to resign right then, they’re just as culpable as Law et al were.