Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned Friday after America learned who – and what – he really is. From Yahoo! News:In a scandal guaranteed to anger parents, a prominent House Republican has resigned after the revelation that he exchanged

When I first read about the emails by Rep. Mark Foley to a congressional page, I dismissed the matter as unimportant and not worthy of comment. After all, this was not a stranger seeking out kids on the internet –…

Barney Frank did have a prostitution ring running in his basement, but he was not involved, it was his housemate who was running it. And unlike the Foley case (or the Gerry Studds case, which was even more odious), there were no minors involved (they were all over 18).

I really REALLY hope that Studds is thrown in the face of any Dem who tries to make a big deal about this issue for partisan gain. I was a fan of Foley up until this point, but I am glad to see him gone if the charges are true.

I’m glad to see it happen. Trolling the House pages for sex — cyber or real — is unacceptable. Frankly, though, the emails initially seemed pretty tame to me. The Democratic opponent of Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) is calling for…

Reaction to Mark Foley’s emails is as expected. Total and complete disgust. I think it is really sad, too. There is some “questioning of the timing” of the release of the emails and some comparing of the reaction to Foley…

Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s resignation came just hours after ABC News questioned the congressman about a series of sexually explicit instant messages involving congressional pages, high school students who are under 18 years of age.
In Congress, R…

You mean like Representative Barney “I didn’t know a prostitution ring was being run out of my basement” Frank, Sev?

An even better analogy would be Gerry Studds, another liberal Massachusetts Democrat. Studds was caught actually molesting a page – not just Emails – but since he’s a lib and a Dem, he brazened it out and the sheeple in his district re-elected him.

libertarianobserver has it exactly right – the difference is integrity. Remember the first law of moonbat politics: Nothing is more important than power. Not national security, and certainly not a little thing like integrity.

If the IM’s which no one has validated yet are real, then Foley likely was set up and was dumb enough to fall for it.

Because the emails are harmless on their own merits.

The IM’s as reported represent a severe escalation in relationship.

Full Disclosure- Before commenting I must tell that my wife has met the Congressman’s parents but not Mark Foley himself. The Foleys were at one time parrishoners at the same Roman Catholic Church dear wife and I attend and where DW works as church r…

Sixteen-Year-Old Who Worked as Capitol Hill Page Concerned About E-mail Exchange with Congressman.

While at first going through the story it “seemed” like it was just an overly concerned, or perhaps a bit too friendly of a Congressman trying to be more in tune with his aides / pages (wasn’t sure if page was his or not though).

Some of the excerpts were:

In the series of e-mails, obtained by ABC News, from Rep. Foley (R-FL) to the former page, Foley asks the young man how old he is, what he wants for his birthday and requests a photo of him.

The page emailed another staffer this (which threw up red flags):

In one e-mail, the former page writes to a staffer, “Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out.”

In the story it explains the supposed reasons why Foley sent the emails:

Foley’s office acknowledges that Foley wrote the e-mails to the young man but says they were completely innocent and that Foley is at most guilty of being “too friendly and too engaging” with young people.

The e-mails were sent from Foley’s personal AOL account, and the exchange began within weeks after the page finished his program on Capitol Hill. In one, Foley writes, “did you have fun at your conference…what do you want for your birthday coming up…what stuff do you like to do.”

In another Foley writes, “how are you weathering the hurricane…are you safe…send me an email pic of you as well…”

What through red flags all over the place for me was that he Foley was sending these through a PERSONAL AOL account, and not his work / Congressional one. What he was sending had nothing to do with Congressional work, his office, or the pages activities for work. This was personal and was I am assuming “private” between him and the page – at least I believe he was hoping it would be.

Foley’s reasoning goes out the window, and personally I think he should be investigated:

Foley’s office says it is their policy to keep pictures of former interns and anyone who may ask for a recommendation on file so they can remember them.

The Congressional page program was started in the 1800s. In its current form, juniors from high school work on Capitol Hill after school or over the summer. The young man in question did not work or intern for Foley’s office.

His excuses go up in smoke here, since the page was not an intern or even work for Foley’s office, the first part of this is completely shot to hell, since there would be no reason to keep pictures and the like of pages or interns that do not work for you. Why would they come to someone who they don’t work for looking for a recommendation?

Elizabeth Nicolson, Foley’s Chief of Staff, said they believe the e-mail exchange began when the page asked Foley for a recommendation and that the subsequent exchange was totally innocent. She said Foley’s office believes the e-mails were released by the opposition as part of an “ugly smear campaign.”

I think i may have spoken too soon, but perhaps I just don’t understand….

Why would this page email Foley for a recommendation if he neither works for or has interned with Foley’s office?

That part is a bit confusing.

Regardless of which, normally emails and such would be handled by congressional staffers and not by the congressman himself with something this minor I would think.

Using his personal AOL account throw up even more suspicions and red flags.

I don’t know, this borders on solicitation of a minor, like the start of a person trying to get close to a minor, befriend him, and then pushing for more closer and sexual things in emails and encounters.