Emails to teenager force Foley’s resignation

September 29, 2006

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), whose creepy emails to a 16-year-old page sparked an unseemly controversy, has resigned from the House and will not seek re-election.

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.

A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

Apparently, the vaguely suggestive emails weren’t the only problem. ABC News obtained excerpts of instant messages provided by former pages who said Foley, “under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.”

On a personal level, this is a very sad story, about a teenaged kid who shouldn’t have had to deal with these unwanted sexual advances, and about a lawmaker who clearly has a serious problem.

On a political level, the election is in 40 days, well past the filing deadline in Florida. The AP is reporting that the state party can still pick Foley’s replacement for the ballot.

And on a painful level, TP adds that Foley is the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.

Hey guys, don’t get too excited about one less Republican in the House.

With resignation, the devil is in the details. When is the effective date of the resignation? Can he be readily replaced on the Florida ballot? What happens if his name on the November ballot get more votes than his Democratic opponent?

Of course, the real question is: Does this mean that the Democrats need one less seat to pickup in the House?

  • All regret for Foley and his victims aside (and I can feel some compassion for those people who do obviously have serious psychological issues), this is something which the Democrats should be playing in the Big Leagues politically.

    After all, how many Republicans have had to resign in disgrace this year? Three right off the bat; Delay, Ney, and Foley (Have I forgotten any?). Oh, yeah, Cunningham.

    This isn’t coincidence, this is corruption (hey, that would make a decent slogan…).

  • Slip Kid- count this one almost a certain Democratic seat. From what I read, he can have a replacement appointed, but that replacement runs under ‘his’ name (e.g. his name remains on the ballot). How many people are going to check off the box next to a gay pedophile’s name?

  • The Democrats ought to treat the resignations like a baseball boxscore to vividly paint the systemic Republican corruption.

  • Castor Tony

    I don’t think that there are ballots in FL because we use touch screen here and I don’t beleive that his name will be on there because the sample ballots don’t come out until Oct 20 and there is still plenty of time for them to take his name off. So like I said I don’t beleive his name will be on the ballot.

  • It is a shame that the one Republican who resigned when he was caught ended up being a pedophile. Doesn’t exactly say much about Ney, DeLay, Cunningham et al does it.

    I understand he is a Rep from Palm Beach County. I have a hard time believing they would put a Dem in office but maybe if the candidate was moderate and vell respected. Who is the Dem nomination for that seat?

  • Jim, I am certainly not any sort of expert on this, just reading what I have off of mydd and dailykos. Take this for what it’s worth.

  • MNProgressive–Of course he had to resign as a gay pedophile. Who is more reviled in the Rethug party than gays? Just a pedophile might even have been forgiven. As to the crooks, they aren’t considered guilty of anything but “government” in the eyes of their colleagues. Corruption is what these people are there for.

  • It appears Foley’s name will stay on the ballot. It will be dificult to run another ROP candidate under Foley’s name?

  • Foley was the author of the key sexual predator provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which Bush signed in July.

    What are the odds??? When it comes to Repugs, it’s a good bet that they are doing exactly what they’re party rants against the most.

    Remember, this is the same president that was bringing morals back to the White House but had the gall to say, “What does that mean, “outrages upon human dignity”? That’s a statement that is wide open to interpretation” during a press conference.

    Morality Indeed!

  • From what I read, he can have a replacement appointed, but that replacement runs under ‘his’ name (e.g. his name remains on the ballot). How many people are going to check off the box next to a gay pedophile’s name?
    Castor Troy

    Yeah, I think the average, everyday Republican voter (i.e. the non-wangnut types) aren’t going to know they’re voting for “Foley’s replacement,” and will not vote at all or vote for the Dem.

  • Isn’t it nice to know the pigs eventually get caught?

    The down side: I’m sure we’ll have to endure another round of excessively ignorant “Gay = Child Molester” fuckwittering from the arch-cons and Bible thumpers.

  • As I posted earlier today on the other item dealing with this: “Why is it that these things always seem to happen to Republican lawmakers and to Roman Catholic priests? Could the common thread be a rather juvenile obsession with sex?”

    As an armchair pscyhologist (actually a professional sociologist), I’d be more than willing to bet that all the necons, militarists, hyper-religionists and the like have psychosexual problems. And I’m not referring to homosexuality, which is “normal” (for want of a better word). I mean problems with their sexuality.

    Normally, I feel sympathy for such people and believe they should see a therapist of some kind to find relief. Those who enter the political arena and make life miserable for others because of their hangups deserve scorn rather than help.

  • Well, this has driven the Abramoff scandal right back into the classified ads. Medal of Freedom (and 72 virgins — boys or girls) for Mr. Foley the Martyr.

  • The October surpise turns out to be the wonderous and long delayed appearance of karma.
    a slimeball get outed, puppet democracies feud and flounder, and then the muddlers get best seller exposure
    The comprehensive panorama of the Republican State of Denial just before elections is a Godsend.

  • “Foley is the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.”

    It is utterly amazing how completly this administration put foxes in charge in every governmental henhouse, though this one might have been inadverant.

    BTW, gay and pedophile are not synonymous, as the bible thumpers would like us to believe. Pedophilia is a perversion of power and control not a manifestation of sexuality.

    “Party of values voters” my foot.

  • Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children…

    Talk about the chickenhawk guarding the coop, eh?

    Being Irish myself, I always love watching a Publick Moralist Irishman get caught up in his own b.s. There’s nobody like an Irish Catholic for triple the hypocrisy. Probably learned it from good ol’ Father Sean there in the pedophile factory, er, I mean the choirboys dressing room.

  • I live in FL and wanted to know what happens now and was told that if the absentee ballots have been sent out then his name will stay on physical ballots however there is a posibillity that with e-voting and if sample ballots haven’t been printed then he may be replaced on the e-voter program.

  • “And on a painful level, TP adds that Foley is the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.”

    Clearly, he wanted to get all the best techniques from the experts.

  • IN recent years , the GOP have been touting themselves
    as THE ONLY PARTY WITH MORALS AND VALUES.
    Throwing it our faces constantly. The rest of us are
    sick of it .

    Oh this is good.
    This is very good.
    I say whatever scandals can hit the superior acting
    Republicans…then Bring Them On.

    Absolutely.

  • Hi, do you think if Mark Foley will turn over a new leaf? Only if he gets to the bottom of the current page.

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