Update: Foley has resigned.
Nothing, and I mean literally nothing, captures the attention of the political world like a scandal involving sex. With this in mind, I was inclined to wait and see what happens with this story, but in light of the interest, I figured it was probably worth a post.
I noted briefly yesterday that there’s a new flap involving a member of Congress and a 16-year-old page, but this story seems to be picking up momentum quickly. ABC News’ Politics page now lists this as its top story of the day.
A 16-year-old male congressional [tag]page[/tag] concerned about the appropriateness of an e-mail exchange with a congressman alerted Capitol Hill staffers to the communication.
Congressman [tag]Mark Foley[/tag]’s office says the e-mails were entirely appropriate and that their release is part of a smear campaign by his opponent.
In the series of e-mails, obtained by ABC News, between the page and Rep. Foley (R-FL), Foley asks the page how old he is, what he wants for his birthday and requests a photo of him.
Foley’s office acknowledges that the Florida Republican wrote the emails, but says the lawmaker is only guilty of being overly friendly.
I haven’t seen all the emails, so I don’t have a sense of context, but given media reports, Foley may be guilty of more than that.
The e-mails were sent from Foley’s personal AOL account. 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…”
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 — but the page in question did not work or intern for Foley’s office. The page was also not from Foley’s district (or even state).
Now, it’s possible there’s some context we’re missing here. Maybe Foley’s knows the 16-year-old page’s family. Maybe Foley asks what other teenaged pages want for their birthday all the time.
But in this case, this particular page didn’t care for the personal attention, and alerted congressional staffers to the emails. In one message, the page writes to a staffer, “Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out.”
By the time Foley asked the kid for his picture, the page forwarded the congressman’s message to a congressional staffer saying it was “sick sick sick sick sick.”
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate the matter, saying, “The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process. To fulfill that responsibility, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House and, should those allegations prove true, take swift action to punish the offenders.”
[tag]Foley[/tag] has been expected to cruise to re-election this year. It may not be quite as certain a lock as it was before yesterday.