ABC News revealed this afternoon that Foley was engaging in “Internet sex” with a teenage boy while Foley was voting for the Bush administration’s Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriation in 2003.
ABC reports:
This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., …
Maf54 [FOLEY]: 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:
***
Bush often talks about the idealism of his war on terror and the nobility of congressmen and others who support his warring by burning tax dollars as fast as the IRS can vacuum them out of American paychecks.
We now know what Foley was doing when he voted to support scores of billions of dollars of additional spending for Iraq and Afghanistan.
But what were other pro-war Republicans doing at the same time?
How many other congressmen were metaphorically doing what Foley was doing actually?
Well, Jim, according to ABC’s blog, http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/warnings_about_.html, it ain’t just metaphorical. There are more under “watch”! Quote below:
“A former senior Republican official in Congress says Foley was one of a handful of members and staff whose behavior with pages was being closely watched.
But so far Foley is the only member whose overt sexual approaches have been documented.”
I suppose this sort of thing is not very different than many eighteen-year-old males who play video games and talk dirty in chat programs. Foley was simply playing ‘real world’ war games and talking smack! I’m not sure that anything coming out of the swamp on the Potomac would surprise me. How does one top bloodthirsty, profligate, Barney Franks, Mark Foley, or Jeff Gannon to name only a few?
Now, now Jim. You know our rulers are paragons of virtue and wisdom. They go around the country continually shrieking that everything they do “is fer da childern!” And I think this Foley fellow proves it.
Wes – I expect this scandal is only beginning.
The LA Times noted today that, as of last night, the FBI still has not taken a look at Foley’s computer.
Geez, you would think the guy was working in the White House, with that kind of accomodation.
Sort of like letting a crime scene cool down for a few weeks before prospecting for clues.
Sol – some friends of Leviathan say that the most important trait of a citizen these days is to be pliable.
A Washington Post columnist proclaimed yesterday: “Congressional pages tend to be idealistic, patriotic young people who
wholeheartedly believe in America. Many are contemplating a career in politics, and they are thrilled to have the chance to come to the U.S. Capitol and witness the workings of our great democracy.”
He left out the part about teaching the pages how to “squeal like a pig,” a la Deliverance.
Jim,
It’s great to know that some of these “idealistic, patriotic young people who wholeheartedly believe in America” are thinking about diving right into “public service”. I’d say being a combat veteran would do wonders to their resumes. Or have they learn from the example of people like Cheney, Kristol, ad nauseam?
The only amusing thing about this sorry state of affairs is listening to the various neocons that reside in the open sewers of lies and disinformation known as (neo)”conservative talk radio”.
Yes, it is fun to hear them gauge the docility and/or stupidity of their listeners.
Congressman Tom Reynolds (R-NY), the chief of the National Republican Congressional Committee, complained this past weekend that Foley has “betrayed the integrity of this institution.”
I leave it to the readers of this blog to come up with the great analogies for Foley betraying “this great institution.” [hat tip to top hellraiser Claire Wolfe on the Reynolds quote]
I leave it to the readers of this blog to come up with the great analogies for Foley betraying “this great institution.”
Well, while serving the “whore of Babylon”, do as the Romans, er, I mean Babylonians.
(Caveat lector, don’t misread any millenialist overtones into the aforementioned quote of St. John in his Book of Revelation. It’s simply a quip and has no theological meaning beyond that. — I find that I have to make this disclaimer more and more because I find myself surrounded by nutters who think St. John was envisioning the end of the world rather than the slaughter of the Jews in A.D. 70.)
Wes, I have already received a torrent of apparently automatically generated complaints about your Biblical quotation.
But I don’t trust any theological email with a 666 as part of the address.
Well, this isn’t as bad as our then-Commander in Chief speaking on the phone with a Congressman about waging an illegal war with Monica under his desk…
Sorry, that “illegal war” link should go here.
I’m not sure which is worse.
In a democracy, voting is supposed to be sacred.
But if the congressman didn’t use Purell hand sanitizer before entering the sacred chamber to vote for more bombs and other peacemaking accoutrements…. Well, that really puts a dent in the majesty of American democracy.
Well, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of G-d; so do so more colorfully than others!
As for doing as the Romans, well, there’s lots of fun examples to be read in Suetonius, or Procopius’ _Secret History_.
Zhuge
Aakash said:
“Well, this isn’t as bad as our then-Commander in Chief speaking on the phone with a Congressman about waging an illegal war with Monica under his desk…”
Suuure, Aakash. Because cyber-diddling 16 year-old boys while voting on bills is as bad as getting head from a grown woman while talking about stuff.
I remember back in the late 1990s, conservatives condemned Clinton for pursuing extramarital sex while he was supposed to be preoccupied with such important matters as the intervention in Somalia. I wonder if the condemnations will be nearly so loud now.
Jim, I’ve always said that the Democrat and Republican parties are the two most morally bankrupt institutions this country has ever produced. And every single day they do nothing to prove me wrong!
Bargal – “cyberdiddling” is a great term.
The news reports yesterday in the LATimes and today in the Washington Post stress that many folks have known about Foley’s proclivity for young pages since he got to Capitol Hill.
But perhaps the Capitol Police & congressional oversight committees will claim that they succeeded because Folely never attacked an Amish school, causing multiple fatalities.
Anthony – if my memory is correct, Monica Lewinsky was doing some underdeskwork while Clinton was on the phone to some congressman lobbying for his support to send US troops to Bosnia @ 1995.
According to the Starr report, Lewinsky’s efforts usually didn’t effectively hold Clinton’s attention.
But, according to the IM transcripts published by ABC yesterday, Foley had no trouble being self-enamoured.
If other congresscritters were “were metaphorically doing what Foley was doing actually”, there’d be no issue. I rather wish they did screw themselves. It would beat what they’re doing to us.
Mea culpa, Jim.
I don’t know where my head or ears are. I’m sure my wife can suggest a number of places, but…
Most post yesterday was completely off-base. I was simply trying to cute by suggesting that many eighteen-year-old males do what Foley was doing but in a fantasy, video-game-sort-of-way, etc., etc.
I did not realize – although I’m sure that I heard several news reports several different times – that Foley was chatting up young MALE pages! I just assumed that the dirty old bugger – now meant in its full sense – was trying to bed 18 and 19 year-old female pages – probably not unlike many of his colleagues.
For the record I do not know any young males who approximate Foley’s behavior in any fashion, real or imagined!!
they are a bunch of people hardbent on having all the good times in their lives while destroying the peace and security of their people and putting in front lines the lives of the soldiers who have devoted their lives to the security of the nation. These guys sit in their safeguarded luxury mansions and safeguard their own interests and enjoy on taxpayers wealth which every citizen pays inspite of all the hardship and the security risk he faces in present scenario which is a gift to all citizens by such people who don’t think twice before enacting because they are sure they will be protected by the common man’s vote and the money generated by his taxes.
Jeffrey Quick – ya, but I have no confidence in the average congressman getting the metaphor right.
Wes – I assumed such IM conduct etc. is not very common in your part of Alabama.
I will be curious to see, with his lawyer’s announcement yesterday, if Foley seeks to become a martyr in the same way as pulled off by the former governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey. That rascal put a foreign agent in charge of state homeland security – and yet the media sometimes treats him like Joan of Arc.
Thanks, Jim! You’re amazing memory strikes again! Republicans are such hypocrites, aren’t they? And, if you could believe this, I was one of the dupe libertarians who quietly thought a Republican takeover of DC would be a good thing.
Anthony – I also thought that a change in the party controlling the White House would have some upside.
Once again, my youthful idealism led me astray.
Well, at least the Republicans keep their hands of the internet. If the Democrats were in power, they’d probably maternalistically ban online gambling.
If the Internet gambling industry was smarter, they would have secretly promised Republican congressmen that they would always get a “lucky 7” when they gambled online. Instead, they didn’t offer to stack the deck in incumbents’ favor, so politicians shut down the game.
From the Mission Unaccomplished Department: It looks like our government masters aren’t going to be throwing that victory party. But hey, maybe next year. And it will only cost us $20 million.
http://tinyurl.com/rkg6q
This just proves that taxpayers need the same type of surveillance cameras in the House and Senate cloak rooms (where members gather before voting) than the feds are financing for use to spy on citizens all over the country.
This $20 million that Congress appropriated for the national celebrations after “victories” in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – I am curious:
How many congressmen were Foley-ing themselves when they voted for this crap?
Who is the teen?
A spy? / part of spy network?
Just wondering since Monica Lewinsky turned out to be much revered in Israel for stalling Clinton on Middle East peace by creating a diversion.
Remember the New Jersey governor who resigned? Another Israeli connection…his ‘gay’ initiator boyfriend.
There seems to be a network of such people in USA trying to influence politicians thru forging close extra-legal ties and related spying/blackmail.
Doesn’t Foley represent fellow creep Rush Limbaugh in West Palm? Birds of a feather~ let’s not forget that hop-head’s vile romp in the dominican republic~ what else is he going there for with a bottle of viagra? he can get adult whores here, he was there for poor desparate teen prostitutes.
“Beauty” – Rather than a victim of targeting by any organized group, Foley may have been the kind of guy who jumps anything with a hole and a heartbeat.
Jean – I have heard nothing indicating that Limbaugh had any proclivity for underage bedmates.
Maybe he likes the Salsa.
OMG, Jim!
That’s repugnant. I will never touch salsa again. “He *likes* he salsa.” Ewwwww. Ew ew ew. Gads, Rush, get a room!
…As for Foley cyberdiddling young *male* pages as opposed to young *female* pages, er, maybe I’m missing something here, but inappropriate conduct remains inappropriate no matter what sexes the players are. The principle is to not hit on the kid helpers, period. (What’s the age of consent in DC? –Is Foley’s behavior merely highly distasteful and creepy, or plain illegal? If the latter, why isn’t he in jail already?)
Either way, the general Congressional proclivity for uneven power distribution in relationships doesn’t bode well for their understanding of what “public service” means.
The age of consent in DC is not relevant because there is a tacit presumption that any plowing done by congressmen is in the public interest.
I was concerned when I first heard about this scandal but now that the House Ethics Committee is hot on the trail, I sleep better, knowing that truth and justice will out.