But if it had been your kid you’d probably be a little on the side of the polemic, I’m betting. For those people, and all the children who are exploited for political gain when they suffer, but never really helped by those who use them, this is for you:

Florida law enforcement officials have been denied access to the office computers of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, despite a direct appeal to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for help in their investigation of sexually explicit messages sent to current and former teenage congressional pages.

In response to a letter sent to Pelosi last month by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, House Deputy General Counsel Kerry Kircher denied the agency’s request, citing the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, which protects congressional papers.

“We have received (the House’s) response, and our investigative team is reviewing it,” FDLE spokesperson Heather Smith told ABC News. She said despite the House refusal to provide access to Foley’s computers, the FDLE is still investigating the former Republican who now sells real estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

Foley resigned Sept. 29, 2006, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit messages with former congressional pages, some of whom were under the age of 18 at the time of the exchanges.

and isn’t that weird, abc won’t seem to let me copy and paste from that page, hmmm  Read more 

Dollar Cross: “A Christ-Centered Dollar Store.”

They’ve even got a close-out section:

1. Jeff Gannon bobble-head dolls: Only $1.00! Putting the “bob” in “bobble”!

But read on for even better deals:  Read more 

Based on past behavior, I don’t think it’s likely the Diocese would be asking this question if they thought Foley’s story was true. (Remember, the only “friend” who vouched for Foley’s alchoholism is also Foley’s lawyer). Palm Beach Post:

The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach has sent a formal letter asking Mark Foley’s attorney to identify the clergyman who allegedly abused the former congressman.

Foley’s attorney, David Roth, said during a news conference on Oct. 3 that a clergyman had molested Foley when he was from 13 to 15 years old. He did not identify the person, church or denomination.

“Until such time as you identify the alleged perpetrator,” diocese attorney J. Patrick Fitzgerald wrote in an Oct. 5 letter to Roth, “all clergy that served in Palm Beach County have been needlessly placed under suspicion.”

Well, come on. Isn’t “needless” just a bit harsh?

Foley’s stashed away in rehab so he can’t talk to the press. And the Republicans are going to let him out, just to clear the names of a few clergy? Don’t you realize there’s an election to win?  Read more 

As we’ve been saying. Now the Dems are saying it, in a close race in Ohio. New York Times:

[Mary Jo] Kilroy is using the Foley scandal to try to systematically undercut Ms. [Deborah] Pryce [R-Friend (Beard?) of Mark] with a big component of the Republican base here, Christian conservatives, when Republicans already worried that those voters would stay home on Election Day. “Deborah Pryce’s friend Mark Foley is caught using his position to take advantage of 16-year-old pages,” an announcer says in advertisements the Kilroy campaign has placed on Christian radio stations.

Is it working?  Read more 

Finally, somebody picks up on this. ABC:

[This] should be the key bit of learning from this entire tawdry affair. The principals involved — Foley and Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the speaker of the House — offer some key lessons about abuse of power and the unwillingness of leaders to deal with that abuse.

Interestingly, the author, Bob Rosner, puts the story in the context of workplace harassment:  Read more 

That’s the common thread that connects Foley using his power as a Rep so he could line up 16-year-olds for ice cream runs, Bush using his power as President for torture, and every Republican malefaction in between. The Republicans are one and all, without exception, in the game for whatever they can grab by the handful whenever they think they have the power to get away clean with the loot: All the way from a nearby pageboy through stacks of cash at the CPA to the oil under the sands of Iraq. They’re all the same: Abuse of power. That’s why they sought power. (It’s also why they can’t govern, only rule.)

And the part about getting away clean? For Republicans, that’s the abuse that’s better than sex. Or perhaps… To them it is sex. The id is political.

All of which is another way of saying that the Foley story is not a “gay” story, despite our helpful SCLM and other clueless Beltway operatives forcing the narrative into that frame.  Read more 

The incredibly lucid Avedon puts it this way:

The real issues in this case involve both harassment and the refusal of the Republican leadership to deal with it, but also the fact that Foley got a law passed making his online activities illegal. Understand this: If Foley had sex with a 17-year-old in Washington, DC, that wasn’t breaking a law, because the age of consent in DC is 16. However, the federal law Foley created made it illegal to have sexual online contact with anyone under 18, and that’s the principle criminal issue.

Breaking a Federal law that you yourself wrote—Is that carrying self-hatred to new, unheard of heights, or what?  Read more 

AP:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s political support showed signs of cracking on Wednesday as Republicans fled an election-year scandal spawned by steamy computer messages from former Rep. Mark Foley to teenage male pages.

And, for some reason, Republicans don’t want to be in the same photograph with Hastert anymore:

Republican Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky, in a tougher-than-expected re-election race, abruptly canceled an invitation for Hastert to join him at a fundraiser next week.

And here’s a lovely, lovely vote of confidence from Lewis:  Read more 

Two enablers. Nice.

And the story this photo is next to?  Read more 

AP:

The Justice Department ordered House officials to “preserve all records” related to disgraced Rep. Mark Foley’s [R-Neverland] electronic correspondence with teenagers, intensifying an investigation into a scandal rocking Republicans five weeks before midterm elections.

Um, isn’t it a little late to preserve the records? When I called Foley’s district offices on Tuesday, the computers were still running, so I’m assuming they hadn’t been sealed.

I’m going to propose a new unit of measurement, along the lines of Atrios’s The Friedman (six months ’til everybody in Iraq gets a pony? Then everybody would stop shovelling after 1 Friedman has elapsed).

That unit [snicker] is The Gonzales Number. Read on:  Read more 

Yes, it’s Mark Foley once more:

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:

Can we please stop this nonsense that Conngressman Foley (R-Neverland) didn’t have sex with minors?

Or are the Republicans arguing that phone sex isn’t really sex?  Read more 

“Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over the Kool-Aid”

Yeah, if there were a Republican 12-Step program, that would indeed be Step 1. Actually, I was going to write “…powerless over the lust for power” but that’s just part of the Kool-Aid.

Gross Old Pervs.

Well, surprise, it turns out—and in just a couple of news cycles—that though Mark Foley (R-Neverland) checked into rehab, he may need a 12-step prograom for Kool-Aid. But not for alchohol:  Read more 

Because I can’t.

Here’s The Decider’s reaction to that poor sad drunk of a Republican cash cow and sex predator, Mark Foley:

President George W. Bush did not respond to questions in California over whether Hastert should resign, but said he was “confident he will provide whatever leadership he can to law enforcement” in its investigation of Foley.

In what world does one provide “leadership” to the cops and the prosecutors?

Maybe when you lead them to the Instant Messages buried in the wooded area, but I’m hard pressed to think of any other way that this statement makes sense.

Can somebody whose head is more into Bush’s bizarre, warped universe than mine is decode this?  Read more 

Because otherwise he’s have a lot to answer for.

Authoritarian relationships are abusive relationshiops.

Exhibit A:  Read more 

Xan (she’s a Goddess) read to the end of the LA Times article and found pure gold:

As of late Monday, the FBI had not requested access to the computers in Foley’s former congressional office.

The office has continued to operate, handling constituent requests and other routine chores, but under the auspices of the clerk of the House.

How odd. Because if the office is still operating, it’s still using the office computers.

And with Foley emailing and IMing every underpage page with a twig and berries on the Hill, those computers could contain some very interesting evidence. Eh?  Read more 

Today’s winner is not Mark Foley.

It’s Mark Foley’s lawyer!

Mark Foley has never, ever had inappropriate sexual contact with a minor in his life

Leaving open the question, as Josh points out, of what appropriate sexual contact with a minor might be….  Read more 

And why am I using the past tense?

LA Times: Everybody knew about Foley:

Foley’s Proclivities an Open Secret?
“Almost the first day I got there I was warned,” said Mark Beck-Heyman, a San Diego native who served as a page in the House of Representatives in the summer of 1995. “It was no secret that Foley had a special interest in male pages,” said Beck-Heyman, adding that Foley, who is now 52, on several occasions asked him out for ice cream.

Jeebus.

Another former congressional staff member said he too had been the object of Foley’s advances. “It was so well known around the House. Pages passed it along from class to class,” said the former aide, adding that when he was 18 a few years ago and working as an intern, Foley approached him at a bar near the Capitol and asked for his e-mail address.

Hastert and the Republican leadership say “We didn’t see the Instant Messages! And besides, we banned Foley from from contact with that page!”(Anyone notice those two statements contradict? If they ban him from contact, why not dig deeper and find the IMs?)

But anyone, even Republicans, who’s not part of the leadership, can see that what Haster should have done:  Read more 

WaPo:

There was intense anger among social conservative activists in Washington yesterday, and some called for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to resign.  Read more 

And, incredibly, once again the winner is Mark Foley (R-Neverland)!

Those are the last words of the last paragraph of a truly odd story in yesterday’s Times by Rachel Swarns.

At the top, the headline, which the editors, not the reporters, write:

Former Pages Describe Foley as Caring Ally

R-i-i-g-h-t… Because that’s the kind of game that pedophiles play, isn’t it? Showing an interest…

Except that—as The Man in the Grey Turtleneck points out—the lead is buried eleven paragraphs down:  Read more 

I’m so confused. Alert reader Anonymous suggests “Gross Old Pedophiles” but gosh, I’m just not sure that’s it.

Readers, can you help? Suggestions?

And once again, it’s Mark Foley (or at least someone faxing to Drudge under that name).

“Believe I’m an alchoholic”??? WTF? Believe me, Mark—if I may call you Mark—if you’re an alchoholic, you’re either in denial, or you know. There’s none of this “believe” shit.

And with the priest, er, Congressman checking into rehab, I’m more and more minded to ask if Cardinal “Bernie” Law and Speaker “Denny” Hastert were separated at birth.

Not to say that having Foley stashed away in rehab isn’t very convenient. Because it looks like some Republican staffers or strategists are keeping their heads when everyone around them is losing theirs. Consider:  Read more 

And once again our winner is: Mark Foley.

“Cruise”?? WTF!

But the weird thing about the quote is the context:  Read more 

Source: Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA).

And no, we’re not talking about the International System of Units here. Watch the video. It’s appalling.

But you know, I just can’t help wondering…

What was the measurement? Could it have been …  Read more 

Down, Rick! Down! No! Get offa my leg!

Bush heaves Foley over the side:

The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress called Sunday for a criminal probe into former Rep. Mark Foley’s electronic messages to teenage boys — a lurid scandal that has put House Republicans in political peril.  Read more 

pro-power Republicans knew in 2005 about Foley’s ephebophilic behavior:

says the Houston Chronicle.  Read more