Congressman resigns for racy IMs to teen

[Carter711]

A prominent 6-term Republican Congressman resigned today after sexually suggestive IM's he sent to a 16-year-old male congressional page were made public.

ABC News posted some of the exchanges between Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla) and his page

Maf54: What ya wearing?

Teen: tshirt and shorts

Maf54: Love to slip them off of you.

Maf54: Do I make you a little horny?

Teen: A little.

Maf54: Cool.

Foley also repeatedly asked for the teen to send him his picture. The teen sent the exchanges to a congressional aide saying Foley "freaked him out."

Ironically, Foley was considered a leader on protecting children from internet predators. Foley also voted to impeach Pres. Clinton in 1998.

The incident adds another wrinkle to Republican hopes to hold on to the House this election. Foley had been considered a shoe-in for reelection. Now his Democratic challenger is widely expected to win the seat.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/29/con...ails/index.html

[Cadeho]

We needed to see this guy on Dateline!

And Republicans have dinkies to think with? I could have sworn they didn't, which is why their wives are all uptight... now we have a pedo Republican... what are the odds of that?

[Snowguy716]

I wouldn't blame this solely on him being a Republican. The man is sick and he needs help.

The Republicans should take a bit of flak, however, for being the supposed champion of family values and voting as such when their own congressional colleagues are out doing things like this. Not only should the Repblicans be purged from congress, they should be purging the sickos out of their own ranks, along with the democrats.

To be quite honest, I hope the guy simply turns himself in and the media stays away from it. It shouldn't take a pedophile in the ranks to get Americans to vote for the other guy.

[Cadeho]

I wouldn't blame this solely on him being a Republican. The man is sick and he needs help.

The Republicans should take a bit of flak, however, for being the supposed champion of family values and voting as such when their own congressional colleagues are out doing things like this. Not only should the Repblicans be purged from congress, they should be purging the sickos out of their own ranks, along with the democrats.

To be quite honest, I hope the guy simply turns himself in and the media stays away from it. It shouldn't take a pedophile in the ranks to get Americans to vote for the other guy.

Oh no I wasn't connecting pedophilia to Republicans (although they're all freaks that are hypocritical), it'd be neat if I could categorize them all as such... well.. Ann Coulter is a man who thinks Democrats are Godless... so why not?

[ironchapman]

Ha, the guy's an idiot (as well as a pervert) in this case. Good riddance.

[Carter711]

Ha, the guy's an idiot (as well as a pervert) in this case. Good riddance.

Seriously, how can you be so stupid. But obviously this guy does have some kind of sickness, and this poor kid has a great sexual harassment case.

And those posts are just the tip of the iceberg. The congressman repeatedly asks the teen about his anatomy and sexual habits. When Foley finally tells him to "take it out" the obviously uncomfortable teen tells him he has to go cause his mom is yelling for him.

The entire IM exchange is posted at ABC News at

http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/02-02-03b.pdf

Be warned it is sexually explicit.

[Snowguy716]

Wow. How do you respond to that?

Yick.

[nowensone]

To be quite honest, I hope the guy simply turns himself in and the media stays away from it. It shouldn't take a pedophile in the ranks to get Americans to vote for the other guy.

I agree he should turn himself in, however, I feel there should be the kind of national attention appropriate for his stature as a member of the highest tier of public lawmaker. It will not be good for his family, and that is lamentable, but for the public good, people need to know their leaders don't always practice what they preach and are corruptable, and to use their brains more than their hearts when voting.

[Charlotteman]

He wrote inappropriate (and illegal) emails to a 16 year old kid, and he was in charge of an entitiy that was suppose to oversee such abuses.

He voted to impeach President Clinton.

What a hipocrite~ good riddance.

[Pillsbury]

Wow, that's the sickest thing I've seen all week!! Man, how weird. What a pervert.

[Pillsbury]

I wouldn't blame this solely on him being a Republican. The man is sick and he needs help.

The Republicans should take a bit of flak, however, for being the supposed champion of family values and voting as such when their own congressional colleagues are out doing things like this. Not only should the Repblicans be purged from congress, they should be purging the sickos out of their own ranks, along with the democrats.

To be quite honest, I hope the guy simply turns himself in and the media stays away from it. It shouldn't take a pedophile in the ranks to get Americans to vote for the other guy.

You know, I'm going to say this and I don't want it taken the wrong way, but I think the Catholic Church suffers a bit from that as well (I'm a Catholic Doughboy). Not that it's hypocritical, but just that I think a lot of sick people end up in the higher ranks kind of hiding (or preying). It seems like it's always the people so obsessed with family values that end up having the child porn on their computer.

Having said that, this kid is kind of weird himself. At 16 I was usually not online talking about my masturbation experiences with Lindsey Graham or Mark Taylor.

[Charlotteman]

Several posts have mentioned that the man is sick and needs help. Yes he's sick; he's a pedophile. But unfortunately there is no treatment or cure for pedophilia. Once someone is diagnosed as a pedophile, the only hope society has is to keep an eye on them. (or keep them in prison)

[Pillsbury]

^ Good point. It's like alcoholism or something, it's always there. But is this guy really a pedophile considering this kid is 16? Don't they have another word for that?????

[monsoon]

^ Good point. It's like alcoholism or something, it's always there. But is this guy really a pedophile considering this kid is 16? Don't they have another word for that?????

I believe that 16 is the age of consent in most states, and in most states you can get married at this age, so most likely not from a legal perspective. If this is what the news has called him then they have it wrong.

Still its a really bad example for a member of the congress to do something like this.

[waccamatt]

He is an idiot and a hypocrite; to say he should have known better is a huge understatement.

[Cadeho]

According to ageofconsent.com, Florida's is 16/18 for heterosexual couples. As for the two ages, I'm not sure exactly what it means, it could mean the age for certain activities. Homosexual anything is illegal. It could be more about that, but generally 18's considered the age of consent. It's still pretty disgusting what went on in that chat log (is it not a composite of a couple sessions from more than one boy?). It bothered me that the kid(s) would even give out that information especially to someone way older and who you work for and then see they're getting turned on! Oh no way!

[kayman]

It's gonna hit the fan!

[monsoon]

.... Homosexual anything is illegal. .....

Those CAN laws were all struck down by the supreme court last year as they should have been. However it does not excuse what the congressman did. The point is that since the boy is 16, there probably isn't much that can be done from a legal perspective unless the 16 year old says he was forced into it,which he obviously wasn't.

[kayman]

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/news/our-thing/25902/

I'm starting to see a disturbing pattern.

[runawayjim]

apparently the GOP is wasting no time distancing themselves from foley.

CNN article

[Jerseyman4]

This just embarasses all politicians period

[Charlotteman]

I think the legal age is 18 in most American jurisdictions. It's 16 in lots of places in Europe.

16 ain't a child, but it is still HIGHLY inappropriate for this man to have written this kind of IM to him. That kid needs to be interacting with kids his own age. He doesn't need a congressman harassing him online.

The hypocracy of these unscrupulous Republicans is simply astounding.

[krazeeboi]

Oh no I wasn't connecting pedophilia to Republicans (although they're all freaks that are hypocriticall)

No offense, but that's a pretty ignorant generalization.

[monsoon]

I think the legal age is 18 in most American jurisdictions. It's 16 in lots of places in Europe.

There is no such thing as a general "legal age" in the eyes of the law. There is the age of consent, which is 16 in most states, 18 in a few states. The voting age, which is 18, used to be 21 until the Vietnam war. Drinking age which is 21 but used to be 18 up until the 90s. Generally at 16 you are conveyed most of the the rights as that of an adult which means you can leave home without your parents consent, have sex, get married, hold a job, get a drivers license, etc. There have been moves in the United States to move these rights to older ages but most of these are state laws so it will vary somewhat. Thia is with the exception of crime where some states have tried 12 year olds in adult court.

[runawayjim]

There is no such thing as a general "legal age" in the eyes of the law. There is the age of consent, which is 16 in most states, 18 in a few states. The voting age, which is 18, used to be 21 until the Vietnam war. Drinking age which is 21 but used to be 18 up until the 90s. Generally at 16 you are conveyed most of the the rights as that of an adult which means you can leave home without your parents consent, have sex, get married, hold a job, get a drivers license, etc. There have been moves in the United States to move these rights to older ages but most of these are state laws so it will vary somewhat. Thia is with the exception of crime where some states have tried 12 year olds in adult court.

i dated a young girl when i was 21, she was 17. i did a bit of research at least on CT and the surrounding states laws. it's definitely 16 for the age of consent.

as for the drinking age. that's also a state law. i don't know where you're from, but it's been 21 in the northeastern states since the 70's. my mother remembers being 18 when teh law bounced back and forth between 18 and 21 and had the right to drink and lost it a couple times. eventually it stayed at 21. i think that if you are old enough to go to war, you shoudl have teh right to drink.

also, i'm not so sure on teh accuracy of the 16 year olds being able to get married and leave home. they need parental consent here to do that before the age of 18. you can hold at job at 16 and get your driver's license (albeit a very restricted one in the states i'm familiar with) at 16, but you can't leave home, quit school, etc, until you're 18.

but all this aside, that congressman was way out of line and that was definitely sexual harrassment, for which, the kid should sue him royally. did the kid work for him? how did they know each other?