WaPo: "How Foley Skirted Rules to Pursue Relationships"

[npincus]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...



They met on the House floor. He was a 16-year-old political junkie, dressed in the drab navy blazer and gray slacks of a congressional page, rushing phone messages to the members he served. Rep. Mark Foley was tanned and charismatic, a successful politician in his mid-40s willing to joke with him between votes.

They talked perhaps a dozen times. Then at his page graduation ceremony that June, in 2002, he was excited when Foley appeared, uninvited, and dictated his personal e-mail address for the boy to jot in his memory book. "I started contacting him right away," the young man recalled. "I knew a congressman that I . . . talked to online. That was pretty cool."

The messages were innocent at first. But after the young man moved home, he recalled, Foley started asking about "my roommates, if I ever saw them naked." Within months, the congressman was dangling a job offer, "because I was a hot boy," he said. Two years later, when he contacted Foley for advice on D.C. hotels, the congressman wrote back: "You could always stay at my place. I'm always here, I'm always lonely, and I'm always up for oral sex."

The experience of the young man, now 22, who agreed to recount his interactions with Foley on the condition of anonymity, was characteristic of the way the six-term House member pursued the online relationships that, once revealed, forced him to resign from Congress late last month. No one interviewed for this article could cite any instance in which Foley had sex with a former page. Foley's lawyer, David Roth, declined to comment for this story.

more...

[Ino]

1. These kids are really awestruck

They savor, brag about, get jealous of any attention a congresscritter bestows. And Foley took advantage of it. That's so disgusting.

[SouthernBelle82]

2. Yep

Foley was the adult in charge and if he had any "problems" (what crap) he should have tried to get help or something.

[Stand and Fight]

3. Not quite sure what to make of this article...

It ends abruptly and reads more like a narrative than an article. It most definitely shows that Foley was pushing the envelope though. All in order to take advantage of these CHILDREN. He, at one point in this article, actually offers a page a position... The underlying meanings to be sex for a job in Washington. Then there's the letter of recommendation. No, none of this is innocent. It's downright sickening and predatory.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. These are the actions of a deliberate predator

Foley's supporters have tried to paint him as a victim unable to control his attraction to young men. That depiction falls apart when stories like this keep appearing. Such care to avoid violating the exact letter of regulations designed to protect the pages shows someone very much in control of himself. It shows Foley as a deliberate predator.

Those who are guilty of covering this up should be strung up for being this predator's pimps.

[civildisoBDence]

5. To catch a predator...

where's Dateline NBC when you need them?

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