Sixteen-Year-Old Who Worked as Capitol Hill Page Concerned About E-mail Exchange with

C

Care4all

Junior Member
Contributor
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/sixteenyearold_.html

A 16-year-old male former congressional page concerned about the appropriateness of an e-mail exchange with a congressman alerted Capitol Hill staffers to the communication.

Congressman Mark Foley'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, from Rep. Foley (R-FL) to the former page, Foley asks the young man how old he is, what he wants for his birthday and requests a photo of him.

THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
Congressman Ney Pleads Guilty to Accepting Lavish Gifts
NY Moneyman Arrested in Teen Sex Scandal
Check out the Brian Ross Webcast on Home Page
The concerned young man alerted congressional staffers to the e-mails. In one e-mail, the former page writes to a staffer, "Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out."
Click to expand...

Foley's office acknowledges that Foley wrote the e-mails to the young man but says they were completely innocent and that Foley is at most guilty of being "too friendly and too engaging" with young people.

The e-mails were sent from Foley's personal AOL account, and the exchange began within weeks after the page finished his program on Capitol Hill. 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…"

The young man forwarded that e-mail to a congressional staffer saying it was "sick sick sick sick sick."

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.

The Congressional page program was started in the 1800s. In its current form, juniors from high school work on Capitol Hill after school or over the summer. The young man in question did not work or intern for Foley's office.

Elizabeth Nicolson, Foley's Chief of Staff, said they believe the e-mail exchange began when the page asked Foley for a recommendation and that the subsequent exchange was totally innocent. She said Foley's office believes the e-mails were released by the opposition as part of an "ugly smear campaign."

-------------------------------------------------------
 
Yeah. I read about this. The kid had a right to be creeped out. The congressman is a smart man in that he knew exactly what he was doing. If there was an interest, the kid would bite and if not, he didn't say anything explicitly inappropiate.
 
Another one bites the dust as maineman said on the other site.... 14 more to go and speaker Pelosi....as maineman put it...

This is pretty shameful to mess around with kids like he has....

married with children himself I think...

Boy those republicans are all in the closet aren't they... even with Duke Cunningham the prostitutes he hired with our tax payers money were male prostitutes is what they say....wonder if they were children too?

This reminds me of what went on in the late 80's under bush one, in Omaha Nebraska and the us congress with the young boy pages....
 
Ummmm come on guys, "What do you want for your birthday coming up?"

While I certainly wouldn't convict him of anything if I were on a jury based off this report, I know when someone is trying to hit on someone else. That's how these older creeps work themselves into young boys lives: gifts, trips, etc.
 
LadyT said:
Ummmm come on guys, "What do you want for your birthday coming up?"

While I certainly wouldn't convict him of anything if I were on a jury based off this report, I know when someone is trying to hit on someone else. That's how these older creeps work themselves into young boys lives: gifts, trips, etc.
Click to expand...

Ummmm come on guys, "What do you want for your birthday coming up?"

I missed that. That's pretty freakin' wierd.
 
Cypress said:
Ummmm come on guys, "What do you want for your birthday coming up?"

I missed that. That's pretty freakin' wierd.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they must have been real innocent because the AP is reporting on the NYT website that he just resigned. So he must be a real innocent guy to resign without so much as a fight...

Yeah, he needs the benefit of the doubt!!!!!!
 
Whoa, Nelly!!!!!!!


Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.
 
Tom Delay: Indicted
Duke Cunniham: Convicted
Bob Ney: Convicted
Tom Foley: Pedophile
Jack Abramoff: Convicted


WTF is wrong with this congress?
 
Porter Goss was a Senator or congressman from florida before he became the head of the CIA and he had to RESIGN ABRUBTLY this past year and the rumor was it involved prostitution in the whitehouse or at other washington hotels or something like that....involved with the limo service that was the pimp service for Duke Cunningham & cronies...

we really won't know the truth and the depth of this until a few years from now when all of these people are out of power....imo. :(

And even then, as with the Franklin/Whitehouse sex scandal, it may forever be covered up....

I mean, who really wants to blast all of this embarassing stuff all over the world news.... I know I really don't, it makes us look so much worse if there really is a big hooplah scandal...it's a hard call, cuz they say the truth will set you free... :(
 
This is wierd and it’s big. There has to be something huge behind this. Either this guy has been doing something really bad and awful with a whole lot of young men and he knows it is all going to come out or worse. This is what I think. I think there is a whole scandal just below the surface here involving Republicans and pages and this is the tip of the iceberg and Foley has fallen quickly on his sword for the good of the party. October Surprise. This sure smells to high heaven and the fact that he quits immediately tells me this is something really big somewhere here. Most of these guys lie until every last detail is released and they slink off into the sunset but here you have something that is at worst creepy and generally even though questionable could be seen as creepy but nothing apparently happened, and the guy quits the next day, give me a break. This smells to high heaven!!!! There is something really big here, I’m telling you….



September 29, 2006
Foley Resigns From Congress Over E-Mails
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:55 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page.

''I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent,'' he said in a statement issued by his office.

The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley's decision to abruptly abandon a flourishing career in Congress.

Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for a new term until the e-mail correspondence surfaced in recent days.

His resignation comes less than six weeks before the elections. It was not clear how Republicans would fill his spot on the November ballot.

Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.

It was not clear what prompted Foley to abruptly decide to give up a successful career in the House.

Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. The page had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., and Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.

Foley's aides initially blamed Democratic rival Tim Mahoney and Democrats with attempting to smear the congressman before the election.

The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.

''The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process,'' the group wrote, adding that the committee, ''must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House.''

According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's office about Foley's e-mails, saying, ''This freaked me out.'' On the request for a photo, the boy repeated the word ''sick'' 13 times.

He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank you card. The boy also said Foley wrote that he e-mailed another page.

''he's such a nice guy,'' Foley wrote about the other boy. ''acts much older than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym...whats school like for you this year?''

In other e-mails, Foley wrote, ''I am back in Florida now...its nice here...been raining today...it sounds like you will have some fun over the next few weeks...how old are you now?'' and ''how are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well.''

What the boy wrote to Foley, who is single, wasn't available. The e-mails were sent from Foley's personal account, which Foley spokesman Jason Kello says he uses to communicate with many people, including Gov. Jeb Bush.

''They have taken these e-mails out of context in order to smear a good man,'' said Kello, who described the exchange as ''nonchalant, casual.'' He said Foley didn't save his e-mails or the boy's response.

Efforts to reach the boy were unsuccessful, but he told the St. Petersburg Times last November, ''I thought it was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back.'' The Times didn't publish the comments until Friday.

The campaign for Mahoney, who trails Foley in the polls, said it didn't release the e-mails and wouldn't make them part of the campaign. In a statement released by Mahoney spokesman Jessica Santillo, the campaign referred to the boy as an ''alleged victim.''

''The seriousness of these allegations goes far beyond the tit for tat of a political campaign,'' Santillo said. ''This is a matter for the appropriate authorities to investigate. I believe Mr. Foley deserves the benefit of the doubt until these allegations are proven true or false.''

Alexander's chief of staff, Royal Alexander, didn't return several calls to his cell phone Thursday and Friday seeking comment. Alexander's press secretary, Adam Terry, didn't return an e-mail or phone messages. Alexander and Foley wouldn't talk to reporters while the House was in session Thursday and Foley didn't return calls to his cell phone.

Kello disputed the claim that the e-mails weren't distributed by the Mahoney campaign.

''They've been shopping this around to reporters for weeks now. They want a headline and that's it. It's a political smear campaign of the worst kind,'' Kello said.

Full Story
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top