Spare the divining rod Spoil the perv

Maybe the Rethugs can't and won't be a divining rod for what's moral or decent but us liberals are, and will be, for you. There aren't many things the Republicans do that are even close to being moral and decent. Mark Foley is their latest poster manchild for what is terribly wrong with their entire Republican Party of bacchanalian hubris, gluttony, and total corruption.

This is how we spell hypocrisy:

From a 1999 interview with Mark Foley -

Congressman Mark Foley, Hollywood's New Point Man on Capitol Hill, Is Full of Surprises by Alicia Mundy September 21, 1999

You're supposed to be a key conservative member in Congress. So, how do you explain your leadership role in blocking Henry Hyde's so-called "culture amendment" in June?

"We should not be the ones to tell the public what they should let their children see. We can't be the divining rod for what's moral or what's decent."

Why don't we see you out there holding press conferences with other conservatives like John McCain, William Bennett (author of The Book of Virtues) and Joe Lieberman (a liberal Democrat who complained a few years ago that the dialogue on Cybill was too dirty for family viewing)?

"I admire William Bennett and Joe Lieberman and definitely John McCain. But they're trying to blame society's ills on one aspect only--entertainment. As for their impact--hey, I don't think anyone sees a politician as being a moral leader."

Foley got that last part correct, no we do not see you as being moral leaders, quite the contrary. Then we have Foley's testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee:

THE HONORABLE MARK FOLEY TESTIMONY BEFORE THE HOUSE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME, TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY HEARING ON H.R. 2423,

THE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION AND NOTIFICATION ACT JUNE 9, 2005

.. The numbers are shocking. There are currently over 500,000 registered sex offenders in the United States – with 24,000 of them living in North Carolina and Virginia alone. Of that, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, we are missing between 100,000 to 150,000 of these predators.

.. The legislation, which has been introduced in the Senate by senators Hatch and Biden, builds on the assumption that everyone – the federal government, the states and the average citizen -- has a role to play in keeping track of sex offenders.

.. Sex offenders are not petty criminals. They prey on our children like animals and will continue to do it unless stopped. We need to change the way we track these pedophiles.

.. Mr. Chairman, it has often been noted that a society can be judged on how it best treats it children. We have a moral responsibility to do everything in our power to protect our kids from these animals. This bill will turn the tables and make prey out of these predators. Failing to act on this measure is just playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives. (emphasis mine)

That's right, we're looking forward to seeing Mark Foley have to register as soon as possible with his own sexual predators and sexual offenders bill he was the head of. A new report has come out in the LA Times this morning with the type of story we've all been expecting that it was much more than emails and IM's, they have first hand account details of actual sex with an ex-page:

Ex-Page Tells of Foley Liaison

The young man says the then-congressman eyed males in the program. He says he was 21 when he and the Florida Republican had sex.
By Walter F. Roche Jr., Times Staff WriterOctober 8, 2006

A former House page says he had sex with then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) after receiving explicit e-mails in which the congressman described assessing the sexual orientation and physical attributes of underage pages but waiting until later to make direct advances.

The former page, who agreed to discuss his relationship with Foley with the Los Angeles Times on the condition that he not be identified, said his electronic correspondence with Foley began after he finished the respected Capitol Hill page program for high school juniors. His sexual encounter was in the fall of 2000, he said. At the time, he was 21 and a graduate of a rural Northeastern college.

.. The FBI has begun contacting former pages, and at least one — a deputy campaign manager for Rep. Ernest Istook, an Oklahoma Republican who is running for governor there — has hired a criminal defense lawyer, according to a published report. Istook issued a statement last week urging the media to protect the young man's privacy after his name was briefly posted on the ABC News website.

.. After leaving the program, the former page began receiving messages from Foley. He is uncertain how Foley knew his college instant-message name, but assumed the congressman had access to a directory listing former pages' whereabouts.

.. The exchanges quickly became provocative. In one 2000 message, Maf54 inquired about the length and direction of the youth's erection.

.. The former page, who served during Foley's first term, said that he believed Foley became bolder in his behavior during his decade in Congress.

"He clearly has used his position, but who hasn't?" the former page said. He still follows protocol in referring to the former congressman as "Mr. Foley."

So let me get this straight, Congressman Foley used his congressional position to find this page's personal contact details, targeted him, groomed him, and then used him to have sexual positions with and continue his long term, well known, pattern. The same pattern the highest levels of Republicans have known about and covered up for years. Just like the rest of their numerous crimes they cover up. Clearly this ex page must be a Young Republican to think be brainwashed that everyone does and should use their positions of power to get everything and anything they want, but I'm here to tell this young man even though he was of age by the time the tryst went down that our representives in Congress are there to work for us and govern the land properly, make good laws that follow the Constitution, use good judgement, practice oversight - and insure checks and balances- not to party, use people, or fuck over Americans and children.

This is not a gay issue, it's a sex crimes and sexual predator issue from the very people who are supposed to know and act better. It is a chronic Republican crimes and coverup issue. Had enough? Vote Democratic for humane morals, decency, safety, protection, and oversight.

Last fun night the Rethugs or Foley will ever have again

Mark Foley, Amo Houghton, Bill Thomas


Amo Houghton, Dennis Hastert, (James R. Houghton?)


Fred Grandy, Bob Michel, Amo Houghton, Dennis Hastert

Let's back up that Foley timeline once again, just a tad, to what was happening when life was still fun for the Rethugs before Page Rage set in, the Heave Eve if you will of cocktails, weenies, and trophies. In slow mo reverse it goes something like this:

• Sept. 30: Hastert writes letters several months years too late asking for an investigation of Foley's conduct.
• Sept. 29: ABC publishes explicit Instant Messages. Foley resigns his seat in the House along with his co-Chair seat as head of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.
• Sept. 28: ABC News alerts the whole freakin' world of inappropriate Foley emails.
• Sept 27, 2006: The Eve of destruction. Republican Main Street Partnership holds their Annual John Chafee Dinner Republican Par-Tay.

Mark Foley is was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership [wiki] until very recently, right up until at least Sept 27th or 29th - give or take a desperate hour - (the original member list is cached in Google retrieved on Sep 25, 2006 08:19:16 GMT). He did attend the big dinner the night before all hell broke loose:

PRESS RELEASE

September 28, 2006

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) Headlines Main Street’s Annual Chafee Dinner (Washington, D.C.) – Wednesday night, the Republican Main Street Partnership hosted its annual Chafee Dinner – named for former Rhode Island Senator John Chafee (R).

Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) was master of ceremonies for this year’s dinner, which was headlined by Chafee Award winner –Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

Annual Dinner- Senator John McCain(AZ), on the right, accepts RMSP Chafee award from Rep.Tom Davis (center), the RMSP Board President, and Rep. Mark Kirk (left) at our annual dinner, held Sept. 27, 2006.

The Master of Ceremonies is quite the attendance. Odd isn't it that a main URL about an 'annual dinner' has been disappeared, but a different one showing Foley's pic up top is cached, and his image is still in their main directory. I guess they forgot to remove it when they yanked it off the web page and his name off the current membership list.

Hastert himself, who claims he doesn't really know Foley, was a recipient of this RMSP award for the 2001 season, (Tom Ridge in 2002, Andy Card in 2003, Bill Frist 2004, Specter in 2005, are some more past honorees) the yearly awards are listed on the very web page Foley's pic was on originally. They've done a whole lotta scrubbing and shuffling things around on the site in the last week it seems, their site search function turns up lots of dead links.

The top three images above all seem to have been taken on the same night if you look at the striped 'yellow tie' Amo Houghton is wearing which would put ole Denny Hastert and Mark Foley smack together on that evening. It's hard to tell if the three pics were taken in 2005 for last year's dinner or if they are from this year, their site mislabeled or was unclear about a few things here and there that didn't match up or make sense at first, and most pics are simply labeled "recent dinner". The fresh McCain pic is a screenshot from the home page. Did Hastert attend the dinner last week where Foley was the master of ceremonies and John McCain was the headliner? Have they even arrested Hastert for the hugely corrupt Page Scandal Coverup yet? What do you think would happen to you if you sent lurid emails to young teens?

The man on the far right in image 2 is cited as being Bob Michel in a pic (see image 2 and 3 above) in their photo gallery , both men couldn't be the same Bob. I stumbled upon a pic of James Houghton (of Corning and Exxon) looking for Bob confirmation. Amory-father, Amo-brother, James looks like father Amory (founder of RMSP), all are related to Katherine Houghton Hepburn.

Hope all those drinks, food, and jovial hugs were real good there guys no matter how long you have been partying together, I think Sept 27th will be the last fun night any of you will have in quite awhile, not so much to laugh about these days is there? The Iraqis, us, and the world certainly aren't smiling either, nor do we believe a word that comes out of your mouths.

Had Enough? Vote for someone who really cares about our kids and ALL kids. Vote Democratic.

UPDATE: Over at Left-Over blog I see that seenos found the same pic of Foley on Oct 3 from the RMSP site, whereas I found it in a Google search and became curious over the dead links.

I also found a couple blurbs about a USA Today story from Oct 3 that briefly mentions Foley emceeing the dinner:

Foley's announcement Monday surprised Sarah Chamberlain, executive director of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Foley emceed the group's annual dinner Wednesday.

At the dinners, he was always working, so usually he didn't have anything to drink," she says.

Checked his bad self into drunk rehab huh? Do they have a Drunk-On-Power-And-Hubris Rehab Adult Day Care Center for the damn near entire Republican Party yet?