Washington News
Distraught Republicans lambasting one another
By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD
Monday, October 30, 2006
Former Rep. Mark Foley's lewd behavior with teenage pages dropped like a match in a dry forest of conservative anger at Republicans.
More than the scandal itself, the anger is what could topple the House leadership and end 12 years of Republican control of the House.
For many conservatives, Republicans have assumed a startling resemblance to the Democrats they ousted from a 40-year reign in 1994.
"They have become that which they beheld," said Richard Viguerie, the father of conservative grassroots activism.
Foley investigations taking measured approach
By LISA HOFFMAN
Friday, October 27, 2006
As political ads capitalizing on the Mark Foley sex scandal prepared Friday to air across the country, the gears of a two-pronged federal investigation into the X-rated conversations the former lawmaker held with congressional pages started to turn.
But anyone looking for fast results from the FBI and House ethics committee probes of the circumstances surrounding contacts between the former House GOP lawmaker and male teenagers will be disappointed.
All signs Friday showed that both investigations are proceeding methodically, with the focus on conducting interviews and assembling documents that, in turn, will be analyzed to answer the questions: Did Foley commit a crime by sending sexually explicit online messages to the youths? Did the now-disgraced Florida politician have in-person sex with them? Did House GOP leaders engage in a cover-up, break ethical rules or otherwise shirk their duties?
"We are working on a preliminary review," said Heather Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is assisting the FBI in gathering information in the case.
That is the case, as well, for the FBI, which is contacting former pages who have been linked to Foley, according to news reports.
Timeline in the Foley case
By LEE BOWMAN
Friday, October 20, 2006
Questions about who knew what and when about Rep. Mark Foley's communications with House pages are now at the heart of a House investigation, while criminal investigators try to determine if any laws were violated by the former congressman in his contacts with minors.
While new details and disclosures continue to emerge, here is a chronology of what's come out about the matter so far:
1994 _ Florida state senator Mark Foley is elected to Congress for the first of six terms as part of a mid-term Republican surge of 54 seats that gives the GOP control of the House for the first time in 40 years.
1995 _ Foley hires Kirk Fordham as his chief of staff.
1997 _ A few months after completing service as a House page, Tyson Vivyan, now 26, says he started receiving sexually suggestive messages from a person he later guessed was Foley.
Foley fallout ... Troop reductions in S. Korea
By LISA HOFFMAN
Thursday, October 19, 2006
The Mark Foley sex-via-Internet scandal is sure to bring greater attention to what, until now, had been a relatively minor issue: Whether Internet service providers such as AOL should be required to keep logs longer of who has been visiting which sites online.
As it is now, AOL and other providers keep such data for a short period of time _ no more than a month in AOL's case.
A timeline of Foley's contact with pages
By THOMAS HARGROVE
Thursday, October 19, 2006
At least eight former House pages have come forward or been sought out by the FBI and the news media to discuss their experiences with former Rep.
Group pushes Congress to add money to fight child porn
By RICHARD POWELSON
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
A national child advocacy group, seizing on the House page controversy, is urging Congress to approve $1 billion extra per year to mount an effective "war" on child porn and sexual predators.
The nonpartisan National Association to Protect Children (www.protect.org) said it will send pledge forms soon to all members of Congress and their challengers to back the $1 billion in addition to the current dedicated funding level of roughly less than $100 million a year.
Those who sign or don't sign in the next three weeks or so will be identified in a publicized report card before the Nov.
Senate Dem Leader Reid Urges Formal Probe of House's Foley 'Cover-up'
You can read below what the Senate's Democratic Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said of the House's continuing review of how Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida was able to continue sending allegedly sexual messages to former congressional pages for years before it became public.
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From the Office of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid today released the following statement on the continuing and unfolding Foley scandal in the House Republican leadership.
"This Republican Congress has now completely failed the American people. We knew they wouldn't stand up to big drug companies. We knew they wouldn't repeal the tax breaks they gave to big oil. But we did expect them to protect our kids. It is now clear we expected too much of them. They are not up to the job of upholding America's values.
"It is not enough for House Republican leaders to work to ensure this disgrace is not repeated in the future. Every parent in America expects them to fully investigate why it was permitted in the first place. The problem today isn't the page program, which has been in existence since the time of Daniel Webster. The problem today is that House Republican leaders had evidence of a sexual predator in their ranks and chose to cover it up instead of choosing to protect these children.
What is needed is for Republican leaders to testify under oath about what they knew, when they knew it, and why they didn't properly act."
A renewed focus on fissure in GOP over gays
By EDWARD EPSTEIN
Monday, October 16, 2006
The resignation of Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida focuses anew a long-running fissure in the Republican Party between those on the right who view homosexuality as a sin that endangers the country and those who want the party to find a place in the GOP for all Americans.
Republicans are unanimous in their condemnation of Foley's behavior, but leaders of social and religious groups that are influential in the party have been repeating their anti-gay messages since the release of sexually explicit e-mails and text messages between the lawmaker and underage congressional pages.
Several of those conservatives say they believe House leaders decided last spring not to severely discipline Foley when they first learned of his contacts with a teenage former page because they were afraid of being accused of gay-bashing.
The six-term, 52-year-old former congressman had never publicly acknowledged his homosexuality until Tuesday, when his lawyer disclosed the fact, although rumors about his sexual orientation had swirled for years.
House officials led by embattled Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
Foley's flirting so obvious, it became a joke with pages
By AMIE PARNES
Friday, October 13, 2006
Former Rep. Mark Foley's flirting with boys was so obvious to congressional pages that they joked about it among themselves as far back as 2000, according to one former page.
"It was kind of known that he flirted with some of the male pages," Jason Davis, who served as a page in 2000, told Scripps Howard News Service Thursday.
House ethics panel moves to probe Foley case
By LISA HOFFMAN
Friday, October 13, 2006
Opening a new investigative front in the Mark Foley sex scandal, the House ethics panel Thursday authorized a barrage of nearly 48 subpoenas for witnesses and documents, while, back home in Illinois, the besieged House speaker vowed to keep his post.
After a two-hour, closed-door meeting, the bipartisan House ethics committee announced a unanimous decision to cast a wide net across the House of Representatives to examine a swirl of allegations surrounding the case of the former Florida GOP lawmaker and his X-rated e-mails with young male congressional pages.
"Like all Americans, we are ...
