Responses to Mark Foley scandal

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The 2006 Mark Foley Scandal centered on sexually explicit messages sent by United States Republican Congressman Mark Foley to Congressional pages. This prompted a number of responses from different political groups, from the gay community, from the Christian community and from recipients of Foley's fundraising.

Contents 1 Democrats 2 Republicans 3 Gay community 4 The White House 5 Christian groups 6 Recipients of Foley's fundraising 7 Family of former page from Louisiana 8 References

[edit] Democrats

On September 29, 2006, Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) criticized Republican leaders, who, she said, "have known of the egregious behavior of Congressman Mark Foley, yet were prepared to adjourn [Congress] tonight without an Ethics Committee investigation." DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel noted that Alexander had first gone to Reynolds, who was in charge of political operations, and said, "That's to protect a member [of Congress], not to protect a child."^[1]

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) issued a statement saying that "The Attorney General should open a full-scale investigation immediately," adding that the investigation should find out whether GOP leaders "knew there was a problem and ignored it to preserve a congressional seat this election year."^[2]

Senator John Kerry (D-MA) has characterized the scandal as integral to a pattern of alleged Republican lies on topics such as the war in Iraq and the North Korean nuclear bomb.^[3]

[edit] Republicans

When Foley's sexually explicit instant messages became public, members of Foley's party strongly condemned his actions. They voted unanimously with House Democrats to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee for investigation. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert also demanded a criminal investigation by writing the Attorney General asking for a full investigation both into Foley's actions and into the possibility that earlier clues were not properly acted upon by Congressional officials, representatives, the media, and the FBI.^[4]

However, Rep. Boehner blocked a resolution by Pelosi to examine the responses of Republican House leadership to Foley's conduct as part of the investigation.^[5]

The failure to discover the full extent of Foley's action earlier has led to widespread criticism, particularly leveled against other Republicans.^[6][7] Republicans have also focused on containing the fallout from the case, over fears that the accusations could spread, and hurt the entire party in upcoming elections.^[8] Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) said any leader who had been aware and failed to take action should step down, and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) called the revelations a "dark day" for Congress and called for an investigation.^[9] Several Republicans have called for Hastert's resignation.^[10][2][11]

On October 3, Hastert told Rush Limbaugh he had no intention of resigning. He blamed Democrats for the public revelations, saying, "Democrats have ... put this thing forward to try to block us" and "there are some people that try to tear [Republicans] down. We are the insulation to protect this country, and if they get to me it looks like they could affect our election as well."^[12] When later pressed to defend his claim that Democrats had "put this thing forward", he was unable to provide any specific basis for the statement, saying "There's no ultimate, real source of information, but that's what I've read."^[13][14] The same day, Newt Gingrich said that Democratic sex scandals in earlier decades were much worse than the Foley scandal.^[15] Later, on October 5, Hastert stated that he "took responsibility" for the scandal though he refused to step down, saying that "I haven't done anything wrong, obviously."^[16]

Starting on October 6, several Republicans, including Chairman of the Republican National Committee Ken Mehlman, his predecessor Ed Gillespie and Congressman Jack Kingston, defended Hastert, stating that as soon as ABC made Foley's sexually explicit communications public, Hastert told Foley that he must resign or face expulsion. In Mehlman's words: "what Denny Hastert did is something that we haven’t seen done in thirty years in this town in Washington DC, and that is he said to a member of Congress, either you go or we’re going to make you go."^[17][18] However, this account appears to be false as Foley resigned approximately three hours before the IMs were made public by ABC (he had resigned by 3:02 PM ET after ABC privately revealed the contents of the IMs to him;^[19] the IM's were revealed at 5:59 PM ^[20]). Hastert himself has made no such claim.

Starting around October 8, several Republican leaders and some conservatives responded to the charges against Foley by alleging, without evidence, that Democrats were behind the allegations and/or held back sexually explicit instant messages they allegedly possessed (as opposed to the five initially publicized e-mails) for political reasons.^[21]

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) suggested, on October 5th, that part of the responsibility for the scandal lies with the pages, who were "precocious" and "egged on" the congressman, as well as with the parents of the pages, who did not provide sufficient supervision.^[22]

[edit] Gay community

Some members of the gay community are voicing concerns over media coverage of the Mark Foley scandal, fearing that the public will unfairly associate homosexuality with pederasty,^[23] while others condemn the media's complicity in permitting Foley to remain closeted.^[24]

A number of conservative pundits and activists, including Newt Gingrich in a broadcast interview, have suggested that it was a fear of seeming to engage in gay-bashing that kept Republican leaders from more vigorously pursuing early hints of Foley's behavior. In response, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, accused these conservatives of continuing to "try and dodge responsibility for their cover up, instead opting to do what they do best by blaming gays". The National Youth Advocacy Coalition stated "Some may believe that this is a gay issue. It is not. This is an issue about protecting children from those who seek to do them harm." [4]

Sean Kennedy, in The Advocate, while condemning Foley's "totally irresponsible behavior", expresses surprise at the silence surrounding the "mutual sexual desire" displayed by some of the pages in their messages to Foley. He suggests that the teenagers' pleasure may be "the most scandalous aspect of the scandal" in light of the "rampant cultural denial about teenagers’ libidos" and affirms that such seductions, in which an older gay man successfully seduces a sixteen or seventeen year old, "happen all the time in a gay male culture that sanctifies youth".^[25]

[edit] The White House

On October 2, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, appearing on CNN, accused the news media of attempting to widen the Foley scandal to involve as many top Republicans as possible. Snow also said, "Look, I hate to tell you, but it's not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill and there have been other scandals as you know that have been more than simply naughty e-mails." He later apologized for using the words "simply naughty e-mails," saying that they "may sound a little bit too glib."^[26] He also said "It's a horrible story. We have to figure out what happened, if there is a bigger problem, fix it."^[27]

On October 3, President Bush denounced Foley's conduct and expressed continuing confidence in Hastert as Speaker.^[12]

On October 5, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino told CNN that Bush had called Hastert personally and "expressed his support."[5] That call was the first contact between Bush and Hastert since the start of the scandal.^[28]

[edit] Christian groups

On October 2, several prominent pastors and academic Christian leaders, including Rev. Tony Campolo and Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, sent a letter of rebuke to Hastert that began:

We were deeply saddened to learn of the appalling behavior of Congressman Mark Foley. His sending sexually explicit instant messages and emails to numerous congressional pages underage high school students shocked America. We offer our prayers for the affected families, Mr. Foley himself, and all victims of child sexual abuse. Unfortunately, the latest reports suggest the problem is far bigger than the disturbing actions of one congressman. Evidence is mounting that House leaders and others knew of Foley’s behavior for months, some for more than a year, yet let him continue his tenure in Congress including his chairmanship of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. The bitter irony is that the leaders of a political party that emphasizes family values may have deliberately betrayed those values for political gain. This is a moral failure and a symptom of a Congress that has lost its moral compass. ...We therefore call for the repentance and resignation of all members of Congress who knew about Mr. Foley’s misdeeds yet failed to stop them. In this time of moral crisis, we pray that the entire faith community regardless of political party will unite in demanding accountability from anyone who has helped cover up these despicable acts. The victims deserve no less. [6]

This letter was cc'd to Reps. Boehner, Reynolds, and Alexander, as well as to the heads of several conservative Christian groups, including James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson.

On October 3, Tony Perkins, spokesman for the Family Research Council, a conservative political action group, stated: "We are all shocked by this spectacle of aberrant sexual behavior, but we shouldn't be. This is the end result of a society that rejects sexual restraints in the name of diversity. When a 16-year-old boy is not safe from sexual solicitation from an elected representative of the people, we should question the moral direction of our nation. If our children aren't safe in the halls of Congress, where are they safe? Maybe it's time to question: when is tolerance just an excuse for permissiveness?" [7] Perkins supported Hastert remaining as speaker.

On October 5, The Rev. John H. Thomas, the United Church of Christ's general minister and president, condemned remarks by Tony Perkins, saying, "Perkins' recent remarks are destructive to gay and lesbian persons and their families and distract the nation's attention from the real issue at hand, which is protecting young people from sexual predators." Thomas went on to say, "To suggest that gay and lesbian persons should be barred from public service, as Perkins has implied, is akin to suggesting that white, straight males should be kept out of politics because of Bill Clinton’s sexual misdeeds... to attach this debate to sexual orientation is not only ludicrous, it’s dangerous. Many gay and lesbian persons serve honorably in public office." [8]

On October 6, James Dobson, founder and chaiman of the conservative group Focus on the Family, condemned Foley. However, he characterized the abusive e-mails as a "sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages".[9] Earlier, the group's lobbying arm had issued a press release. It expressed "outrage" at Foley's alleged actions, but indicated that "[American] culture's anything-goes view of sexuality" was more broadly to blame. He continued: "it's sad that so much of the dialogue today is so political in nature. Those truly interested in protecting children from online predators should spend less time calling for Speaker Hastert to step down, and more time demanding that the Justice Department enforce existing laws that would limit the proliferation of the kind of filth that leads grown men to think it's perfectly OK to send lurid e-mails to 16-year-old boys."^[29]

[edit] Recipients of Foley's fundraising

Many Republican candidates have announced that they are either returning contributions from Foley's campaign or contributing any Foley money received in the last several years to charity. The NRCC, however, has opted to keep a $100,000 contribution made to it by Foley in July 2006, after the first, "overly friendly" e-mails had become known to House Republican leaders.^[30] Carl Forti, an NRCC spokesman, has said the campaign organization would gladly accept the $2.7 million campaign war chest that Foley controlled upon his resignation, should Foley choose to turn it over. ^[31]

[edit] Family of former page from Louisiana

On October 5, 2006, the parents of the former page from Louisiana, who initially complained about the e-mails to Rep. Alexander, issued a public statement. They described their son's actions as courageous, and described him as a hero for reporting the emails. They supported Alexander, calling his conduct "beyond reproach". They complained about media harassment, and asked to be left alone, requesting respect for their privacy.^[32]

[edit] References