Mark Foley on Fox News

I call it the G. Gordon Liddy rule. Liddy was convicted for breaking into the Watergate building. Yet, this second rate burglar is taken seriously by conservatives as a political pundit. Mark Foley will be on the Sean Hannity show to talk about the Anthony Weiner scandal.

Palm Beach County’s own expert on Internet sex scandals, former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, is slated to appear on Fox News’ Hannity tonight at 9 p.m. in his first national television interview since he resigned in 2006 over sexually charged messages he sent to teenage males who had been in the congressional page program.

Foley is expected to discuss Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s lewd-photo scandal.

There truly are second acts for disgraced Republicans in conservative media.

Mark Foley Television Interview

Former Congressman Mark Foley discusses his new radio show "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley." I see a reality show in Foley's future.

Mark Foley Prepares Comeback

Mark Foley told Javier Manjarres, of Conservative Republican Alliance, he plans on having an active role in politics.

"I doubt I will re-enter the political arena as an office-seeker," Foley said. "I will use my experience and my voice to help others, to rally for economic sanity, to bring about real reforms on a local, state and even national level."

I know the first name that pops into my head as an economics expert is Mark Foley. Who is actually going to take Foley seriously? Foley probably did the interview to promote his radio show "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley."

I don't have a paid subscription to Conservative Republican Alliance. Someone send me a transcript of the entire interview. I want to know how many softball questions Manjarres threw to Foley.

Mark Foley Is Back

I didn't believe this when Zencomix told me disgraced Congressman Mark Foley was getting his own radio show. Good God! It's true.

ABC News reports WSVU 960 AM is insane enough to give Foley his own show. The program will be called "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley." Personally, being inside Foley's mind is a place I hope to never occupy.

"With everything that's going on with healthcare and everybody questioning what's happening in Washington, DC, we thought who better to explain what's going on than Mark Foley," WSVU spokesman Joseph Raineri said. How about a pundit with less baggage and more credibility than Foley.

Talk radio really doesn't care who they put on-the-air. The more shocking the more likely people will tune in. The fact WSVU pimps Foley has someone of great credentials to the media is even more didturbing.

Fair and Balanced: Mark Sanford is a Democrat?

Fox News falsely identified Mark Sanford as a Democrat. The cable news network later corrected their mistake. This isn't the first time Fox News mistakenly labeled a Republican a Democrat. For instance, Mark Foley was labeled a Dem when news broke of the page sex scandal.



Fox News is either too incompetent to fact-check Sanford's and Foley's party affiliation or they willfully continue to misinform their audience. You decide. Either scenario does not speak well for the journalistic quality of Fox News.

Mark Foley Interview Coming Soon

Marc Ambinder reports former Congressman Mark Foley will appear on the Today Show either this or the next Wednesday.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement never pressed charges on Foley. They were unable to obtain the legal right to search his computer.

One More Time

Eric Deggans writes a post about my criticism of him of his defense of the St. Petersburg Times censoring the Jessica Sierra pdf file and sitting on the Mark Foley story.

My response to Deggans in the comments.

I love the post title.

Actually, the past two days have been the fastest news days in my blog's history. 6,000 visitors today and still going.

So, much as it bothers Pushing Rope, I was standing up for the idea that journalists need to make sure they have a fair and accurate story before they publish something that, if it turns out to be untrue, could still wreck a Congressman's career."

The Foley story was true and Ross received emails from pages from all over the country.

What Hussey doesn't point out, for some reason, is that the Times was among a host of Florida and national media outlets which got the same tip...

I am writing about your defense of The Times mishandling of the story. What are you implying? If Fox News disregarded the page's story then that is good enough for The Times. Hardly a compelling argument.

I linked to your comment and quoted part of it in a blog post. I thought my audience should read your side of the story. I'm not waging a personal war against you, Eric. Your defense of the Foley events strike me as weak. One can hardly call it The Times finest moment.

I agree with Deggans that the media shouldn't print rumors. What bothered me was that The Times blew off the story after they interviewed the page.

By the way Eric: Howard Kurtz is a Republican and a very bad media critic.

Eric Deggans: Media Critic That Won't Criticize His Employer

I'm a fan of Eric's work, but he always defends the St. Petersburg Times. Deggans defends The St. Petersburg Times blacking out vulgar language in the transcript of Jessica Sierra's arrest.

Maybe i’m old fashioned. But I think the word censored should be reserved for omissions of higher importance than this one.

Sigh. Given that we already said in news stories that she offered oral sex to the office and hurled racial slurs at him after the arrest, I’m not all that worked up over the blackouts. I do wish we had given readers the choice to click through to an uncensored report, with knowledge that they would see some baldfaced language…

Political Whore blogger Wayne Garcia made the point that the internet is not the same as the family print edition of the Times. How many kids are going to read a pdf dirty words of a Z list celebrity? It makes little sense to treat online readers as if they were children.

Deggans is a media critic that never sees fault with his employer. Case in point is the Times handling of sitting on the Mark Foley story.

It's enough of a judgment call that I don't blame our reporters for deciding not to run the story -- though I wish we had gotten to the bottom of this before other media outlets did.

The email scandal which forced West Palm Beach Congressman Mark Foley to resign keeps getting weirder and weirder -- especially for the media.

The Times' government and politics editor filed a long-ish blog post Saturday explaining why we never wrote a story on Foley's milder emails to a page last year, even though we learned of them back then. Of course, it's easy to second-guess such judgments in hindsight, but if a similar flap earlier this year involving allegations against Charlie Crist proves anything, it's that we move carefully when it comes to explosive allegations which might be a disguised political attack, especially close to an election.

Foley's seat was safe. It wasn't a secret that CREW gave the FBI the original emails. The emails came from pages, not Democratic political operatives. The Times questioned one Louisiana page and blew him off. If a teenager went to the Times about a teacher sending these kind of emails, the Times would run with it and question the teacher. The Times never asked Foley if the email came from his office.

Eric Deggans makes a poor ombudsman for the Times. He ran a Times talking point.

Of course, it's easy to second-guess such judgments in hindsight, but if a similar flap earlier this year involving allegations against Charlie Crist proves anything, it's that we move carefully when it comes to explosive allegations which might be a disguised political attack, especially close to an election.

NEIL BROWN, Executive Editor:

In the days before the September primary, this newspaper was tipped to allegations about the personal life of Republican gubernatorial front-runner Charlie Crist, including a charge that he was involved in a paternity dispute over the birth of a girl 17 years ago.

If the Times truly believed this was a political attack than it would have been a major news story to expose the perpetrator. Politico exposed the anti-Muslim smear email on Barack Obama by the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Times thought it might be a smear, but didn't investigate further. That excuse doesn't make sense.

It was common knowledge that Foley was gay. That can hardly be called a rumor. That is why Foley didn't run for the Senate in 2006. Pages were warned to avoid Foley. Foley believed his political clout shielded him from repercussions. The Times justified Foley's mightier-than-God attitude.

Charlie Crist is a totally different subject than Foley. The Times compares rumors of a gay man having sex with other adults to a sexual predator. That is insulting to the gay community. Did the Times even hand the emails to law enforcement? That would have been the responsible thing to do. The best Deggans can do is say is the Times did nothing wrong. Actually, the Times did nothing. That is why people were upset with the newspaper.

Update: PoHo on My Deggans Post

Mark Foley Saga Continues

The Blotter reports Mark Foley will not be prosecuted because the three-year statute of limitations have expired. The law Foley would have been prosecuted under is Florida Statute 847.0135.

(3) CERTAIN USES OF COMPUTER SERVICES PROHIBITED.--Any person who knowingly utilizes a computer on-line service, Internet service, or local bulletin board service to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice, or attempt to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice, a child or another person believed by the person to be a child, to commit any illegal act described in chapter 794, relating to sexual battery; chapter 800, relating to lewdness and indecent exposure; or chapter 827, relating to child abuse, commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was attempting to prosecute Foley for a 2003 online chat. he corresponded with a 17 year-old male. Foley was in a Pensecola, Florida hotel room during the exchange. The transcript is graphic.

Maf54: did any girl give you a haand job this weekend

Xxxxxxxxx: lol no

Xxxxxxxxx: im single right now

Xxxxxxxxx: my last gf and i broke up a few weeks agi

Maf54: are you

Maf54: good so your getting horny

Xxxxxxxxx: lol…a bit

Maf54: did you spank it this weekend yourself

Xxxxxxxxx: no

Xxxxxxxxx: been too tired and too busy

Maf54: wow…

Maf54: i am never to busy haha

The St. Petersburg Times continues to defend sitting on the Foley story.

St. Petersburg Times Executive Editor Neil Brown defended his decision not to run the Foley story after they received "creepy" messages from a Louisiana page in which Foley was seeking a photograph.

"I led deliberations with our top editors, and we concluded that we did not have enough substantiated information to reach beyond innuendo," Brown wrote in an October 2006 editorial. "We couldn't come up with a strong enough case to explain to a teenager's parents why, over their vehement pleas to drop the matter, we needed to make their son the subject of a story - and the incredible scrutiny that would surely follow.

"It added up to this conclusion," Brown added. "To print what we had seemed to be a shortcut to taint a member of Congress without actually having the goods."

Scott Montgomery of The Times gave me this reason for not running the Foley.

Michael,
Adam sent me a copy of your email seeking comment. Here's what I can tell you. As a matter of policy, the St. Petersburg Times doesn't publish stories that make accusations based upon sources we can't name. At the time that we first looked into this, the information we had simply didn't meet our standard. But when Tim Mahoney went on the record on the matter, we felt we should tell readers what we knew.

The Times didn't seen concerned about how the press attention would affect the teenage boy who had sex with Debra Lafave. The email exchange between Foley and the Louisiana teen was the worst kept secret in Washington. The teen told Rep. Rodney Alexander about the online exchange. He told the Congressman, "I still haven’t emailed him back, and I don’t think I will for a while, if ever. What do you think about it all?" The Times could have tried another novel idea. Ask Foley if he sent the email.

The Times did not review their editorial process and publish the findings. That is what the New York Times did after the Jayson Blair and Judith Miller scandals. Instead, they decided to use plausible deniability as a defense. Journalism at it's best is a search for the truth. A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper shouldn't be making statements that would make White House Press Sec. Tony Snow cringe.

FDLE Stalled By House In Mark Foley Investigation

The House of Representatives will not allow the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to examine Mark Foley's congressional computer. Dennis Hastert and Nancy Pelosi took a similar stance after William Jefferson's office was raided by the FBI. The raid was done with a legal warrant after $90,000 was found in Jefferson's freezer.

Hastert and Pelosi issued this joint press release after the FBI raid.

"The Justice Department was wrong to seize records from Congressman Jefferson's office in violation of the Constitutional principle of Separation of Powers, the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, and the practice of the last 219 years. These constitutional principles were not designed by the Founding Fathers to place anyone above the law. Rather, they were designed to protect the Congress and the American people from abuses of power, and those principles deserve to be vigorously defended."

"Accordingly, the Justice Department must immediately return the papers it unconstitutionally seized. Once that is done, Congressman Jefferson can and should fully cooperate with the Justice Department's efforts, consistent with his constitutional rights."

"In addition, the Justice Department must immediately cease any further review of the documents it unconstitutionally seized, ensure that those who have reviewed the documents do not divulge their contents to the investigators, and move in Court to vitiate the search warrant."

The House is behaving as it is above the law. No reasonable person is arguing that Foley or Jefferson behaved unethically. The same can be said about the House.

In related news: the FDLE found no pornographic photos in any emails in Mark Foley emails.

Other Mark Foley posts:

Mark Foley Resigns
St. Petersburg Times Sat On Mark Foley Story
St. Petersburg Times Blows It On Mark Foley
The Tom Reynolds, Dennis Hastert & Mark Foley Connection
FBI Investigating Mark Foley
White House Opposes independent investigation into Foley
Mark Foley in Rehab
More Pages Talk About Foley Emails
Matt Drudge Blames Kids For Foley Troubles
Jeb Bush Letter to Dennis Hastert
Hastert Made Same Mistakes With Foley As He Did With Delay

The Hypocrisy of Jerry Falwell

Falwell: But this president -- it's like this Mark Foley thing -- that's not going to discourage any evangelicals I know from voting. We lived through Bill Clinton, and this situation with Foley is minuscule in comparison.

"Minuscule" is an interesting way for a Pro-Family and antigay religious leader to describe a grown man attempting to have sex with teen boys.

Mark Foley's Movie Debut

Mark Foley had a cameo role as a Republican congressman in the movie The Librarians. The film is also known as Strike Force. It's one of those movies that goes straight to video and late nite cable.

Foley hires William Forsythe to rescue his daughter. Burt Reynolds and the once super hot Erika Eleniak are part of the cheesy action mayhem. Maf54 plays Republican Congressman Fairchild. This is Foley's big scene.

FOLEY: [Eyes clenched] "Oh, I missed you too, baby."
GIRL: "There were a lot of bad men."
FOLEY: "I know, baby, but it's all over now [deep sigh]. God, I love you."
GIRL: "I love you too, Daddy."

Actor Jerry Ascione worked on the flick. He explains on the Internet Movie Database message board just how bad the film was. I'm fairly sure it's Jerry Ascione because who would actually pretend to be him or take credit for being in this movie. Think about it.

I am sorry to say, I was a part of this movie playing a Techno Boy. We filmed this in Feb. 2000. All was shot in Florida, our scenes were shot in West Palm Beach. The production company is called Global Pictures One. They are the most unorganized low budget company out there. There was money problems and union problems from the start, it is a miracle this film even got released. Lions Gate is getting pretty desperate. The acting was almost as bad as the script. Mike Kirton, a B film stunt man tried to make a movie with William Forsythe, and you see the product. Rumors were that it was shot on a 1 to 2 million dollar budget. The only good part was that it was shot on 35mm. The film was released on a different title (probably because of selling problems) "Strike Force" on Nov. 9th, 2004. For the ridiculous price of $15.99 you can get it at Best Buy. Don't rush to get it, there will be plenty of copies when you get there. I am ashamed to admit I own a copy.
Jerry Ascione

Mark Foley's Emails To Former Teen Intern

Now I don't know if this is overblown or not. This has the potential to be a major controversy for Mark Foley.

In the exchange, Foley asked the boy about weathering Hurricane Katrina and wrote, “send me an email pic of you.” In another email, Foley told the boy he was on a break from Congress and was in Florida. He asked the boy “how old are you now?”

The boy forwarded excerpts from the emails to congressional staffers and said, “Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out.”

The boy, who is not being identified because of his age, told the St. Petersburg Times in an interview last November, when the Times first learned of the emails, that he cut off correspondence with Foley.

“I thought it was very inappropriate,” the boy told the Times. “After the one about the picture, I decided to stop emailing him back.”

Foley has had an email exchange with another teen office page. The page was surprised that the Congressman contacted him. Foley's people told ABC News that they often asked for photos of interns. That doesn't explain why Foley would need a photo of a former-intern. The St. Petersburg Times reports that thety asked Foley's office about intern hiring practices, a year ago, and photos were never mentioned.

Some excerpts from the email.

glad your home safe and sound...we dont go back into sessionuntil Sept 5,,,,si its a nice long break...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?...

I am in North Carolina..and its over 100 degrees in New Orleans...wow that's really hot...well do you miss DC...Its raining here but 68 degrees so you can argue..did you have fun at your conference....what do you want for your birthday coming up...what stuff do you like to do

how are you weathering the hurricane...are you safe...send me an email pic of you as well....

The teen boy is 16 years-old.

Update: Journalist Bob Norman comes out and states Mark Foley is gay. I asked Norman, in the comments of his blog, what's his sourcing. I'm also concerned that gays will be bashed for Foley's actions. We don't see attractive blonds ridiculed because of Debra Lafave. And they shouldn't be. Whatever Foley's actions are do not represent the gay community.

Update: Here are other posts on the Mark Foley story.

Mark Foley Resigns
St. Petersburg Times Sat On Mark Foley Story
St. Petersburg Times Blows It On Mark Foley
The Tom Reynolds, Dennis Hastert & Mark Foley Connection
FBI Investigating Mark Foley
White House Opposes independent investigation into Foley
Mark Foley in Rehab
More Pages Talk About Foley Emails
Matt Drudge Blames Kids For Foley Troubles
Jeb Bush Letter to Dennis Hastert
Hastert Made Same Mistakes With Foley As He Did With Delay