Foleying Around
Paging Mr. Scandal. Paging Mr. Scandal.
There’s a scale on how bad hypocrisy can be in any situation. I’m not wrong on this idea, am I?
I admit I can be a hypocrite from time to time. I can’t think of anything recently (or ever), but I’m not saying I am without sin. Being a hypocrite is a lot like lying; there are small innocent lies and small hypocritical acts.
But it always cracks me up when one HUGE hypocrite gets caught.
I maintain a simple theory about hatred and hypocrisy – that those who are angry and against the LGBTQ+ community must be secret members. I recognize it’s not a giant leap to come to this conclusion, but it becomes true like clockwork.
Back when I was a much younger person, just beginning my 30s, I remember a scandal that rocked Washington, DC and the hypocrisy meter that forced a member of Congress to resign.
Let’s dive in.
# 38. The Mark Foley Page Scandal
Introduction
The United States House of Representatives Page program has a storied history of being a thing that exploited high school children to the sexual perversions of congressmen from across the country.
House Pages were used as far back as 1827. Young boys and later girls would come to Washington, DC, sponsored by a member of Congress to run errands, from typing up speeches to getting members their dry cleaning. It was cheap labor, and the United States likes cheap labor!
By the mid-1970s, the page program was housed just blocks from the capitol. This is where we kept high school kids living away from their parents and little adult supervision in a big city.
What bad could happen?
Background
Mark Foley was born in 1954, and 40 years later, he was elected to Congress, representing the 16th District of Florida, which includes Sarasota. It is the whitest, most Republican district, and it even went to John McCain in 2008.
Foley was a moderate Republican, whatever that means, and spent most of his time on the Ways and Means Committee, which is a pretty powerful place to be.
Foley built his reputation on being anti-child pornography. It is a great thing to be, but I feel that one must be committed 100% to the cause in all its forms. Mark fell a little short of that mark.
Foley was a member of the Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and he introduced bills that would remove sexually suggestive images of preteens from the internet machine. Foley went further to suggest that these images only attract pedophiles. No one thought at the time he was speaking from personal experience.
The Congressman was all over the place in his stances; he was pro-choice and pro-death penalty. He was also pro-absence and pro-surveillance. But mostly, he was pro-horny.
One thing Foley was straight about, pun intended, was getting his swerve on with House Pages. He would ask former 16-year-old pages to send him pictures and ask them what they wanted for their birthday. Then you find out that Foley got confident and asked a 17-year-old page for oral sex in exchange for living in his house. The 17-year-old declined the offer.
At the beginning of instant messaging, Foley, whose instant chat handle was Maf54, would begin messaging pages that turned 18—even Pages he had never met. Can you imagine turning 18 and getting a random message from a United States Congressman wishing you a happy birthday? A message that included a request to send him a picture of yourself with your shirt off.
Foley was also bipartisan in his sexual appeals. He reached out to both Republican and Democratic pages. It got so bad he couldn’t stop. He would message an entire class of pages, casting out a wide net to see who he could reel in. Thank goodness it was just a matter of time before he got caught.
Outcome
By the middle of 2006, every reporter had emails and messages from Foley to numerous pages. Fox News buried the story, but ABC News said, screw it, we are going to report it!
Then, more and more of these messages came out; pages everywhere spilled the news about Foley. They were passed around like notes in high school. The FBI received a bunch of his messages from a congressional watchdog organization, which received them from a Republican staffer.
When confronted, Foley’s office admitted the messages came from the Congressman. Foley resigned and left the capital. He later checked himself into an alcoholic rehab center and later confessed a Catholic priest sexually assaulted him. To be fair, he did have an incredibly inappropriate relationship with a priest who shrugged the entire relationship with a 13-year-old as “good times between friends.”
Yuck.
Foley would eventually come out as gay, marry a man, and then do what every right-wing politician does – he started a radio show and eventually backed President Adulterer.
Reaction
The fact that Dennis Hassert, a closeted pedophile himself, said he would have had Foley expelled from Congress if he didn’t resign is hilarious in the most disgusting way. While people are in an uproar over the United States paying countries like Jamaica and Uganda to be less hostile to LGBTQ+ people, we had leaders at the highest level of government who sexually assaulted or wanted to.
Thinking back to the Foley scandal makes you remember when we held our elected leaders to some standards. Today, I think Foley could have played the entire thing out by denying it and saying the rumors were fake news.
The Page program is no more. It ended in 2011 because technology had made most of their jobs obsolete. It was probably a good idea to move on after the Foley disaster. Today, the Page House sits empty. I walk Blue by it daily, and he now owns it due to his markings.
Okay, so what do you think? Let’s take a poll:
Well, it’s clear we are smack-bang into a massive scandal where President Buddy and President Orange Juice are taking wrecking balls to the foundation of the federal government. I know I’m ignoring it, but I’ve been sick for the last few days, and my doctor would like me to visit many other doctors in the coming weeks. Don’t worry; there’s nothing seriously wrong with me. I’m being a bit dramatic.
But the drama is nuts. People keep telling me we knew this would happen, and I have to say, most of this is a shock. Just keep your head down and get through the week.
I hope we can have a relaxing weekend. I’ll be back on Monday, and I appreciate your support of Okay History. Happy Weekend!
Okay,
Chris
I can’t imagine 37 scandals that are worse than a congressman preying on high school students. Definitely ranked too low.