To the Honorable Republican who outed Foley,

[PurgedVoter]

You are a member of the small handful people in Republican leadership that has shown a clue about honor, decency, ethics, leadership and propriety. For this you must hide your identity. You are an actual compassionate conservative. And I thought they were incompatible terms. Your bravery, standing up for basic human decency against the sharks you swim with, gives me hope.

Sir or Madam, I thank you, again, you give me hope in a dark time. You allow me to continue to work with and help Republicans without feeling I am betraying the country that I love. I hope there are more of you hidden in the darkness of your party. I hope that someday we liberals will have a party opposing ours with truth and debate instead of lies and spin. I thank you. I hope someday your party will respect decency over false loyalty. That day I can honor and thank you by name. I hope that someday your party will honor love of country and fellow man over the love of power. That day you will be respected by your party. My hope rests with you, without opposition, my own party is doomed to become the same as yours. We need you. We will fight you and your party whatever may pass. My dream is that someday we may be able to fight an honorable opponent.

Let us dream together that your grass roots will stop celebrating victories that were not won with honor. Let us dream that your party will recoil from being the party of secrecy, interrogation, torture, lies and fear. The only chance we have is if the grass roots of all sides look for truth before victory.

I believe that faith without truth is cultism and politics without truth is barbarism. You have shown by your actions that you are neither a cultist nor a barbarian. I honor you.

[MADem]

1. Do we KNOW that it was a Republican?

Or could it have been someone in the bowels of the Clerk's office, a career civil servant who registered Republican as a kid and never changed it, or registered independent, or never registered?

[PurgedVoter]

2. Sure, rain on my parade.

Here I was all happy there might actually be another decent Republican, and you have to go and inject some logic.

Ok, Sir or Madam, if you are not a Republican, I still respect and honor you, I am just not as amazed, since there are lots of liberals who will stand up and risk themselves for decency, truth and love of their country. Good Job, Well done, but kind of expected of an honest civil servant. Not really as extraordinary or rare as if you were an actual Republican, but still, you done good.

[MADem]

13. There's sunshine on your parade!!!

It was indeed, a Republican....heck, I was only inquiring to assure myself that this was indeed the case!!!

[quiet.american]

3. The Hill -- "Longtime Republican was source of e-mails"

Longtime Republican was source of e-mails

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, said the source, who showed The Hill public records supporting his claim.

The same source, who acted as an intermediary between the aide-turned-whistleblower and several news outlets, says the person who shared the documents is no longer employed in the House.

But the whistleblower was a paid GOP staffer when the documents were first given to the media.

More:
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/100506/news2.html

[MADem]

5. A low level aide, eh? Who either quit or was fired!!!! Wonderful!

One who clearly worked for a GOP congressperson! It's actually possible, with enough friends on the Hill, or even just a pal in Personnel, to figure out who the person was, seeing as the person quit/was fired between the time the documents were handed over and the breaking of this story, if one wanted to. I'm guessing the identity is an open secret, at least amongst some.


The source bolstered the claim by sharing un-redacted e-mails in which the former page first alerted his congressional sponsor’s office of Foley’s attentions. The copies of these e-mails, now available to the public, have the names of senders and recipients blotted out.

These revelations mean that Republicans who are calling for probes to discover what Democratic leaders and staff knew about Foley’s improper exchanges with under-age pages will likely be unable to show that the opposition party orchestrated the scandal now roiling the GOP just a month away from the midterm elections.

I love that latter paragraph, but can't help but note that even after the HILL prints it, they spend another dozen or more paragraphs describing GOP whining about the matter!

[Duer 157099]

4. And what if it was a personal vendetta?

Gosh, I don't think I'd jump to the conclusion that the motives were pure or honorable. This is a Republican we're talking about, after all.

[terryg11]

6. that's what I keep thinking

that maybe the source had a beef with Foley perhaps for being gay?

[POAS]

9. jilted lover!

[MADem]

7. I dunno....it makes no sense for an aide to help toss their party out of

power...at least if they are heavily invested in the philosophy. Now, if they are disenchanted, it makes sense. If they grabbed the materials while cleaning out their desk after being fired, it makes sense. If they have a sense of fair play, it makes sense. If they are disgusted with Foley's predatory methods, it makes sense...

OTOH....If they were fooling around with Foley but got a little too old to suit him, it makes sense.

[terryg11]

8. i agree but

we're just speculating here since no one except the source knows why they did it but I can totally see a neo conservative page take offense at Foley's actions and decide the "gay congressman needs to go for the better of the party. I mean, no real republican could be gay anyway, right"?

[MADem]

11. He'd go to the majority leader, or the speaker, in that case

And Boney Boehner's or Hastert's chief of staff would "find a job" for the disaffected little shit, and give him a lesson on lockstep party loyalty and discipline, while assuring the putz that it would be "taken care of" after November.

The beans were first spilled in July. I'm thinking the person was either fired for a performance issue; or was GOP-lite in the first place/more liberal than his or her parents and got the job through familial connections (read: Ma and Pa were big contributors); or left to go to grad school. Who knows, maybe a romance with an aide across the aisle (it happens all the time) changed a heart and mind?

It's not a PAGE that broke this, it's an aide--they make a few grand more than pages, don't live in dorms or have curfews, are usually straight out of school a-la-Monica, but at the lower ranks they are still pretty low on the totem pole--xeroxers, phone answerers, filers, envelope stuffers, and pizza getters. This person could have just gotten sick of the BS and the sorryass quality of work.

I mean, EVERYONE KNEW Foley was gay. EVERYONE. Like everyone KNOWS Drier is gay. It's an open secret.

[iconocrastic]

10. I'd like to see this gay-bashing come to an end.

[MADem]

12. ????????? Have you not been paying attention?????

Everyone KNEW Foley was gay. No one is bashing him for that.

What they didn't know is that he liked to pester young boys and engage in inappropriate relationships with subordinates.