Amid all the buzz about Wm Jefferson: Whatever happened to MARK FOLEY?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

This weekend, how many times will the talking heads on TV political shows mention the name of the "Pagegate" congressman?

Has he been indicted for any crime?

I never thought that his disappearance into "rehab" would get him off the hook, but apparently it did. I haven't heard his name on a network news show this year. Google News provides a couple hundred hits, but Foley's name seems used only in passing, not to provide any actual Foley news.

I wonder who's handling Jeffereson's PR. IMO, whoever it is is not doing a thousandth as well as whoever handles Foley's PR.

[liberal N proud]

1. Who cares, the media has a new Democratic member of Congress to demonize

They will now bury the Foley story as deep as they can because they finally found a dirty Democrat and he will be strung up for the same shit the republicons pull every day.

[tridim]

4. Nail, meet head. That's the WHOLE point.

I don't know what happened with this guy, he might be 100% guilty but the media reaction is obviously unfair and politically motivated. I laugh every time I hear some RW pundit scolding the entire Democratic party because one guy did something wrong. The scandal ratio is now about 500:1, R:D.

[MissWaverly]

2. Whatever happened to Tom DeLay's trial?

we have now seen Paris Hilton and Martha Stewart marched off to the slammer for their offenses which seem minor to the Bushco crew.

[blogslut]

3. Jeff Trandahl break silence on Foley

From the Washington Blade:

Trandahl breaks silence on Foley scandal
Says he had 'dozens' of confrontations with congressman
By KEVIN NAFF | Jun 6, 3:44 PM

Jeff Trandahl, the gay former clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, broke his public silence on the Mark Foley scandal last week in brief remarks.

Speaking on a panel discussion related to gay rights on the first all-gay trans-Atlantic crossing aboard the Queen Mary 2, Trandahl said he had “dozens” of confrontations with Foley over the years...

link: http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=12972

[flyarm]

5. he went to rehab and is using campaign money for legal defence

and some repubs in FLA are asking for their money back ..last i read in Fla newspapers..

don't you know repugs never go to jail..they just go to rehab!!

fly

[Canuckistanian]

9. Legal defence - from what?

Is he being sued? Is he under indictment?

[UTUSN]

6. Funny you should ask

I realize the thread is making a serious point. I thought about posting this but decided it was too trivial!!1 But I *did* think about intro-ing it with questions like: Did this dude ever ADMIT or present REGRET? Apparently he will just resume raking in dough with ample breaks as a RAKE. Typical Rethug. What exactly did that rehab do?


*******QUOTE*******

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06092007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix_u.htm

Back To Basics

WOULD you buy a used house from this man? Former congressman Mark Foley, who resigned in shame after sending sexually explicit messages to former pages, is dusting off his real-estate broker's license. He was recently spotted at Barclays International Realty in Palm Beach, The Palm Beach Post reports. Before entering politics, Foley was a shrewd and successful broker, once raking in $500,000 in a single day by selling a golf course to the Palm Beach County School District for its headquarters.

********UNQUOTE*******

[ProgressiveEconomist]

8. Thanks for the NY Post URL. I agree that, on its face, the story IS 'trivial'

But it well may have been "spun" by Foley's PR people. IMO, the NY Post almost never publishes any result of investigative journalism by Post "reporters". If it's in the Post, odds are somebody mentioned in the story WANTS it in the Post, IMO.

Foley's PR people know his name no longer can entirely be kept out of the news, given the right-wing propaganda apoplexy over Jefferson. Intentionally trivializing the Foley story may "immunize" it from any direct comparison with the Jefferson story.

[malaise]

7. Dusting off his real-estate broker's license

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06092007/gossip/pagesix/back_to_basics_pagesix_.htm

[ProgressiveEconomist]

11. I didn't say what I meant in the thread title. I MEANT "Whatever happened to the

serious criminal charges against Mark Foiley, and to investigation of his abuse of Congressional power over House Pages? Has Congress reformed its management of the Page program? Or is Foley's apparent success in avoiding criminal responsibility instructing present or future abusers in Congress?

Those are questions IMO you'll NEVER find addressed seriously in right-wing tabloids.

[malaise]

12. Rethugs are never guilty of

serious criminal charges. :sarcasm:

[ProgressiveEconomist]

20. Is that because they know the exact extent of crime that prosecutors will tolerate,

in view of the vaguenesses they intentionally wrote into the statutes they planned to violate?

Didn't Foley spearhead writing the current law on internet sexual abuse of minors?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

22. .

[OHdem10]

10. They would say, DeLay , Foley etc are not in Congress.

Once you leave Congress you leave Media Spotlight.
Gone and forgotten.

Stay in Congress and you are prime object.

Fairly or unfairly Jefferson has just been indicted
and Media see him as fair game.

Our Party did say we would run the most ethical
Congress. The Media and Republicans will not
let us forget it. They distinguish between
investigation and Indictment.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

14. IMO Congressional hanky-panky is a confluence of bad incentives and bad intentions

Investigation is required to fix the incentives--to fix the system so there are fewer opportunities for bad behavior, and to assess the extent to which others are doing the same as or worse than the one politician who's been thrust into the spotlight.

It seems to me Republicans tend to blame bad behavor purely on "bad people", rather than on bad incentives that could be fixed to deter future bad behavior.

Think of Rudy Giulani's response to Ron Paul's "debate" explanation of how aspects of US foreign policy wave red flags in the faces of potential "terrorists". To Giulani and other Republicans and their dupes, 9/11 was purely a matter of Good and Evil, not of policy or history or nationalist aspirations.

[Bitwit1234]

13. Besides what happened to the Alaska scandel with Stevens

we heard about it on the net but nothing on the news. Not the contractors who remodled Stevens house with little or not cost. We did not hear anything about Stevens sending all that money to .....Florida.... And about the other corruption charges levied against against some other Alaska officials...hmmmmmmmmmmmmm nothing nada zilch on TV. But we have had almost non-stop Jefferson, Jefferson. I am not saying that Jefferson is innocent, from what we have heard he is probably guilty. But whether he is or not the MSM has him so.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

15. And even on Jefferson we're not getting the whole story

"Baksheesh" is essential for accomplishing anything in many places in the world. Even in the US. The Florida interstate access ramp scandal may have hit the news primarily because an Alaskan pol got an apparent quid-pro-quo "political contribution", not a Florida pol.

Is Jefferson accused of taking or misdirecting public funds? Or was Jefferson a conduit for corporate bribes that are an ordinary and necessary part of business with foreign bureaucrats?

[Igel]

21. Yes, and it's still illegal.

A few orders of magnitude greater in funds expended, but of no greater illegality, is the Blair/BAE/Saudi scandal. Baksheesh, of course.

[OHdem10]

16. On Stevens--There was a report Thursay I believe

that the FBI is burrowing in on records etc.

While Investigation goes on, you will not hear
so much.

The hysteria starts with Indictment.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

18. 'The hysteria starts with indictment'. And WHO controls indictment or non-

indictment?

I'd like to see an analysis of earmarks and political donations from earmark beneficiaries in districts where AG Gonzales fired US Attornies. Odds are there may have been political indictments pursued and not pursued in those districts, IMO

And what's the schedule for Jefferson's trial? Surely the Republicans want to drag out criminal proceedings until after the first Tuesday in November 2008.

[Totally Committed]

17. Jefferson IS a scumbag, Democrat or not... but, Mark Foley is JUST as big a scumbag.

I mean, stalking young men who work around you. Think about it. Why HASN'T more been made of his case? Maybe Jefferson needs to disappear into "Rehab" like Foley did for a couple of months.

It does say something about our society, though. Stalking a kid is Far less important than stealing money. Sounds very REPUBLICAN as outlooks go.

Edited to add: Also, Mark Foley is white.

TC

[aikoaiko]

19. Foley, the guy who at least had the decency to resign instead of dragging his party thru the mud

Jefferson should do follow his example.