Oct 9 2006
On Friday, 29 September, Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) abruptly resigned in the wake of e-mails and instant messaging sessions that revealed inappropriate conversation with male minors. This article provides a timeline of his political rise and fall. Page two contains biographical and leadership information; Foley was a member of the House leadership, serving as as a Deputy Majority Whip.
1990 - Foley successfully runs for the Florida State House of Representatives.
1992 - Foley successfully runs for the Florida State Senate.
1994 - Foley successfully runs for the US House of Representatives (District 16).
2000 - Foley makes an Arizona page uncomfortable enough to discuss the e-mail relationship with Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ). cite
2001 - ABC reports that a former page contends that a "Republican staff member warned Congressional pages" to watch out for Foley.
The St.Pete Times reports that "Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-02 class, told ABC News and the Washington Post that he and other pages were warned five years ago about Foley by a Republican staff member."
2003 - Foley announces a run for US Senate to fill seat vacated by Bob Graham. Reportedly, he is "outed by religious Republicans and withdrew as a candidate."
Also, in 2003, Foley reportedly writes sexually explicit instant messages to a male House page. ABC transcript - warning, sexually explicit
August 2005 - Foley e-mails a page from Louisiana. After several exchanges, Foley asks the page for a photo. The page forwards the emails to the office of Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who was his sponsor, describing the request for a photo as "SickSickSickSickSick."
November 2005 - In a story reported on 29 September 2006, Alexander told AP he learned of the e-mail exchanges "10 or 11 months ago" and that he learned of them from a reporter -- not his staffer. He says he passed on the information to Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), chairman of the House Republican campaign organization.
November 2005 - A 16 year old former page told the St. Petersburg Times: "I thought it [e-mail from Foley] was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back." The Times did not write about the incident until Friday 29 September. WaPo
"Late 2005"
John Shimkus (R-IL), head of the Page Board, said in a statement on 29 September: "In late 2005, I was notified by the then Clerk of the House" that Alexander had told the Clerk "about an email exchange between Congressman Foley and a former House Page. I took immediate action to investigate the matter." WaPo
However, according to the St. Pete Times: "The Page Board, a panel designed specifically to care for pages, was not convened to investigate. House leaders did not contact other current or former pages to find out if Foley’s behavior went beyond a single incident. No one reported the correspondence to federal or state authorities."
Nevertheless, Roll Call reports, "According to a senior House GOP leadership aide, Hastert’s office was informed of the interview shortly after it occurred, but Hastert himself was not told."
However, in a letter to Attorney General Gonzales, House Speaker Hastert says that the St. Pete Times decided not to publish the story in 2005 after conversations with Hastert. This suggests he -- or whomever drafted the latter -- knew about this in 2005. But the St. Pete Times denies that any discussion with Hastert contributed to the decision not to publish: (tip)
"The speaker is inaccurate. Our decision not to publish last fall was not based on an explanation from Rep. Foley," managing editor Stephen Buckley said.
"We didn't publish because the Louisiana teenager's parents did not want to pursue the issue, and because, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to track down any pages who had received inappropriate e-mails from the congressman. We didn't know about any sexually explicit exchanges between Rep. Foley and any former pages until the instant messages became public on Friday."
Part of the Shimkus statement: "Congressman Foley told the Clerk and me that he was simply acting as a mentor to this former House Page and that nothing inappropriate had occurred. Nevertheless, we ordered Congressman Foley to cease all contact with this former House Page to avoid even the appearance of impropriety."
