Former House Page Busts Lawmaker for Icky Emails

Put on your protective eyewear and rubber gloves.

A sixteen-year-old former page to the House of Representatives shared with Hill staff emails sent to him from Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), in which the lawmaker asks inappropriate questions of him. They’ve since shown up on Web sites. ABC News reports:

In the series of e-mails, obtained by ABC News, between the page and Rep. Foley (R-FL), Foley asks the page how old he is, what he wants for his birthday and requests a photo of him. . . .

Congressman Mark Foley’s office says the e-mails were entirely appropriate and that their release is part of a smear campaign by his opponent.

You can read some of the emails here, here and here.

The page characterized one of the emails as “sick sick sick sick sick.”

What makes this story a) more depressing, b) more ironic, c) reaffirming of one’s cynicisms is that Foley has made a name for himself as an advocate of children. “Mark strongly believes that our children are the key to the nation’s future,” his Web site notes. The congressman has consistently pushed for stricter laws to track and punish child molesters and child pornographers. He hasn’t yet pushed for a bill outlawing icky emails to young former subordinates, however.

Foley has served in the House for twelve years. He ran for Senate in 2004, but dropped out of the race, in the words of the Hotline, “after being ID’d as a homosexual by a ‘gay-oriented publication.'” Foley says he left the race “because of family difficulties.”

Update: Foley’s opponent has called for an investigation, noting, “It is our understanding that a complaint was filed by the alleged victim, and that complaint should be fully investigated.” Foley’s office told ABC that “there is no official investigation into the matter and that Foley is only guilty of being friendly.”