Cloned Poster, I’ll play along.
Q: What does Mark Foley use as a bookmark when he’s done reading?
A: Nothing. He likes his pages bent over.
mmack

Posted by: mmack | Oct 6 2006 15:44 utc | 3

Well Billmon, I just changed the name on my joke from Dan Crane to Mark Foley.
Instead of “working blue”, we’re “working green” by recycling old jokes.
mmack

Posted by: mmack | Oct 6 2006 15:52 utc | 5

Jay Leno: “The problem with Foley was not a little Jack Daniels, it was going after little Jacks and Daniels”

Posted by: b | Oct 6 2006 16:09 utc | 7

Oh sure, ethnic jokes are eternal — what’s Borat but one long, updated Pollack joke? The Romans told Greek jokes, the Greeks told Egyptian jokes, the Cro-Magnons probably told Neanderthal jokes. Politician jokes involving money and/or sex are nearly as immortal, but to see the exact same material repeated so precisely, well, it just goes to show that the House page program is basically like throwing little baby tuna fish into a shark tank.

Posted by: billmon | Oct 6 2006 16:17 utc | 9

Sorry about that.

Posted by: billmon | Oct 6 2006 16:18 utc | 11

If this is all a political ploy, we ought to be careful not to be labeled “Gay Bashers”.
It would be interesting to know what ‘openly’ gay Dem. Representative Barney Frank thinks about all this.

Posted by: pb | Oct 6 2006 18:13 utc | 13

Foley is not “gay.” He is a pederast. Small, important distinction.
Consenting adults is the touchstone here. Is that really so hard?

Posted by: Gaianne | Oct 6 2006 20:53 utc | 15

Invariably, the cultural practice of an older man being the dominant partner of a younger boy mirrors the practice of an older man being the dominant husband of a younger woman.
this is no more a gay thing than a guy thing.
some women also.
many people lust youth, acting on it is another thing all together.

Posted by: annie | Oct 6 2006 21:39 utc | 17

Foley was a GOP connection to Scientology whose members pay about $1000 per hour for some grades of auditing. Political donation limits are pocket change for these folks and there are thousands of them.

Posted by: thetan | Oct 7 2006 1:37 utc | 19

Jim Baker is a surburban working stiff. He still has to haul the garbage cans to the corner of the driveway once in a when the teen-age son (Bush) “forgets.” In Richard Ben Cramer’s book of the 1998 prez race Baker’s cursing because he’s dragooned into serving on Bush the older’s campaign from Sec State, a job with stature. You have to be Richard Rainwater (Rain Maker?) or the Bass’ to be able to do favors for the Bushes without being drafted. It’s the difference between being a millionaire and being super wealthy.

Posted by: christofay | Oct 7 2006 1:55 utc | 21

Frankly I think the depravity these pages were exposed to by being so close to the center of the American political class far exceeds sexually explicit emails.
They have watched the mechanics of people beggaring the commonweal to enrich themselves, exploiting a mass murder to further the imperial designs of their masters, emending the extraordinarily well laid out organic laws of the nation in an effort to prolong their hold on power.
A few kinky emails is nothing to all of this.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 7 2006 2:23 utc | 23

what are the chances foley did more than email even just one of these kids? now what kid is going to come forward and admit he engaged in even lightweight sexual activity w/a 50 yr old congressman? especially a kid that wants a future in politics? also, a teenager w/limited experience w/alcohol might do something they regret.
most rape victims don’t report the crime. i’m not suggesting he raped anyone, but i am suggesting that many people in compromising positions do not come forward. a teen engaging in sexual contact w/foley would probably be compromised.
chances are this isn’t limited to only 5 or 6 kids. you think foley went from innocent to ‘measure it for me’ on some whim? there was probably a pattern of this activity for years and years, lots of people knew about it, and those kids were sitting ducks. every year a bunch of newbies. imagine if it was the gym coach at the local high school and you intercepted these messages on your sons computerand found out the principal and counselors knew for years. you’ld be suing the school district.
it’s the adults that have become so jaded they can’t think straight.

Posted by: annie | Oct 7 2006 3:09 utc | 25

Staffer Cites Earlier Role by Hastert’s Office

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s chief of staff confronted then-Rep. Mark Foley about his inappropriate social contact with male pages well before the speaker said aides in his office took any action, a current congressional staff member with personal knowledge of Foley and his behavior with pages said yesterday.
The staff member said Hastert’s chief of staff, Scott Palmer, met with the Florida Republican at the Capitol to discuss complaints about Foley’s behavior toward pages. The alleged meeting occurred long before Hastert says aides in his office dispatched Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.) and the clerk of the House in November 2005 to confront Foley about troubling e-mails he had sent to a Louisiana boy.
…

Posted by: b | Oct 7 2006 6:33 utc | 27

From the WaPo piece I just linked above (Palmer is Hastert’s chief od staff):

Palmer, who shares a townhouse with Hastert when they are in town, is more powerful than all but a few House members. Members know that he speaks for Hastert.

What else do Palmer/Hastert share?
Then this on the former house clerk, esp. the last para:

Trandahl’s departure came within days of his confrontation with Foley over e-mails that the congressman had sent a former page. House aides say the circumstances of Trandahl’s exit were oddly quiet. The departure of a staff member of long standing, especially one as important as the House clerk, is usually marked with considerable fanfare, said Scott Lilly, a former Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. Debate is suspended in mid-afternoon to accommodate a stream of testimonials from lawmakers.
Trandahl’s departure was marked by a one-minute salute from Shimkus and a brief insert into the Congressional Record.
“My one-hour Special Order changed to a five-minute Special Order, now to a one-minute,” Shimkus said. “I just want to say thank you for the work you have done.”
Lilly said: “He seemed to suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke.”
Trandahl, now the executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, has not returned repeated phone calls and e-mails.
Congressional aides point to another factor that links Trandahl to the Foley matter. A member of the board of the national gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, Trandahl is openly homosexual and personally close to the now-disgraced former lawmaker, who announced through his lawyer this week that he is gay.

Page A01 – this thing has legs …

Posted by: b | Oct 7 2006 6:49 utc | 29

But the perversions they’ve been trained to accept as “normal” by this experience completely overshadow the kinky email
yes, of course. all those civilized lies lead to our uncivilized reality.

Posted by: annie | Oct 7 2006 15:15 utc | 31

Here’s an alternative last line to the “Whopper” item. Foley is saying to Bush, “Yeah, that too, I guess, but what I REALLY meant was, I like ’em 18 YEARS OLD!

Posted by: imho | Oct 8 2006 20:56 utc | 33