The Hill: Media's Source for Foley Emails was GOP Staffer

by Jonathan Singer, Wed Oct 04, 2006 at 06:07:12 PM EDT

Republicans are putting almost everything into the effort to somehow blame Democrats for the scandal surrounding disgraced GOP deputy whip Mark Foley. The tortured logic behind this push: Insinuating the Democrats were behind the leak and thus are somehow at fault.

Well, an article by Alexander Bolton on the front page of tomorrow's issue of The Hill newspaper shoots down the Republican argument fairly quickly. The person who enabled reporting on Rep. Foley's improper and immoral interactions with underage pages was a "paid GOP staffer".

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.

At every turn in this story, Republican claims have been proven false within hours of being uttered. Yes, the fact that a member of the Republican leadership in the House engaged in purely wrong relationships with House pages is damning. Extremely damning. Damning enough to help convince voters to throw out the GOP Congress -- if they hadn't decided to do so already.

But as damning as the exposure of Mark Foley is, so too is the exposure of Republicans for what they are: cynics of the worst kind who are willing to knowingly lie to the American public simply to try to save their grasp on power.

Update [2006-10-5 0:10:33 by Jerome Armstrong]:Drudge Report has helped to out the Republican (Deputy Campaign Manager for Ernest Istook) that participated in the IM discussion with Mark Foley. A site called "Passionate America" captured the IM name that ABC screwed up in leaving on one of the pages they put on the web (lawsuit?) and traced it back. The Freepers think this shows that the youth was a few months over 18, and that somehow this is all going to backfire on Democrats now (delusional). ABC says that the youth and Foley sent messages before and after the age of 18, and all the indications/leaks are that there are others as well. It's an ugly turn for the Republican partisans to be outting a victim of Foley, and how low they go seems to be the only thing left to determine in this unfolding scandal.

Tags: Mark Foley, Republicans (all tags)

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Re: The Hill: Media's Source for Foley Emails was

This is really getting more disgusting by the day. Rethugs are finally toast.

by Forward with Feingold 2006-10-04 06:28PM | 0 recs

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A Work Of Genius.

Excuse me for a moment won't you? I need to do my happy dance.

We are witnessing some of the finest political theater in modern history. Kudos to the playwright. This is sweet.

by takhallus 2006-10-04 06:42PM | 0 recs

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Re: A Work Of Genius.

Happy Dance???

absolutely not. The last thing any Dem should be doing is drawing any kind of attention to themselves. that will be the next coulterhannity line, "young children are hurt, and Dems are enjoying it".

as wrong as that is, any Dem doing a "happy dance" on this scandal will begin to reinforce that notion.

the following i posted earlier tonight on a different thread. I apologize not being original and reposting it, but i just feel so strongly this is the way to go:

If i were Rahm i'd be on the phone telling every Dem to "SHUT UP" (certainly respond to questions posed, but don't hold pressers calling for everyone to resign. don't start throwing up foley related ads.) The Republican leadership is tearing themselves apart on their own. Just stand and watch the places go up in flames.

Dem candidates should be busy hammering away on Iraq; State of Denial, the Oct. casualties so far, Death Squads in Iraqi Police, the $20million for the Iraq Victory party......

by padraig26 2006-10-04 07:10PM | 0 recs

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No

'Happy dance' aside, this is really bad advice. Use the ammunition you're given. Remember that Faux News agents are saying those things anyway, and would be even if Dems weren't rightly and properly throwing the scandal back in their faces. It's what they do. We failed to observe that before 2004 (at least Kerry's campaign failed to do so) and we are living with the consequences now, and we cannot afford to cower in fear of Hannity's potty mouth any longer.

by lightyearsfromhome 2006-10-04 07:19PM | 0 recs

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This Is Spectacularly BAD Advice

If i were Rahm i'd be on the phone telling every Dem to "SHUT UP" (certainly respond to questions posed, but don't hold pressers calling for everyone to resign. don't start throwing up foley related ads.)

Not that Rahm needs any advice on how to run stupid campaigns, but....

This scandal is the perfect embodiment of everything wrong with the GOP's one-party rule: You've got your secretive backdoor evil; followed by a public coverup where every Rep in sight is lying, and you can tell they're lying just because their lips move; followed by the desperate attempts to blame it all on the Democrats, who had nothing whatsoever to do with it. Just like 9/11. Just like Iraq. Just like Katrina. Just like the doughnut hole in the Medicare drug benefit.

And that's what Democrats should be saying, 24/7. The same folks who say, "Support the troops," and then send them out to fight without body armor are the same folks who say, "Stop child predators on the internet," and then hide a child predator in their midst.

The press conference lines just write themselves.

by Paul Rosenberg 2006-10-05 03:27AM | 0 recs

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Re: This Is Spectacularly BAD Advice

Some of you are missing my point. The "happy dance" is for the fact that the leaks have now been traced back to a GOP staffer.

In fact I was one of the first people advising -- strenuously and against much objection, including being denounced as a troll -- in comments a couple of days ago that Dems needed to stay out of the picture on this and let it play out. I've been clenching, waiting for some evidence that it was Mike Rogers or similar behind this.

But this new bit of news changes that. This is GOP on GOP violence. Which means that the GOP just lost its 'blame-the-Dems' ammunition. So yes, a bit of happy dancing is now in order.

The GOP counterattack will now shift even more clearly to attacking gays in general. But with their first counterattack now rendered obsolete it won't gain much traction.

Our tack should be to point to this new fact -- the GOP staffer -- and call out the Righties who tried to blame Dems. "It's one of your own people, so disgusted by your leadership that he took action, and you're trying to scapegoat us?"

"GOP on GOP violence." That should be our mantra for this next news cycle.

by takhallus 2006-10-05 03:44AM | 0 recs

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Good Short Term, But Not Long

FWIW, I understood the "happy dance" perfectly & agree completely. It's quite satisfying seeing that little lie explode in their faces. I just wanted to move on to more substantive disagreements.

"GOP on GOP violence" is a good line for the short term. Very good, even.

But we need to be thinking about the mid- and long-term here. And that's why we need to (A) connect it to their wider behavior and (B) press them to do things they don't want to do, such as taking a stand on whether Hastert should step down.

People tend to think in either/or terms. Either you get right into the middle of things, and make yourself a target, or else you zip your mouth shut. That's silly. What we should be doing is taking a clear principled stand, and keeping the heat on the GOP to do the same. (Which, of course, they can't and won't.)

We don't have to get into the details. You are 100% correct about the "GOP on GOP violence" line. That's all we need to say about the details. Having our candidates or campaigns say more is just getting in the line of fire, and is counterproductive. (Though, of course, the blogosphere needs to play by different rules. If we don't speak up, they will rewrite everything.)

But we can and should say plenty about the underlying values that their actions have exposed, and how these are reflected in everything else that they do.

by Paul Rosenberg 2006-10-05 11:53AM | 0 recs

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Re: This Is Spectacularly BAD Advice

You know, now that I look back, Paul, it was you calling me a troll for suggesting the Dems should keep a low profile. Fortunately the party did not follow your advice and did follow the path I preferred.

Now IS the time to start talking, but NOT in some broad attack on the GOP, but rather in a directed attack against GOP media for trying to scapegoat the Dems when it was one of their own who leaked it.

This story needs to be pushed out there. The story is GOP on GOP violence. Hastert is going to play out regardless of what we say or do, but we have a chance here to smack the Conservative echo chamber.

by takhallus 2006-10-05 05:30AM | 0 recs

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Re: This Is Spectacularly BAD Advice

Howard Dean, on the Foley scandal;

"We're staying away from it, to be honest with you. I don't want this to be seen as partisan. We'll do gentle reminders, of course, and people will use it in their ads, but you know, I think that this is just a firestorm."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articl es/061005/5dean.htm

this scandal is still so dynamic and lucid, Dems should not try to insert themselves in it. they should wait until the Rs have finished duking it out with one another to start to move with it.

but then again, who knows what developments today/tomorrow/next week will bring...

by padraig26 2006-10-05 08:37AM | 0 recs

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Well, Howard Dean Isn't God

And this time he's wrong.

They really should be able to say something coherent that 75% of the American people would nod in agreement with. How can that be bad?

by Paul Rosenberg 2006-10-05 11:56AM | 0 recs

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Accountability

Accountability continues to be the issue that the Dems emphasize. Republicans aren't the party of pedophiles and predators. They are the party that values money and power above everything else. Foley was protected because he was a great fundraiser. Raising funds was more important to the Republican leadership than protecting minors from sexual predation. Now the leadership is trying to pass the buck. Republicans hold none of their own accountable.

The only way to make government accountable to the people is to restore balance to the three branches of government by throwing the Republicans out of the House and Senate.

by FishOutofWater 2006-10-04 07:32PM | 0 recs

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Re: The Hill: Media's Source for Foley Emails was

Well, I'm very uncomfortable with the teenager's identity being divulged. Very ugly tactic. And just plain wrong.

That said, deputy campaign manager for Istook, nobody divorced or gay in my family going back to the Flood but it's okay if they help elect me governor Ernest Istook? Wow. I'll be reading my {J}Oklahoma with great care tomorrow.

Still, I do feel for the boy.

by Klio 2006-10-04 08:48PM | 0 recs

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Re: The Hill: Media's Source for Foley Emails was

It's indefensible. I found the "Passionate America" site and it's really, really, really creepy how they tracked this guy down just based on his AOL screen name.

It's also not entirely clear the kid is gay though... I mean, he does admit to liking the Catholic school girl look and having had a girlfriend.

by Tom 2006-10-04 09:29PM | 0 recs

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I think it was James Inhofe,

also R-Oklahoma, but in the Senate, who made that truly charming claim.

And we already knew that Inhofe has homos on his staff. Actually, and even more amusingly, he apparently differentiates between his committee staff, where homos are ok, and his regular Senate office staff, where homos would "undermine morale."

The truth is ALWAYS weirder. At least when it comes to Republicans.

by texas dem 2006-10-05 12:22AM | 0 recs

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PS, I'm gay,

otherwise I'd feel completely uncomfortable using the word homos. Like black people and "nigga" though, gay people are reclaiming words like homo and bending and twisting and throwing them back in people's faces with irony, all in an attempt to wring the venom out.

by texas dem 2006-10-05 12:26AM | 0 recs

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Thanks....

...and now it will become a source of contention just like "nigga" is. Can't we just stick with some words that aren't okay?

(half-satire post)

by MNPundit 2006-10-05 05:08AM | 0 recs

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right

so hard to keep the lunacy straight.

by Klio 2006-10-05 05:55AM | 0 recs

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UPDATE

This WaPo article reveals some more dirt about the scandal. Evidently Foley was attempting to use his political power in exchange for sex.

From the article:
"We will make you successful," Foley promised, "as long as you don't mind me grabbing your [deleted] once in a while."

by Tom 2006-10-04 09:37PM | 0 recs

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Re: The Hill: Media's Source for Foley Emails was

Lordy, but the GOP on-line set is delusional. Some have bailed over this, but most of the rest seem to be clinging desperately to this "it's the media's fault for bringing this up now, and all we need to do is point it out and everything will be A-OK" line of attack/defense. What a bunch of maroons. That'll never work. Ever. Even if it were true (it isn't), it still wouldn't work.

Has a major party ever been worse at governing?

by BriVT 2006-10-05 02:59AM | 0 recs

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Has a major party ever been worse at governing?

No, but the GOP has tried repeatedly in the past (McKinnley, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Reagan) so it's not surprising to see them surpassing themselves this time.

by Paul Rosenberg 2006-10-05 03:31AM | 0 recs

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Re: Has a major party ever been worse at governing

Admirable persistence.

I suppose we should be awed by the purity of their achievement, really. They have distilled themselves into the Platonic ideal of a bad government. Major scandals, minor scandals, policy scandals, sex scandals, botched governmental programs, disastrous foreign policy blunders, complete waste left for succeeding generations ... it's a stunningly complete picture of a government gone bad.

by BriVT 2006-10-05 04:56AM | 0 recs

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Re: Has a major party ever been worse at governing

Bringing on the Great Depression - Hoover - was more catastrophic to the people than anything we have yet seen from the present cast of characters. However, the present cast has demonstrated sheer ineptitude in every area of governance at all scales.

What remains the same - from Hoover to Bush - is the ideology of governance that leads to catastrophe. The Republican Party does not believe in a functioning government infrastructure to respond to natural and economic problems.

This disastrous philosophy may well lead to an ecological catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. Growing CO2 levels may not only cause a global warming disaster, but also a mass die off of marine life caused by acidification of the water in the upper ocean.

by FishOutofWater 2006-10-05 06:20AM | 0 recs

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Re: The Hill: Media's Source for Foley Emails was

What is this crap they are pulling about the page being 18 so it's ok?

Monica was 22.

Enough said.

by mpower1952 2006-10-05 07:02AM | 0 recs

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Re: The Hill: Media's Source for Foley Emails was

That's fuzzy math.

We know the page is now 21. It is October 2006. The IM exchange was in early 2003 -- so he could have been under 18. What's more, he was a page in 2002, when he was 17.

The conservatives' attempts to blame this on Democrats are terrible and, worse, they're not working.

by Tom 2006-10-05 08:28AM | 0 recs