On Friday afternoon, a strategist for Rep. Mark Foley tried to cut a deal with ABC's Brian Ross.

The correspondent, who had dozens of instant messages that Foley sent to teenage House pages, had asked to interview the Florida Republican. Foley's former chief of staff said the congressman was quitting and that Ross could have that information exclusively if he agreed not to publish the raw, sexually explicit messages.

"I said we're not making any deals," Ross recalls. He says the Internet made the story possible, because on Thursday he posted a story on his ABC Web page, the Blotter, after obtaining one milder e-mail that Foley had sent a 16-year-old page, asking for a picture. Within two hours, former pages had e-mailed Ross and provided the salacious messages. The only question then, says Ross, was "whether this could be authenticated."

The St. Petersburg Times last fall obtained the earlier e-mail, asking the 16-year-old for a picture, and interviewed the boy, who wrote a friend that he considered the message "sick." But the boy would not go on the record.

Executive Editor Neil Brown says the paper's policy against making accusations based on unnamed sources was a factor. "We just didn't feel like we had the story," he says. "We had a lot of stuff implied. . . . If I had it to do over again, I think we probably would have been more organized about pursuing it. But hindsight is 20/20."

The paper did interview Foley, who assured a reporter that the e-mail exchange was innocent, Brown says.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5041100587.html

Look for this Story SOON
ABC News: Pages ‘Sending All Sorts of Messages About Possible Other Members’

It's only downhill from here for the Republicans. Via ABC News:

Tonight on ABC, investigative journalist Brian Ross suggested there may be other members of Congress who engaged in inappropriate behavior towards congressional pages:

BRIAN ROSS: So far, Foley is the only member whose overt sexual approaches have been documented. Charlie?

CHARLES GIBSON: The only one to be documented, but are there other shoes to drop?

ROSS: We’re hearing quite a bit from former pages. They’re sending us all sorts of messages about possible other members.

An history-making meltdown is in progress.

GoU

ITS EVERYWHERE..........RUN.........FLEE...........

ABC:
A former senior Republican official in Congress says Foley was one of a handful of members and staff whose behavior with pages was being closely watched.




GoU, ya got that......correct.
UFB...........

hallelujah ...it's a jubilee.....

THIS:
ROSS: We’re hearing quite a bit from former pages. They’re sending us all sorts of messages about possible other members.


..............this......

...ya self righteous shits.

I just wonder what kind of lie he would have told if he was allowed to keep his perverted secret. And I can bet that he wouldn't have checked himself into rehab.

And there is more


It's confirmed. Congressman Tom Reynolds' (R-NY) chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, tried to broker a secret deal last Friday to get ABC News to cover up the worst part of the Foley child predator scandal, the lurid five-plus-page instant message chat in which Foley asked a child to measure his penis and then led the child into a detailed discussion of masturbatory techniques.

Howie Kurtz in the Washington Post wrote about this in this morning's Washington Post, though at the time Kurtz didn't name names - he simply referred to the deal-maker as a "former chief of staff" to Mark Foley. It's subsequently been confirmed to me, by Kurtz, that the individual who reportedly tried to broker the cover-up deal was Congressman Reynolds' own chief of staff (and former Foley chief of staff), Kirk Fordham. Here is what Kurtz wrote:
On Friday afternoon, a strategist for Rep. Mark Foley tried to cut a deal with ABC's Brian Ross.

The correspondent, who had dozens of instant messages that Foley sent to teenage House pages, had asked to interview the Florida Republican. Foley's former chief of staff said the congressman was quitting and that Ross could have that information exclusively if he agreed not to publish the raw, sexually explicit messages.

"I said we're not making any deals," Ross recalls.
(As noted above, I have confirmed that the guy offering the deal was Fordham.) Yes, God forbid Congressman Reynolds let the public know the truth. But we're to believe that he was interested in the truth when he first found out about Foley's creepy emails months ago. Right.

Congressman Reynolds, you'll recall, is the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the congressional body in charge of helping House republicans get re-elected. Reynolds had been notified about Foley's page-baiting months ago, yet wants us to believe he did everything he could and that he's not responsible for the sexual predator getting an easy ride, for his being permitted to remain in congress, permitted to remain the chair of the House caucus on missing and exploited children, and being permitted to remain in the House Republican leadership.

Now we know otherwise.

Congressman Reynolds let his own chief of staff secretly work for a child predator in an effort to cover-up the worst evidence of the predator's sexual wrongdoing. Without that evidence, this case might not have broken wide open. Add Reynolds to the list, alongside Hastert and Shimkus, of members of Congress who need to resign now.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/10/br...r-ny-chief.html

Just the kind of sleaze I'd expect from Tom Reynolds- he's been a slimey nuisance in my state for decades. He has been one of the chief operatives in promoting the Republican hegemony in DC. According to the DNC, it looks like business as usual for Reynolds:

According to the Associated Press, Congressman Reynolds' spokesman confirmed that Reynolds had been informed by another Congressman that the boy had complained about Foley's inappropriate communications "months ago." According to the report, the allegations first came to light in late 2005 (AP, 9/30/06). It appears that Reynolds did not tell authorities about the emails or take any step to discipline Foley, apparently choosing instead to sweep the matter under the rug to protect the Republican party's dwindling chances of retaining control of the House of Representatives this November.

Soooo typical- the Neocons sacrificing our youth to maintain their power base.

We know that's not the type of rehab these perverts need. They need to be locked up and not allowed to return to the general public. They are a threat, and anyone who covered it up should be jailed as well!

Drinking my butt! That's just another smoke and mirrors trick for a slimeball pervert to wiggle a way out.
Just total pig manure!

Bernie...

When you read about the deal it looks like the Repubs took Brian Ross to be a fool. If he would pull the story they would offer him exclusive information about the Foley quiting. That is such a bad deal only the most committed neocons would think Ross would go for it. I mean what is more uicer. A congressman resigning or the sex scandle that any fool could see would cause the congressman to resign.

Yeah, it was dumber than hell, and it shows how desperate they were. Ross ALREADY had an exclusive, he didn't need an interview with Foley.

GoU

So true, but we need to really ask this tough question. If there any teenage boys in this rehab center? Because you just let the fox in the hen house.

Does this cancel the crime of ABC's "Leadup to 911?

It might prove more valuable next month.
rdr

No it doesn't

On C-Span right now. Melanie Sloan from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics is saying they told FBI in July. She is saying the FBI needs to be investigated also. She wants to know why they didn't investigate Foley.