The Story Behind the Mark Foley Story
Terry Trippany on Oct 02 2006 at 5:24 pm | Filed under: Feature Article, Politicians at Work
It is possible that Democrats knew about the Foley story and sat on it to have the maximum impact before the elections? That is one theory that is floating around. If true this would kind of make Democrat hysteria over their claims that Republicans held the story to protect themselves more than disingenuous.
Don’t get me wrong. This is in no way a defense of Mark Foley. As a parent I would be incensed if it turns out that any politician sat on this news. This is the worst sort of scandal. There is no reason for people to put children in harms way to protect their hold to power. None.
The Mark Foley scandal should have been addressed the minute someone knew about it. But the story behind the story is not so simple. It appears that different liberal websites have different copies of the same incriminating Foley e-mail image. It looks like someone is playing games with the details.
In addition, it is now noted that the anti-sexual predator group that broke the IM’s didn’t come on line until July and only had 6 messages on it until this huge story was unveiled by the “massive popularity” of the site. The owners of the server are suspect as well.
This whole story stinks, from the actions of Mark Foley to the obvious attempts to sit on the story for protection and to yield maximum damage before an election.
Mark Finkelstein at Newsbusters notes the timing of the e-mail releases:
Day One: Suspicious-but-not-explict emails.
Day Two: Explicit instant messages, but no evidence Foley met with boys.
Day Four: Instant message indicating Foley was indeed seeking to meet and possibly had already met with a boy.Foley deserves what he’s gotten and what is likely to come. But it seems increasingly plausible that the timed release of information – of ever-escalating seriousness – is part of a calculated campaign to keep the story in the news and inflict maximum political damage on the GOP.
Curt at Flopping Aces has been putting together quite a synopsis of the suspicious way that this story has unfolded. Stop by and read the whole thread as it is has been updated many times.
Others:
Hot Air: Source of Foley e-mails identified?
Passionate America: Foleygate : Mark Foley emails altered and Wild Bill calls Matthew Loraditch about Mark Foley
Right Wing Nut House: THE WEBSITE THAT STARTED IT ALL – STRANGE BUT TRUE
Michellle Malkin: The Foley mess: deal with it
Wizbang: Will There Be Foley Backlash?
[...] Oh, and on a side note (a bit about the timing of this story)- if Foley’s sexual predatory nature was such a big Open Secret why in the hell are the democrats just figuring it out? For the love of all that is good they screwed this one up too. Think about it, if the Dems had this information back in 2001 they could have used it to their political advantage. So why wait? As they say inquiring minds want to know… The Democrats are definitely making up for lost time – assuming that we believe they were completely in the dark about Foley’s twisted obssession with male pages under the age of 17. Pelosi is taking action but isn’t this a day late and a dollar short? If everybody, pages included knew since 2001 how in the hell did the Democrats not know? This whole issue is what my hubby would call a Cluster F*ck and it’s a big one – our politicians asleep at the wheel again. [...]