Brian Ross, the King of sensationalistic crap. Way to go, Brian. Do they pay you commission on this gossip?

The Democrats can count on you for parrotting their attacks on Republicans, can't they?

What is the relevance of reporting the gender of the page?

Witch hunt? Give me a break...... Must be a slow news day. Oh, that's right - it's 41 days from mid-term elections and time for the left-wing media to slap the Republicans yet again, right?

The rationale provided by the Congressman's office seems plausible - but it begs the question....if these exchanges were simply so the Congressman could build an archive file for his office there are two questions I have 1) why was this not being done by his staff and 2) why was it done using his personal email? It is my experience that politicians don't share their personal and private means of communication with every intern/page/volunteer that graces their office.

In this day and age, who knows?

How warped is this kid? It is a very sad day when we must worry about being friendly to others. Without more, the words shown in this story are very innocent. It is the sick mind of the reader that reads dark messages into them. We should be aware of sexual predators, but me must not make a boogie man out of anyone being friendly.

This is NOT news! Quit wasting my time with this worthless questionable garbage.

I think this is being blown out of proportion.

Overly stupid ,not overly friendly.

Good grief......are all of these 'witch hunts' really necessary?? Had one of my teenage sons received an e-mail in that context, I would not have thought it at all 'untoward.'

This seems completely innocent to me - and I'm a confirmed Bush-hater. Why do we see something like this as a crime?

Sounds like this might be someone trying to get attention. This seems like the kind of dialogue that might take place at an internship type scenario between a boss and a fellow. Age? Interests? A picture for records? Only someone looking to make a big deal of this sort of thing would notice something like this.

Yeah, because those e-mails sounded soooo "policy related."

Doesn't seem so bad so me. On this alone I don't see the issue.
IF this is all the info then what is the problem?

That a Congressman would use his
personal AOL account and then use
casual slang "what stuff do you like to do" does not sound as if it was a "professional" conversation. As a mother I find myself concerned. As a voter in his district I am even more disturbed.

MAYBE I'M NAIVE AND I'M USUALLY TRYING TO SNIFF OUT ANYONE THAT IS INAPPROPROIATE IN ANY WAY TOWARD YOUNG PEOPLE - HOWEVER - IN THIS CASE, JUDGING FROM THE NARROW AMOUNT OF CONVERSATION RELEASED, I DO NOT SEE ANYTHING OUT OF LINE. PERHAPS THIS YOUNG MAN OVERREACTED TO AN INNOCENT SITUATION. I'D HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING A BIT MORE CONCRETE THAN THAT TO THINK HE WAS BAITING THE BOY.

I think the congressman was only being friendly. You are trying to grab a headline by dragging the poor man into the dirt. With over-reactions like this, you are encouraging our elected officials to become cold and standoffish. By the way, I'm a Democrat.

Where's the story? Is there a story here?

Is ABC just participating in a non story to smear a politician?

What's the deal?

This is a bizarre story....but the emails cited here seem like there is more innocence here than "sick,sick,sick". Were these unsolicited emails? Where are the pages responses? This does smack of a smear and I am not a republican.

There is nothing to this story. I bet if Foley was from the other party it would not have even been mentioned. Do your due diligence and then report if it is worth anything.

I believe where there is smoke, there is fire. If this young man sniffed out that something was wrong, then he was probably correct. Shame on the congressman.

Brian:
First you hide manure in the capitol...now you fling it around...shame on you and ABC for this garbage

This email has all the classic signs of a pedophile beginning to reel in a victim. The classic pedophile approach is to befriend the victim with innocuous chatter, then to ramp it up to more personal and sexual contact.

Foley's claims of innocence don't wash. Why did he use a private AOL account? Why didn't a staffer ask for the photograph?

People who think this is "innocent" have their heads in the sand. Foley is 52 according to his website. The kid is 16. This is total inappropriate and warrants criminal investigation. (I happen to be a lifetime Republican, if anyone cares.)

As a former page myself, and one who requested recommendations, this one leaves me pondering. I was never asked for a photo or my age. In general pages are 16-17 years of age, something any Member of Congress should know.

That aside, I know Members of Congress go out of their way to be friendly with Congressional Pages, as these young pages are subject to long hours in a business environment away from family for months on end. But again, this happened after the page left the page program and some of the questions are a little odd.

It does have the ring of inappropriateness behind it.

And the U.S. national media wonders why they are accused of being biased against Republicans? This is a transparent attempt by ABC to unfairly label a Congressman as a pedophile. Have you no shame?

Innocent? Are any of you parents? If an old man sent emails like this to my kids, that sicko would be investigated.

To say nothing of his inability to write the English language -- in 12 years of school, he couldn't learn the different between YOUR and YOU'RE?

Why do you even write this crap is there no news out there???

Would you still be skeptical if you knew his sexual preference?

I'm not sure there's proof of anything happening or not happening. But I agree with the young man, it sure looked strange. However I found it facinating that within an hour or so of the story first being postes. Five people wrote in within 30 minutes or each other ( in one case seconds) with totally pro-Foley case. Good staff work is always to be admired.

this is ridiculous...there is not even a story here... even a democrat knows that this is an absurd report about a 16 year old who just wants to get his name in the papers. just by even suggesting that a republican is doing something "sick" will get anyone publicity..

this is creeepppppyyyyy

It has been widely reported in the press that Foley is gay and he refuses to deny it, stating only "my sexual orientation is unimportant." He withdrew from the race for Florida's senate seat, now held by Mel Martinez, because the press reported he lived with and was involved in a longterm relationship with a man. Foley always breaks ranks and votes pro-gay and against the GOP's "marriage protection" platform. So it's pretty clear he has an affinity for males. There's something here, and thank goodness ABC has the guts to report it.

WHY WASTE SPACE WITH THIS DISCUSSION? IF YOU THINK THIS IS MORE THAN A PERSON TRYING TO BE NICE TO ANOTHER THEN YOU ARE THE SICK,SICK,SICK,PERSON.

I absolutely agree with each and every comment.This young man is merely confused (I understand I am repeating the same thoughts as others but I wanted to be opinionated myself),and with previous accusations of other highly important figures (priests,fathers,and even pop icon michael jackson),I am surprised (not entirely),that this young man would take it to this level.Republican or Democrat,this incident SHOULD NOT,at all,give Mark Foley a negative image or reputation...

Foley is yet another example of hypocrisy from the Republicans, the self-proclaimed party of morality. Wake up, folks, and stop making excuses. Foley was getting a little too cozy with a 16 year-old, plain and simple, and his conduct is inexcusable. He needs to come out of the closet, admit his mistake, resign his seat in Congress, and move on with his life.

just further proof of how low the media must go,always looking for the lurid headline, with no substance behind it...ABC should be ashamed at this kind of blatant "tabloid" garbage.

Obviously the recipient of the e-mail was disturbed at the 'tone' of the Representative's behavior (non-consenting). Being a Representative in office requires some tact that apparently this Representative lacks. Personally, I think the Representative's apparent behavior is a bit too personal for comfort.

Perhaps these Republicans should reconsider their mantra of 'FAMILY VALUES' and 'MORALITY' and focus on the sensitivity of the governed. Every electorate deserves to be treated with respect; and down-talking to a former staffer with a patriarchial air is insulting.

LOL, as soon as I saw it was an ABC site I knew it had to be about a Republican. Why all the hate?

Weird. This sounds like Foley is trolling for underage gay sex. Another corked up Republican coming out of the closet. It makes no sense that Foley would send these messages from his personal email.

Just take a look at his internet logs to see what kind of man he is. With the white houses take on privacy I am sure you woun't need a court order to get them.

If this were two females would we even be having this discussion?

This story is oddly placed as story #1 on abcnews.com Why? Who forwarded to the press? What is the anticipated result of this story? I used to go onto abcnews.com to find the latest news, now I must compare with the other news organizations to find out whether it is the latest news or just a biased political stance.

So, what DID he want for his birthday?

The boy seems to over react and then somehow these emails end up in the press. Sounds fishy. He did not work for Foley's office so who did he work for? Why doesn't the story say? Why is he asking for a recommendation from someone he never worked for? Perhaps because this is a setup?

Republicans can get away with anything. George Bush and Ronald Reagan proved that.

They control media content. Bush is a horrible president, yet the media has not created enough public outrage for him to be impeached.

In Clinton's case, it was the exact opposite: the media went out of its way to create the (undeserved) "outrage" to get him impeached.

I don't know what to think about this. He's a bit too friendly, perhaps. Perhaps he had ulterior motives.

He seems to know the difference between your (possessive of "you" and you're (contraction for "you are").

What a sad state of affairs when any contact with a page, regardless of gender, is presumed by the press to be sexually motivated. It is even more pathetic that his opponent is apparently trying to turn this into a Monica Lewinsky situation.

Typical of Democrats, you ruin everything. You can kiss the page program goodbye. If I were a Republican congressman, I would refuse to participate in the page program from now on and would only let pages have direct contact with low level staffers at most. No references would be written from my offices for any page, period. It is a matter of self-protection. Don’t tell me that this kid is not a liberal. There is an obvious agenda in the timing of this release.

Only one comment - contrary to Shelly's high and might criticism of the Representative's English language usage, "your" instead of "you're" is in fact the appropriate usage.
While his usage may not be picture perfect, in casual email communication the standard now is relaxed usage rules (which for the record I'm not a fan of). But the phrasing you chose to criticize was not, in fact incorrect.

There is not enough information here to say one way or the other. There are folks who grew up with the habit of putting their hand on your shoulder when they greet you. Would it be right for a woman to accuse this person of sexual harrassment because this fellow may have put his hand on her shoulder? No.

The same is true here. Perhaps he is just a friendly person who shows it in an odd way. There is simply not enough evidence yet to say one way or the other. Anyone saying exactly what it was at this point is full of it, because they really don't know, either.

Grow up people.

Gee it must be election time again. The Democrats are digging and slinging mud at a faster pace than usual.

What a shock!!! I guess when you can't win elections on your own merits, you have to smear the opponent so he loses. I guess when you have no ideas and no good plans for the country, you resort to smear tactics.

What a bunch of losers.

Smear campaign from the left? Stop trying to spin this against your opponent. I interned on captiol hill and no one asked for my picture.

You can bet if this Congressman was a Democrat that Fox "News" would be all over it. GOP hypocrites.

Wow, so any adult who asks a kid what they want for their birthday must be a pedophile? Guess I must be one too since I asked my 5 yr old what she wants for her upcoming birthday...and my cousin who is turning 18 in a few weeks. Wow, I must be sick sick sick to ask what my daughter's babysitter likes to do after school besides watch kids. Come on...this story was crap, and people who are looking for something to hang the guy with need to get a life.

Is this news? Yawn..............

Without a doubt that is inappropriate. The Congressman should be ashamed, but not nearly as ashamed as the people who are willing to let him off the hook because he is a Republican. Finally the right-wing corporate news sources aren't hiding Republican scandal.

" 'too friendly and too engaging' with young people."

Uh... yeah. This Republican is obviously fitting the mold of conservatives with sick secrets in their closet.

I wonder what that recomendation looks like now...

Give me a break! After this kid leaves, asks for a professional reference, Foley asks him for some unnecessary personal information and a PHOTO from Foley's personal AOL acct! This is clearly an attempt to groom this kid for something else. When I gave references for any of my employees, I always used my work email address and never my personal one. Remember this is a business request - not a personal one and why should this kid know Foley's personal email address? I wonder if any others will come forward?

I think this tells you all you need to know:

"The young man in question did not work or intern for Foley's office."

You have GOT to be kidding me. Not only is this premature and almost certainly BS, you have the gall to make it the "top" story on the website!
Thank you for giving me a reason to never look at the ABC "News" website again.

Gosh, I didn't know Michael Jackson also served in Congress.

Despite myself being a liberal [which I don't even think matters in stories like this], I think this kid is either overly paranoid or it's a set-up. The congressman only appears to be friendly. The request for a pic is legit ... it's hard to keep track of intern names, especially those who come back for a recommendation.

This is one of the dumbest news stories I have ever read. This 16 year old seems very paranoid and has probably just ended any career in politics. Oh wait, based on how he handled this he will make a great Democrat.

Oh please, the man's quite obviously a perv, pretending otherwise just makes you look stupid

Where is the news? The conversation doesn't sound out of line to me. Mark Foley is a good Congressman and this is nothing but a vicious negative smear by a candidate who has no chance of winning.

based on the few sentences of foley's emails that have been released, i fail to understand the hysteria.

i dont think this is a republican bashing issue, i think its a gay bashing issue (this assumes that he's even gay).

We don't really know the context here. I send a lot of emails to students (they are adults in foreign countries, by the way) via both my private and office accounts. I have never thought anything of it. I have had young men and women (some kids even) who want to be friends with me and I am a 55 year old woman! They even send me their pictures. Big deal. They are just students who live in a foreign country and want a penpal. Anyone can read anything "sick" into anything if they want to.

Whoa, thats a pretty heavy allegation to make toward someone isnt it? Accusing them of something like that?
Without evidence even if the guys guilty I would side with him, no one has the right to impugn your character like that without evidence.
Isnt it possible for a defamation of character lawsuit? Thats just ridiculous. Obviously political of course, what a fun place capital hill is!

How's your day going? Have any big plans? How's your family? Wait...is this perverted or what?

Would everyone think this is just a witch hunt if the emails were being sent from a teacher and it was your child receiving the email? I think not. We have taught this generation of children to beware of predators online and on the street. Why should this be any different? The child right or wrong felt uncomfortable with the line of questions and requests. Did he not do as we have been teaching?

If this was so innocent why was he emailing from his personal account? The boy was uncomfortable and that’s what matters. I commend him for speaking up about this man’s behavior towards him. As we know most teenagers hide innappropriate behavior so I applaud him. And it’s very disgusting when I see comments from women blowing off this perv’s behavior as innocent! This is classic of how pedo’s work! If you’re son or daughter came to you and said some man is emailing asking for pictures and what he/she wanted for their birthday.. would you not be alarmed??!

Oh, where there's smoke there's fire, how nice "Rudy." Well, let's hope no one you've ever known claims you grabbed them, or wrote "love Rudy" on an e-mail that made them feel uncomfortable. The day we throw out "innocent -- not just 'not guilty' but INNOCENT -- until proven guilty" and replace it with "Where there's smoke there's fire," we can kiss our civilization goodbye.

If it was business related, he would not have used his personal AOL account. In addition, while they do keep photos of interns for their files, this intern did NOT work for Foley. Finally, friendly or not why do ask a sixteen year old boy what he wants for him birthday. This intern did NOT intern for Foley so he doesn't know him.

"The classic pedophile approach is to befriend the victim with innocuous chatter." Ah, great, so there is no "innocuous chatter." If this guy treated his staffers like crap, that would be in the news - say, not remembering their names. Do we have no innocence left? I'm also sorry to read that, apparently, we still believe that all gays (although it's only been "reported) are pedophiles. How hompophobic, except when you go after a Republican everything is fair game, right? On another note, Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, not the oral sex from the affair (note no "alleged".)

A predator and people want to ignore it because of stupid politics. The congressman is dangerous, thinks he is above the law and ready to blame others rather than take responsibility for his evil actions. Any parent that would ignore notes their children receive like this, should not have children to raise.

"What stuff do you like to do???"

ewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!

He's just like the teacher who tried to mess with me in high school. Tried to be my buddy. Make this guy go away! By the way... he can't spell either!

This is why I dont watch the news, or read a newspaper.
A pure waste of brain.

Come again? Why was he emailing this teen from his personal AOL account? Keep an eye on this "Peter Pan" freak.

So what was this minor supposed to do when he felt uncomfortable receiving these emails?? Keep quiet?

Other than the sender, the best judge of the intent of the emails is the recipient. A sixteen year old kid is pretty well attuned to incoming passes. If he's creeped out, it's probably for good reason. Kids get hit on by older pervs all the time and they have pretty good radar for detecting and evading it.

In my opinion, the real telltale is the photo request. That guy is a foul owl on the prowl!

I have no problem with the young man being uncomfortable with the emails, always trust your instincts, but the former page states that he initated the exchange. That being said, why not tell the Congressman he is uncomfortable with the tone or discontinue the correspondence. The fact that they could just as easily be innocent as provocative begs the question, why release these to the media. It smacks of a publicity stunt.

Congressman Foley has always positioned himself as a champion of child protection.

Back in 2003 he was outed by the gay media in Florida (as a Republican conservative his record is anti-gay) - he quickly changed the subject by launching an attack on camps for nudist children, which was dropped after the state found no problems, and the outing issue had passed without much notice.

Congressman Mark Foley is sexually attracted to young boys?? Wait a minute! This is news to everyone??

Wow! What a misleading story. It seems the inappropriate behavior was the intern fowarding the emails to his peers causing this uproar. If the initial emails were truly inappropriate, he should have gone to proper authorities. Besides, the mundane questions (in question) give no credibility to the interns accusations. Further review should only be done with responsible scrutiny of the facts. The facts being presented in this article are lacking credence.

I think that we should reserve judgement....until we see the photo of the boy,then we'll know what was on the congressman's mind.

jk.

Another Republican bites the dust.

Write an article complaining about proper behavior when a Congressman actually asks for a sexual favor not this crap.

I'm sure if the good Congressman had ill intent he would have taken it to the next level if the Intern would have continued the converstion. Now all you do is leave doubt in the minds people who can argue their point either way. The only person that looses now is the Congressman.