This is disgusting. These poor kids were warned about Foley five years ago? And nobody took further steps because they were afraid he might abuse his power and hurt them?

I hope there is a special place in hell for Mark Foley and his ilk.

Puts Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in perspective. (She was age 22 when she began working at the White House.)

And the "he had power" - and so people were "hesitant to report" his behavior thing is just sickening.

We asked for big government, and now we've got it, complete with a governing class which lives by rules remarkably distant from those which apply to, say, the average American who earns a wage, lives in fear of being accused of sexual harassment, and, if the volunteer to work with young people at their church, are subjected to extraordinary scrutiny.

i thank as soon as that was discovered, foley should have been forced to resign, now all the people that knew about it and covered it up to keep the seat in flordia should be helt accountable they was protecting a pedaphile, thanks a lot

How did Rep. Foley get the pages email addresses? I am not condoning what he did, but question why anyone would give him their personal email info.

Some people have wondered if Foley was a swing vote on any bills passed by Congress this year, and it turns out that Foley was sitting on the fence on the CAFTA bill that passed 217-215, and then cast the deciding vote.

Does anyone else think that the GOP leadership saw the pedophilia tendencies of Rep. Foley as an opportunity rather than a problem? An opportunity to control him makes for a good reason to stay quiet.

How come we're only hearing about the Republicans who do this AND NOT THE DEMOCRATS WHO DO!?!?!?

GEEZE THE MEDIA IS BIASED!

This is ridiculous. I was a Republican Page sponsored by Congressman Foley in 2002 and there was never any warning about him. People knew he was gay but no one knew he was a potential child molester.

-Jason M. Gross

These revelations are utterly reprehensible! Foley is obviously a very sick man, but if Republican leaders charged with overseeing his behavior are found to have to have known about his attempts to engage these children in sexual activities and to have covered it up, this is this most hideous abuse of the public trust that I can remember. The pages had been proudly entrusted by their parents to serve the House of Representatives and our Nation. If my teenage child had been one of the pages targeted by Foley and then left unprotected by Hastert and other House Republicans, I would have demanded criminal charges be brought against the whole crowd long ago.
Susan Barta
Texas parent

"thick as thieves",, OH WAIT most of em in DC ARE THEIVES... We know of course it is ALL political, "the other party" kinda thing. That or the OLD stand by, "I don't remember", I bet none of em will use the "depends how do you define" pervert excuse

Can we just call it a conspiracy now? I mean if it walks like a duck...

Seriously, what else can you call it? The pages sponsored by Democrats were not warned about his predatious behavior. The only Democrat on the page committee was purposefully kept in the dark. The leadership covered up a crime, defined in legislation the offender wrote for at least a year and possibly five years. Just so they could hang onto a seat.

The crime took down one congressman. The cover-up looks poised to take down a lot more, and they are in leadership, so they have a lot more to lose. Their craven disregard for the children entrusted to them is staggering.

The party of "Family Values" is hoisted on it's own pettard after all the preening and posturing and holier-than-thou sanctimony. And boy do they have it coming.

Schadenfreude indeed.

I think we'll be hearing about this story for a long time.

It is time to search all the email traffic and instant message traffic of every government employee and prosecute those that are involved in such action.

I am totally appalled at the behavior of this member of the house. In this day and age a person, who has the status of Congressman Foley, can play this game of "WOLF IN A SHEEPS CLOTHING".He should be arrested, and anyone that knew about this should resign. I know they were all Republicans, they play games with the people of the United States.

Well, so much for Republicans whining about Clinton's consenual affair with an adult woman. I just read the full text of Foley's little IM session with this UNDER-AGE BOY and I just about puked. This is a sick man.

If Speaker Hastert knew about this beforehand, he and anyone else who covered it up should resign immediately.

I don't get outraged by much that politicians do anymore. Sex scandals, lies, etc. I mean, come on, they're politicians. But this is repugnant. So much for the GOP Holier-than-Thou routine.

If this guy were a democrat, people would be saying the same thing.. that they were afraid to speak up because of the power these politicians "hold". It doesn't matter if a pedophile is a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or "soccer dad"... the bottom line is they're demented.. mentally ill... and in need of serious help (if not incarceration). Sick that no one in his party insisted that he be ousted? Yes... but can they force someone to resign? Probably not.. it took a moment of public revelation, and this man's stupidity, to get that job done.

People in trusted public positions are just as fallable and "human" as the rest of society. Until we stop putting them on pedastals, they'll continue to pull the wool over our eyes. We are all to blame.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It should come as no big suprise that the GOP knew about Foley's scandal back in 2005, yet keep it under wraps.

Do you think that, just maybe, if the Dems at least controlled the House that they might have been able to investigate the early rumors on this Foley scandal?

Nah. No way. Banish the thought from your minds. All hail the GOP, Party of God and all that is right and just in America.

To "Media Bias" Robert:

Why are we only hearing about the republicans who do this?

Because there's only evidence that Republicans are doing this!

Get serious, man.

if there is anything going on with the Democrats, rest assured the Rebublicans will find it. 'The media is biased...' riii..iii..ght. that's why we never heard about any scandals during the Clinton administration. That's why there were no questions about Kerry's medals.

Please.

I'm appalled at the lack of leadership in today's Republican party.

I was a Republican up until after the 2004 election when Bush and his cronies completely hijacked the Reagan Revolution and created a big government party.

The fact that Hastert and co. would cover this up for well over a year is truly PERVERSE! Of course I would expect the Democrats to do the same damn thing because both parties are insanely greedy and petty.

If Republicans were truly as Machevellian as they seem wouldn't it have been wiser to impeach Foley and demand he be replaced by a "true traditional values conservative" in a special election that a Republican could truly win!

This is shameful. As a conservative Christian Republican, I say get rid of the whole bunch if they knew about it. I would rather lose the House than support people who were aware of this but did nothing.