There was enough in those emails to raise suspicion. Mr Foley should have been watched, if not investigated.

It shouldn't have taken the press or the FBI to make something happen. Mr Foley's colleagues should have dealt with this.

Mr Hastert saying he didn't know about the more salacious emails is not an excuse. It was his responsibility to know.

why is it! that when the republicans get caught with sick behavior its the dems fault. Why didn't the speaker know if these other Rep. say they told him!!!!!!

If a kid can realize that the e-mails were sick, sick, sick then so should a whole gaggle of adults. The only reason nothing was done was to protect a republican's seat and keep his prodigious fund raising apparatus cranking out the dough. How repugnant.

This behaviour was so recognizably loathsome that a republican hill staffer felt he had to release the material to the authorities ( the FBI got it in July) and when even that didn't work, released it to the press.He was a brave young man who put our kids and country above the "power at any cost" republican party. Bless him and hope his identity is never revealed.

Much to do about nothing. The Dems can't control themselves. Foley resigned, as he should of. End of Story!

Everyone has lost sight of the point. This man is a sexual predator. And he must be held accountable as we do with all sexual predators. Even though this will/may have some kind of impact in politics, everyone seems to be out for them selves instead of dealing with the real issue at hand which is addressing a sexual predator first. Maybe the republicans can save face if they also accept the issue at hand and protect these children and make Foley face his crime.

Reporting this story? Worthy??? Worthy of what? Like this is something new. I think that we should let it go. There are gay people or regular sex perverts all over the world. GTHey have not been stopped because they are right next store. Might be your Uncle...
And television does not help. Look at commercials and cable shows and then take a look at your daughter or son who is watching and think of what is stirring up in their minds. I'm sure that the people who produce the shows and the networks that air them know that they don't need to be too sexy, but its all about money. Back to the issue. I am not a Republican, but I think that Republicans might and should start looking for the gay Democrates and gay News anchors... Might even the playing field and people can take a look at the real issues in the USA. I think that the world is going to pot not because of gays, or the NRA, [and by the way what do they think about the latest shootings, and where the networks with that story?] but because of the power brokers in Wash. It's all about the money... And you reading this knows this also. So REPORT THE TRUTH.

What's getting lost in the reporting of the Republican's response to the initial emails?
In the page's original email he also told Alexander's office about another report from a former page named Kerianna that there was a congressmen that had hit on pages (plural).

Here's the exact quote:
"I talked to another page that was here during the school year and first part of summer. Kerianna (her name) said that there was a congressman that did hit on pages. She didn't know his name. . ."

Why didn't they investigate based on Kerianna's assertion, coupled with the "sick sick sick" emails?

You've got one page reporting a level of contact he considered inappropriate, another page receiving attention that seems inappropriate, and a third page reporting that a congressman was hitting on more than one page. And they keep saying that they only knew about "overfriendly"
emails.

I'm not a parent and am 50+ years old. There is NO way that an adult hearing of inappropriate e-mails from an adult (male or female) to a young person (again, male or female) would NOT have bells going off in their heads if they were responsible adults. It's one thing for adults to do things with adults, its a completely DIFFERENT thing for an adult to engage or try to engage a child.

I know the FBI has yet to change their tune but the two Florida papers you allude too are having second thoughts about whether they should have acted more diligently are they not. And we now know the FBI claimed there were redactions in the original e-mails given them is false. For them {FBI} not to see flags is not excusable.

But to put it in proper context. If your child was a page and was sent an e-mail from Mr. Foley with the same contents of those under scrutiny, what would you expect those who were responsible for your child's safety should have done? Wasn't the contents, although not salacious, something that would raise a flag? Ignorance can not be an excuse when the safety of our children are concerned. Incompetence isn't either. Someone dropped the ball, big time. Republicans are going to pay dearly.

His serial harassment, consensual or not, via instant message to male minors is serious, without a doubt. Those that say otherwise need put themselves in the position of the harassed and of their families. If Mark Foley would be anyone's neighbor, anyone would like to know that he harasses boys and that he is a danger to the community.

This horrible offense by Mark Foley should have been dealt with months ago. This is NOT a homosexual issue, as the Republicans claim, but an issue of Pedophilia, and all responsible adults with knowledge of his wrong-doing's should be held accountable for allowing it to continue for so long.

I can't get the e-mails to download. Have they been taken off the site?

Any of the apologists who do not think that a 52 old man asking a 16 year old for a picture is a shot across the bow, should be quietly retired to the countryside!

You mean the first ones, back in 1994 or 1996? Yes.

On one hand, I can see where some might dismiss Foley's contacts here as merely "overly friendly", as Speaker Hastert's office evidently did. However, this has to be judged within a wider context, which the student's email to the staffer also gives indication of: he had heard "that there was a congressman who did hit on pages", but he was not sure that Foley was that congressman. As it turned out, Foley was and the student was not overreacting. If there was some indication of other questionable contacts at the time, this information should have triggered an investigation.

Worthy of investigation?
Sure.

Why not investigation EVERYTHING about the original story and possible setup of Foley as a joke instead of the Dan Rathergate part II effort to destory Republicans in an election season.

WHOEVER IS CRITIZING IS NOT THINKING ABOUT THE YOUNG KIDS.
MAYBE THEY DO THE SAME???

I read the email and think it should have set off alarm bells already in the Republican hierarchy since these pages were (are) 16 years old (although in some states, 16 is the legal age of consent).

But, as in the Catholic church cases, often the first reaction of hierarchy is to verbally reprimand and hope it never happens again, instead of going public with it.

If this was a non-issue for news agencies (I know Fox was told about this and did nothing), FBI (I assume this is regarding the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reporting the emails and FBI doing nothing, CREW has contacted the DOJ about why they didn't), and Congressional leaders (who? Hastert, at the center of the mess?), then how is it that ABC News was able to find corroborating evidence of many instances of Foley's wrongdoing within a day of them being contacted with nothing more than 'overfriendly' emails?

Putting it even more succinctly, the question isn't why these other agencies and organizations felt this wasn't worth pursuing, to me the question is why did these agencies and organizations do so very little at all to see if there WAS any evidence?

If a news agency can come up with the info so quickly, doesn't that say just as much about the groups approached earlier about the emails (like Fox News and the Republican House leaders) inability to investigate something going on in their own backyard?

What a question? Obviously, the e-mails were worthy of following up on, given the exchanges Foley had with pages in subsequent e-mails. That anyone would pose such a assinine question is beyond me. But, of course, once more it is just a ploy to cover up for doing nothing when the truth was, the GOP was protecting their majority rather than the children entrusted to their care.