Newswire - Local Congressmen React to Congressional Sex Chat

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Foleyreaction

The Eagle-Tribune

Bryan McGonigle

Boston University Washington News Service

Oct. 3, 2006

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 – Local congressmen called for better protection of Congressional pages in the wake of the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.

“We must institute stronger safeguards, including better support and counseling services, to ensure the safety and well being of our pages,” Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass.,  said. He sponsored a high school student from Lawrence, Mass., as a page last spring, and said he finds Foley’s behavior reprehensible.

Foley resigned from his seat Friday after news reports exposed a sexually-explicit online instant message conversation from 2003 in which Foley asked a 16-year-old page if he was “horny” and told the page to take off his clothes and measure his penis.

The House voted unanimously Friday to instruct the House Ethics Committee  to investigate the situation.

Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H.,  said he is disgusted with Foley’s behavior.

"Members of Congress maintain the public trust only by conducting themselves with the highest standards,” Bradley said. “Mr. Foley has violated this trust with his reprehensible conduct.”

House pages are students in their junior year of high school who spend a year working in Congress as messengers for members while also doing class work.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio,  has said that he spoke with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.,  earlier this year about a questionable 2005 e-mail exchange between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner told a Cincinnati radio show Tuesday that Hastert had told him the situation had been dealt with.

In one e-mail in 2005, Foley asked a former page how school was and asked the page to send him a picture. In another e-mail, obtained by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the page said that he had been warned by an older page about a congressman who “hit on” pages.

Hastert’s office has confirmed that his top aides knew last year that Foley had been ordered to stop contact with the boy.

"If the FBI or the House Ethics Committee determines that there was misconduct by any member of Congress or affiliated staff, they should resign immediately,” Bradley said. “It is vital that the young men and women who serve in the Congressional Page Program feel safe and secure during their time in the Capitol."

Meehan said he supports FBI investigations into Foley and the GOP leadership.

“The current Republican leadership, which knew about at least one email exchange between Congressman Foley and a page for almost a year, appears to have tried to
hide the scandal instead of aggressively pursuing an investigation into the
matter,” Meehan said.

Foley wrote the sexual predator provisions of the Adam Walsh Protection Act signed into law in July. That bill – co-sponsored by Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass. – includes tougher penalties for viewing child pornography online.

“That’s the irony of it,” Tierney told The Salem News earlier this week. “It was (Foley’s) own law.”

Tierney said he expects there to be consequences for anyone who was aware of the full nature of Foley’s interaction with pages.

Meehan said he doesn’t know if the scandal will affect mid-term elections next month.

“It is too early to tell what the political fall out will be from this growing scandal,” Meehan said. “At its heart, this scandal is not about politics. It is about protecting our young people who serve in the nation's Capitol."

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