Associated Press:
In a scandal guaranteed to anger parents, a prominent House Republican has resigned after the revelation that he exchanged raunchy electronic messages with a teenage boy, a former congressional page.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who is single, apologized Friday for letting down his family and constituents. His resignation letter was read to the House late Friday afternoon, and hours later, Foley's former colleagues engineered a vote to let the House ethics committee decide whether an investigation is needed.
ABC News has some extremely damning IM logs here (PDF).
Now, the hypocrisy. In 1998, the St. Petersburg Times reported:
For more than a week, members of Congress said they would avoid partisan politics when they got Kenneth Starr's report on President Clinton. But when they finally saw it Friday, they split along party lines.
Republicans were aghast at Clinton's behavior, with many saying it showed he had lied and abused his power.
"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."
[...]
Some of the strongest reaction Friday was in response to Starr's account of Lewinsky performing oral sex on Clinton as he chatted with members of Congress on the telephone.
That was "just sad," Foley said. "It's unbelievable that he could behave so carelessly in that setting."
Hey Mark, at least Monica was of legal age. Here's hoping Foley finds out firsthand why they call teens 'jailbait'.
(h/t reddit)
Tags: news politics crime Florida elections republican Mark Foley Bill Clinton Monica Lewinksy
