Foley Quits Amid Allegations of Email Sex Scandal

Your emphasis is wrong. The correct emphasis is on the last clause of that sentence, which I've emphasized with bold/red. Do I need to diagram it for you?

Ticomaya wrote:

Hey, doofus ... you're the one who accused me of making up the definition. I've now shown you that I did not make it up, and I've yet to see an acknowledgement from you that you were wrong, much less an apology.

OK, Tico - you didnt make it up. Herewith acknowledged.

Washington Times calls for Hastert's resignation

It wasn't long after the Foley scandal hit the news that the partisan positioning began.

Democrats have, of course, been asking when the House leadership knew about Foley's inappropriate messages to pages. That's a reasonable question, but of course it was seen as an attack; and since Democrats never seem to realize that when your opponents are imploding on their own, you should just shut up and stay out of the way, it prompted the predictable Republican response.

That was cries of "Clinton! Lewinsky! Clinton! Lewinsky!" Because after all, someone having a stupid, irresponsible affair with an adult is just like a Congressman hitting on pages, right? [..]

In some of the stranger events of the day, we got to see White House press secretary Tony Snow dismissing it as "some naughty emails" (and then quickly backing off from his own statement), Matt Drudge explaining that Mr. Foley was the victim of devious Congressional pages who preyed up on him, and assorted murmurs that Democrats had planned the release of the emails.

This morning, it's left to one of the most conservative newspaper editorial boards in the United States to weigh in, sounding like the adult who's had it with the kids hurling mud at each other in the backyard. The Washington Times has called for Dennis Hastert to resign his position as Speaker of the House.

[b]House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. [/b]He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.

They are relying on an old and out of fashion concept: that when things go wrong on your watch, you are responsible for them, and that you cannot duck that responsibility. The argument that Mr. Hastert might not have seen the incriminating messages doesn't fly with them, because Mr. Hastert should have known what was going on his House.

We don't hear that kind of thinking very often anymore, but perhaps it's time for it to come back into vogue. If you know you're going to held responsible, you tend to be far more careful about who you trust and how you oversee them. [..]

The editors of the Washington Times, a group of people with whom I seldom agree about anything but whom I respect as thoughtful people, have my respect for rising above the finger pointing and calling for accountability.

Posted by John Whiteside at 06:52 AM in US Politics

nimh wrote:

All you and Timber are engaging in is wordplay in any case, intended to blur the issue and instill doubt about just how bad exactly it is what Foley did - pedophile or 'just' ephebophile?, etc. ...

No, not at all - well, I can't speak for Tico, but my point is that while minors, the subject correspondents were not children. That the subject correspondents were minors but not children hardly matters; Foley's conduct was despicable, whether or not physical contact was involved. If it turns out there was actual, as opposed to "virtual" sex, then that's all the worse, but regardless, Foley earned for himself all the disgust he's justly and rightfully getting.

FORMER PAGES SPEAK
Some Say They Felt Uneasy About Representative's Attention

By James V. Grimaldi, Juliet Eilperin and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A01

In 1995, male House pages were warned to steer clear of a freshman Republican from Florida, who was already learning the names of the teenagers, dashing off notes, letters and e-mails to them, and asking them to join him for ice cream, according to a former page.

Mark Beck-Heyman, now a graduate student in clinical psychology at George Washington University, and more than a dozen other former House pages said in interviews and via e-mail that Rep. Mark Foley was known to be extraordinarily friendly in a way that made some of them uncomfortable.

Beck-Heyman, who was a Republican page and is now a Democrat, said the attention was "weird," and he provided a handwritten letter that Foley sent him after the page left Washington to return home to California. The note suggested that they get together during the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996.

The e-mail exchanges that have become public in recent days are between Foley and male former pages. None of those interviewed said they had received a sexual or suggestive overture from him during their time on Capitol Hill. Yet many of them said they were uneasy about Foley's actions and felt awkward complaining to anyone about them.

"Mark Foley knew that he could get away with this type of behavior with male pages because he was a congressman," said Beck-Heyman, who later worked in the Clinton White House and on Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. "But many people on Capitol Hill," including many Republican staffers, "have known for over 11 years about what was going on and chose to do nothing," he said.

Quote:

§ 22-3020. Aggravating circumstances.


(a) Any person who is found guilty of an offense under this subchapter may receive a penalty up to 1 1/2 times the maximum penalty prescribed for the particular offense, and may receive a sentence of more than 30 years up to, and including life imprisonment without possibility of release for first degree sexual abuse or first degree child sexual abuse, if any of the following aggravating circumstances exists:

(1) The victim was under the age of 12 years at the time of the offense;

(2) The victim was under the age of 18 years at the time of the offense and the actor had a significant relationship to the victim;

(3) The victim sustained serious bodily injury as a result of the offense;

(4) The defendant was aided or abetted by 1 or more accomplices;

................

Moral Outrage

Does anyone really believe that he didn't shtup one or two of these pages over the years?

According to the WaPo, this has been a problem... since 1995, at least:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301633.html

Quote:

FORMER PAGES SPEAK
Some Say They Felt Uneasy About Representative's Attention

By James V. Grimaldi, Juliet Eilperin and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A01

In 1995, male House pages were warned to steer clear of a freshman Republican from Florida, who was already learning the names of the teenagers, dashing off notes, letters and e-mails to them, and asking them to join him for ice cream, according to a former page.

Mark Beck-Heyman, now a graduate student in clinical psychology at George Washington University, and more than a dozen other former House pages said in interviews and via e-mail that Rep. Mark Foley was known to be extraordinarily friendly in a way that made some of them uncomfortable.

Beck-Heyman, who was a Republican page and is now a Democrat, said the attention was "weird," and he provided a handwritten letter that Foley sent him after the page left Washington to return home to California. The note suggested that they get together during the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996.

The e-mail exchanges that have become public in recent days are between Foley and male former pages. None of those interviewed said they had received a sexual or suggestive overture from him during their time on Capitol Hill. Yet many of them said they were uneasy about Foley's actions and felt awkward complaining to anyone about them.

"Mark Foley knew that he could get away with this type of behavior with male pages because he was a congressman," said Beck-Heyman, who later worked in the Clinton White House and on Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. "But many people on Capitol Hill," including many Republican staffers, "have known for over 11 years about what was going on and chose to do nothing," he said.

Cycloptichorn

Who is the page he violated?

On the surface, the chat transcripts released by ABC News look much like any of the explicit conversations the FBI has used as evidence in its many Internet sex stings. In those cases, however, the sexually charged talk led to an arrest when adults arrived for real sexual encounters.

Graphic talk alone is rarely enough, said Joseph Dooley, a former agent who helped set up New England's first FBI unit targeting Internet predators. Many adults engage in explicit chats with undercover agents but never show up for the scheduled meetings, he said.

"We never charged anyone unless they actually traveled to have sex," Dooley said.


Investigators could consider federal obscenity laws, experts said, but the law prohibiting disseminating obscene material to children applies only to those under 16.

Maf54: I miss you
Teen: ya me too
Maf54: we are still voting
Maf54: you miss me too

The exchange continues in which Foley and the teen both appear to describe having sexual orgasms.

Maf54: ok..i better go vote..did you know you would have this effect on me
Teen: lol I guessed
Teen: ya go vote…I don't want to keep you from doing our job
Maf54: can I have a good kiss goodnight
Teen: :-*
Teen: <kiss>

The House voted that evening on HR 1559, Emergency War Time supplemental appropriations.

According to another message, Foley also invites the teen and a friend to come to his house near Capitol Hill so they can drink alcohol.

Teen: are you going to be in town over the veterans day weekend
Maf54: I may be now that your coming
Maf54: who you coming to visit
Teen: haha good stuff
Teen: umm no one really

Maf54: we will be adjourned ny then
Teen: oh good
Maf54: by
Maf54: then we can have a few drinks
Maf54: lol
Teen: yes yes ;-)
Maf54: your not old enough to drink
Teen: shhh…
Maf54: ok
Teen: that's not what my ID says
Teen: lol
Maf54: ok
Teen: I probably shouldn't be telling you that huh
Maf54: we may need to drink at my house so we don't get busted

"The act or fantasy on the part of an adult of engaging in sexual activity with a child or children."

Emphasis mine.

Same definition as the ones I cited, then.

Looks like Foley literally engaged in pedophilia according to the tfd defintion then - ie, the fantasy of engaging in sexual activity with a child.