Longtime Republican was ABC News' source of Foley e-mails

[TheLateGreat]

Longtime Republican was source of e-mails

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

That aide has been a registered Republican since becoming eligible to vote, said the source, who showed The Hill public records supporting his claim.

The same source, who acted as an intermediary between the aide-turned-whistleblower and several news outlets, says the person who shared the documents is no longer employed in the House.

But the whistleblower was a paid GOP staffer when the documents were first given to the media.

The source bolstered the claim by sharing un-redacted e-mails in which the former page first alerted his congressional sponsor’s office of Foley’s attentions. The copies of these e-mails, now available to the public, have the names of senders and recipients blotted out.

These revelations mean that Republicans who are calling for probes to discover what Democratic leaders and staff knew about Foley’s improper exchanges with under-age pages will likely be unable to show that the opposition party orchestrated the scandal now roiling the GOP just a month away from the midterm elections.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) yesterday called for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) to testify about what and when they knew of Foley’s contact with former pages (see related story).

House GOP leadership aides have said they would like to see investigations of Foley examine how the story became public. ABC News’s website first reported the e-mails just as Congress was about to recess for the election.

The explosive disclosures about Foley’s communications with teenage pages have overshadowed Republican legislative accomplishments during their final week in town. They have become the preoccupation of a capital press corps that has little else to write about now that Congress is in recess and Election Day is still a month away.

Republicans say the timing of the scandal is evidence of a political dirty trick orchestrated by Democrats. They have drawn comparisons to negative reports about President Bush that surfaced before the 2000 and 2004 campaigns.

Full story...

So whiny baby right-wingers who want to fingerpoint at the lowly Dems as being responsible to deflect attention from the scandal they own can be quiet now.

kthxbye

[Freedom&Liberty]

TLG, I thought what everyone wanted to know about was the Instant Messages.

This guy claims he knows who one of the IM'ers is and that he was 18 when he IM'd with Foley. This case is getting more bizzare.

Meet Jordan Edmund One Mark Foley Instant Messanger
Jordan Edmund 21 years old.

http://www.passionateamerica.com/

[boedicca]

I really want to hear the Dems argue that a Gay Man shouldn't be able to IM a legal adult.

This will be pretty funny to watch.

[hadit]

The source who in July gave news media Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) suspect e-mails to a former House page says the documents came to him from a House GOP aide.

Note the above text in bold, then try to explain to me that this whole thing is anything other than an election season political stunt, aided and abetted by an anti-Republican media. They don't care about potential damage to children, they want Republicans out of office.

[TheLateGreat]

Originally Posted by boedicca

I really want to hear the Dems argue that a Gay Man shouldn't be able to IM a legal adult.

This will be pretty funny to watch.

The more I think about this story, the less I have a problem with it, really. Or, more specifically, I realize that the only part of it I have a real issue with is the fact that it's between a Congressman and a congressional page, and there's that work/boss/subordinant factor there. Sex talk between a 52-year-old and 16-year-old is icky to me for sure, but if 16 is the legal age of consent, then hey, that's what it is.

So like the Bill/Monica story, the problem I have with this is the work-related relationship that this was "abusing," rather than the talk itself on its face.

[TheLateGreat]

Originally Posted by hadit

Note the above text in bold, then try to explain to me that this whole thing is anything other than an election season political stunt, aided and abetted by an anti-Republican media.

Ummm...have you ever worked on...anything, ever? I'm just now having a concrete picnic table that was vandalised in July replaced at a park our company manages because...work always takes longer than one plans. Including journalistic work, for which reporters seek corraboration, etc. July-Sept is not out of the ordinary.

[hadit]

Originally Posted by TheLateGreat

Ummm...have you ever worked on...anything, ever? I'm just now having a concrete picnic table that was vandalised in July replaced at a park our company manages because...work always takes longer than one plans. Including journalistic work, for which reporters seek corraboration, etc. July-Sept is not out of the ordinary.

Maybe, for a non-story. This was dy-no-mite. If a journalist is handed a scoop like this, he's going to get it out there as soon as possible. July-Sept is death to a scoop like this, unless he was timing it for maximum impact. Think after the primaries, before the election. Basically too late to replace Foley on the ballot. These are Republicans after all, and they wouldn't pull a Lautenberg replacement stunt like the democrats did. BTW, I often work on multi-year projects. I am very well aware of project management pitfalls and problems, and I know that you always put the highest priority items first. If your little table was your TOP priority, how long do you think it would have taken you to get it replaced?

[BooRadley]

Originally Posted by hadit

Note the above text in bold, then try to explain to me that this whole thing is anything other than an election season political stunt, aided and abetted by an anti-Republican media. They don't care about potential damage to children, they want Republicans out of office.

Hahaha. The Speaker of the House sat on it for 3 years for partisan gain, and you're trying to blame the Republican child molester and his Republican accomplices on "an anti-Republican media".

[hadit]

Originally Posted by BooRadley

Hahaha. The Speaker of the House sat on it for 3 years for partisan gain, and you're trying to blame the Republican child molester and his Republican accomplices on "an anti-Republican media".

Define "it", and prove the Speaker sat on "it" for 3 years before you make an irresponsible accusation like that. BTW, the only thing I'm blaming on the anti-Republican media is the timing of the story, so get it straight.

[GROFF200]

Where is this anti-Republican media? I can't seem to find it on my channel listings....

[ToeJam]

Originally Posted by GROFF200

Where is this anti-Republican media? I can't seem to find it on my channel listings....

CNN, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, CBS for starters.

[cnredd]

Originally Posted by Freedom&Liberty

TLG, I thought what everyone wanted to know about was the Instant Messages.

Correct...

As per the article...

In an August 2005 e-mail exchange between Foley and a former page, given to reporters this summer, Foley asks the teenager his age, asks him to send a picture of himself, and describes his own work-out activities, including a 25-mile bike ride. The e-mails given to reporters included one sent by the page to a House staffer in which the page described Foley’s e-mail as “sick” and said it “freaked me out.” The page also informs the staffer that Foley asked what the teen wanted for his birthday.
The e-mails were alarming enough to prompt the page’s parents in the fall of 2005 to ask their son’s congressional sponsor, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), to take steps to stop Foley’s correspondence.

Alexander’s chief of staff then told aides in Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) office about the communication and showed the e-mails to Jeff Trandahl, clerk of the House. That fall, Trandahl and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Page Board, met Foley and told him to stop contacting the former page.

But while the e-mails were concerning enough to prompt this action, editors and reporters at various publications did not consider them remarkable enough to write about.

The person who provided the e-mails to several D.C.-based news outlets in July claimed to have no knowledge of who gave them to two Florida papers last year.

D.C.-based media organizations declined to report on the e-mails. But one, ABC News, reported on the e-mails last week after a Weblog, stopsexpredators.blogspot.com, published a few of the exchanges between Foley and the former page. But those blog-reported e-mails did not include correspondence between the page and a House aide in which the teen expressed anxiety about Foley’s intentions.
After ABC News disclosed the e-mails exchanged last year between Foley and a former page, it reported about much more sexually explicit communications between Foley and a different former page over an “instant messaging” (IM) software program in 2003.

What this article is saying is something the members of this forum already knew...

That in 2005, knowledge of the emails were given...The only thing we didn't know was by whom...It APPEARS(it just says source) that it was a Republican aide)...

You know what I say to that?...Good for him!(Her?)...That's what you're SUPPOSED TO DO!...

This person had knowledge that may be of concern, and he forwarded it to the proper authorities...

Now keep reading...HERE is where there's a problem...

After ABC News disclosed the e-mails exchanged last year between Foley and a former page, it reported about much more sexually explicit communications between Foley and a different former page over an “instant messaging” (IM) software program in 2003.

The first Web report of the relatively tame e-mails appears to have prompted someone to share the explicit IM messages. After ABC News obtained those messages, in which Foley discussed sexual acts with the second former page, a scandal mushroomed on Capitol Hill, and Foley resigned.

The source who provided the e-mails that ABC News first reported on its blog, denied sharing the more explicit IMs.

So it's not timing of the emails that are of concern...The republican leaders knew about that...and have discussed it...last year...At this point, it's common knowledge...That part of the article is just a rehash of what's been already discussed...

It's the INSTANT MESSAGES...They ones that somebody(NOT the Republican aide according to the article) was sitting on until ABC reported on the emails...

If these IMs didn't come out, then all the Republican leaders had to go on were the emails known for over a year...

The same ones the St.Petersburg Times reported as "friendly chit-chat" and the author of this article says are "relatively tame"...

I'd still like to point out that WHOMEVER had those instant messages...and it was NOT the Republican aide mentioned in the article!...put the safety of pages in jeopardy by not revealing them to the proper authorities and instead sitting on them until ABC reported on the emails...

That person has some explaining to do...

[GROFF200]

Originally Posted by ToeJam

CNN, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, CBS for starters.

Hmmm...maybe it's not that they're anti-Republican. Maybe it's that your anti-anything-not-Republican.
The major media outlets have a corporate bias in my opinion. Whichever political ideology is popular at the time is what they'll cover.

[ToeJam]

Originally Posted by GROFF200

Hmmm...maybe it's not that they're anti-Republican. Maybe it's that your anti-anything-not-Republican.

Hmmm. Or maybe that they are anti-Republican and that you don't recognize it because they're not full-blown leftists, or as far to the left as you thus making them more to the right on your scale.

The major media outlets have a corporate bias in my opinion. Whichever political ideology is popular at the time is what they'll cover.

Rank and file reporters tend to be more liberal. That's a fact that's been revealed in many polls and surveys of them.
It's also the same impression that many people have in general about the news media as polling of this has revealed.

If the news media has a "corporate" bias, why are they complicit with the Democrats in going after Wal Mart, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Pharmacudicals, Big Pollution/Global Warming etc, etc?

There is nothing that I hate more than intellectual dishonesty. The major news media leans liberal. It's a fact. That's why all the liberals are going absoultely crazy and insane over the existence of a non-liberal leaning news outlet like Fox News.
Don't deny the obvious bias of major media.

[Corporate Avenger]

Originally Posted by ToeJam

Hmmm. Or maybe that they are anti-Republican and that you don't recognize it because they're not full-blown leftists, or as far to the left as you thus making them more to the right on your scale.

That's hilarious, the media in this country being corporate owned by interests that benefit from Republican leadership is "anti-Republican"?

Here's a hint, don't believe every....anything rush says, he's nothing but a propagandist for the Republican party.

Rank and file reporters tend to be more liberal. That's a fact that's been revealed in many polls and surveys of them.

That used to be the case, I wonder if that's true anymore seeing how virtually the entire mainstream media does nothing but apologize for everything Bush has ever done wrong, peddled his Iraq war lies that were known to be false at the time, and always, always, let important issue's go unanswered and never ask tough follow up questions when interviewing any BA official.

Besides, if what they are reporting has a definite republican bias, then it doesn't matter what the reporters are.

It's also the same impression that many people have in general about the news media as polling of this has revealed.

The pro-corporate right wing media???

If the news media has a "corporate" bias, why are they complicit with the Democrats in going after Wal Mart, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Pharmacudicals, Big Pollution/Global Warming etc, etc?

ROFL!!! That's one of the strangest, most incorrect, BS statements I've EVER heard on here!!!

The mainstream media gets it's marching orders from cororate America and you're claiming they are "after" these same entities? I wish they were as they should be if they were doing their jobs, but fact is, the only thing they do is sell corporate pr, which often goes straight from the corporate boardroom to the national newscasts in this country.

How could you say it's otherwise with a straight face???

There is nothing that I hate more than intellectual dishonesty.

After what you just said that's quite a whopper!

The major news media leans liberal. It's a fact.

Wrong again, that's a pure 100% lie told by rightwingers who want nothing but to keep their straglehold on information in this country by pretending to be the "underdog".

If they were so liberal as you claim, they wouldn't have given the worst administration in United States history a free pass on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, and all the pundits minus about 2 wouldn't be rabid right wing partisans. They also wouldn't have been firing centrist or leftist journalists before and after the Iraq invasion and rapacing them with far rightists because a few of them spoke the truth. The evidence that the media is actually anti-liberal and pro right wing is massive and obvious, even the blind could see this, all they would have to do is listen.

It's funny too to hear all the right wing pundits on television news complain about how liberal the media is, hahaha, have they ever stopped to realize what their jobs are??

That's why all the liberals are going absoultely crazy and insane over the existence of a non-liberal leaning news outlet like Fox News.

Wrong again, people go "crazy" over a news channel in america that is nothing but a propaganda arm of a corrupt political party that claims to be "fair and balanced". Their whole premise is a lie, and they are doing great damage to our country, a free and objective press is essential to keeping the populace informed, and as Thomas Jefferson said "If a nation expects
to be ignorant and free . . .it expects what never was and never will be.

As we've seen with Fox news viewers who were the most mis-informed about Iraq, this rings true, keeping people informed is vital to our nations future, that's why people hate Fox, and it's not like CNN or the rest of them are any different.

Don't deny the obvious bias of major media.

Oh we don't, it is you who is in such denial.

[GROFF200]

Thank you Avenger, you saved me a lot of trouble by replying to all that.
I also love how "Global Warming" is included in that list of media bias. Everybody loves to make that a political issue when the scientific community has already made their decision on it.
Hmmm...let's see, believe scientists who spend their lives studying the planet, or politicians who receive millions of dollars in donations from oil companies. I think I'll go with the guys who actually study the issues instead.

[Guido]

It's hard to say which is more contemptible:

The Republicans who were willing to cover up this degenerate 's abuse of power for the exploitation of kids in order to preserve the Republican seat; or,

The Democrats who are eager to demonstrate their courage and integrity in the politicization of a single case sexual exploitation while backing away from any confrontation with the President on the issues that matter, such as the elevation of torture to a national policy, the shredding of the Bill of Rights, and the destruction of Iraq based on a mountain of lies.

[Corporate Avenger]

Originally Posted by Guido

It's hard to say which is more contemptible:

The Republicans who were willing to cover up this degenerate 's abuse of power for the exploitation of kids in order to preserve the Republican seat; or,

The Democrats who are eager to demonstrate their courage and integrity in the politicization of a single case sexual exploitation while backing away from any confrontation with the President on the issues that matter, such as the elevation of torture to a national policy, the shredding of the Bill of Rights, and the destruction of Iraq based on a mountain of lies.

Yea, I still haven't heard a peep about last Fridays vote which did aay with Habeus Corpus!!! You'd think that would be like the #1 news story being discussed 24/7 or something. It's like there's a media blackout on the story..hmmm

[Guido]

Originally Posted by Corporate Avenger

Yea, I still haven't heard a peep about last Fridays vote which did aay with Habeus Corpus!!! You'd think that would be like the #1 news story being discussed 24/7 or something. It's like there's a media blackout on the story..hmmm

Almost all of the really important issues affecting Americans are considered taboo in the political arena.

[Guido]

Originally Posted by Corporate Avenger

Yea, I still haven't heard a peep about last Fridays vote which did aay with Habeus Corpus!!! You'd think that would be like the #1 news story being discussed 24/7 or something. It's like there's a media blackout on the story..hmmm

Here's a good short article by David Cole on this:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061023/cole