Lawmaker resigns after suggestive messages to teens made public

WASHINGTON — Six-term Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, a day after the publication of e-mails sent to a former underage male page and the discovery of a series of explicit instant-messaging sessions with other boys.

Foley, 52, had been a shoo-in for re-election until the e-mail correspondence surfaced in recent days. In a short resignation letter, he said, "I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."

Foley, who represented an area around Palm Beach County and was chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, made no mention of the e-mail he sent to a 16-year-old in which he asked the former page to send a picture of himself and noted that another legislative page was "in really great shape."

ABC News reported late Friday that Foley also had engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with other current and former male pages younger than 18.

In one, ABC reported, Foley wrote: "Do I make you a little horny?" In another, he wrote, "You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip down and get relaxed."

ABC reported receiving the more explicit messages from other pages after posting the e-mail.

"When the congressman realized we had them, he resigned," ABC said.

Foley's abrupt resignation, which House members said came after the Republican leadership demanded it, is less than six weeks before the midterm congressional elections and throws a wrench into Republican efforts to retain control of the House.

Democrats, who need to win 15 Republican seats to regain the House, were struggling to gain traction against the popular incumbent in the Republican-leaning district. Foley's campaign on Thursday had blamed the release of the e-mail on his Democratic opponent, Tim Mahoney.

A spokesman for Mahoney denied any role in publicizing the e-mail. Spokesman Eric Jotkoff said the campaign learned about the e-mail messages when a reporter called to ask about them. That was followed by a posting on the Web site Wonkette.com and on Thursday by ABC News, Jotkoff said.

Florida Republicans planned to meet as soon as Monday to name a replacement in Foley's 16th District, which President Bush won with 55 percent in 2004.

Though Florida ballots have been printed with Foley's name and cannot be changed, any votes for Foley will count toward the party's choice.

By late Friday, Florida state Rep. Joe Negron, who ran for the seat in 2004 when Foley planned to run for the Senate and who has $1 million available from a campaign he dropped for state attorney general, had offered his candidacy.

Page board knew about it

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who sponsored the page from his district, said he learned of the e-mail from a reporter 10 or 11 months ago and passed on the information to the teen's parents and to Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Republican campaign organization.

Alexander said he did not pursue the matter because the teen's "parents said they didn't want me to do anything."

Carl Forti, a spokesman for the GOP campaign organization, said the matter did go before the House Page Board — three lawmakers and two House officials who oversee the pages. It was unclear what the officials did.

Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., said the House Page Board he chairs investigated the allegations late last year, but he said Foley "was not honest" in denying improper conduct.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Friday he had asked Shimkus to investigate the page system. "We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe," Hastert said.

Pages are high-school students who attend classes under congressional supervision and work as messengers.

As chairman of the exploited-children's caucus, Foley had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect.

"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said.

He once accused the Supreme Court of "siding with pedophiles over children."

He also was a member of the Republican leadership, serving as a deputy whip, and was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. In 2003, he led a charge to bash a Tampa-area nudist camp that permitted underage campers to be naked.

Foley e-mailed the page, then 16, in August 2005. Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mail messages originally released by ABC News.

The boy who received the e-mail messages forwarded them to an Alexander staff member, saying the exchange "freaked me out."

Efforts to reach the former page were unsuccessful. However, he told the St. Petersburg Times in November, "I thought it was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back." The Times, which did not disclose the teenager's name, did not publish his comments until Friday.

The e-mail messages were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The liberal-leaning watchdog group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy.

Foley, who is single, moved to Florida as a child and opened a restaurant in Lake Worth at age 20. He also sold real estate and moved quickly into politics. He was elected to Florida's House in 1990, to the state Senate in 1992 and to the U.S. House in 1994.

Questions about Foley's sexuality have dogged him. In 2003, as a potential candidate for retiring Sen. Bob Graham's seat, he denounced rumors that he was gay and said it was no one's business if he was.

"Elected officials, even those who run for the United States Senate, must have some level of privacy," Foley said at the time.

He later took his name out of the running, citing a need to care for his ailing parents.

Compiled from McClatchy Newspapers, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.