Photo:AP

 

The anatomy of a scandal.  It’s usually unclear, as in this case, exactly how the scandal starts.  Then there are allegations that Congressman Mark Foley had sent inappropriate e-mails to some of his pages (male pages).  Well, he has just resigned.

Addendum:

This story just keeps growing.  Yesterday as Foley was resigning, there was a hint of a story that the Republican leadership in the House knew about Foley sending inappropriate e-mails to this male page for week if not months.  It was unclear from what I had read that anything was done about the situation. 

From today’s NYT:

Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

The exchanges began with what Republicans now describe as an “overfriendly” e-mail message from Mr. Foley to the unidentified teenager.

But news reports about the exchanges led to the disclosure of e-mail correspondence with other former pages in which the discussions became more and more sexually explicit. Shortly after he was confronted by ABC News on Friday about the subject, Mr. Foley, who represented a south Florida district, resigned from the House.  more