According to ABCnews, the Foley story broke the way lots of these kinds do

[Pale Blue Dot]

There is no conspiracy. There was one fed-up and/or brave page who forwarded his e-mails to ABC. Once they broadcast that story, several others came forward. It's the same pattern we see in the Catholic Priest abuse stories and in a lot of sexual abuse stories.

It only takes one brave person and the dam can break.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/

Please folks, I beg of you. This is terrible for the kids, and terrible news for the Republicans. This is not a Rove plot; that makes so little sense it's laughable.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2263454&mesg_id=2263454

[C_U_L8R]

1. Who else has been buggering pages ????

Ricky ??? Denny??? Fristy ??

There's another Republican sex ring about to be unveiled,

And what's Gannon/Guckert's role in this?
Delivering young boys to the White House ???

[baldguy]

3. And who else knew?

and when did they know it?

[malaise]

4. What about the Watergate hotel?

There must be more IMs as well.

[Lexingtonian]

9. well...

there are all kinds of rumblings about the non-'family values' lives of David Dreier, Dana Rohrabacher, Phil English, Jim McCrery, and Lindsey Graham.... Unless this stuff is 'family values', of course. See, the Christian Right isn't telling us. I guess gay sodomy and onanism are Okay If You're A Republican.

The Christian Right is also not being real forthcoming about the Biblical basis of 'waterboarding' or divorce lately. I guess if Mark Foley wanted to marry the 16 year old boy, they might raise a mild objection....

[C_U_L8R]

13. What is George Bush hiding ???

[valerief]

2. Hmmmm, but installing elected officials who are easily blackmailable

sounds Rovian to me.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. LOL

He's everywhere! He's everywhere!!

[Junkdrawer]

6. When you have to recruit from the soulless, pickings are slim. n/t

[Pale Blue Dot]

7. That's a MUCH more likely explanation. LOL nt

[valerief]

8. Touche. nt

[C_U_L8R]

10. But the news broke on Friday

in hope that the news would run it's course over the weekend.

Lets keep the momentum up .. there are lots of questions to ask...
who knew and when ?????????? Is this a coverup of a bigger Republican sex scandal?
Has the page system been Republican's own cambodian kiddie-whorehouse???
And what is George Bush's involvement in this? What is he hiding ??????

[MissMarple]

14. I don't think this will disappear easily...if at all. The cover up....

is a bigger story for the GOP. Hastert and Boehner (sp) engaged in an obvious cover up. The Florida election will also help keep this going. Foley's names is still on the ballot. Just think of all those Republican retired folks visualizing Foley hitting up on their precious grandsons. Maybe we should paint a picture for them, for all of the Republicans. Hastert and Boehner sold out their grandkids for the basest form of political advantage.

[MADem]

11. Well, if it was a "Rove plot" I can't see how Rove benefits.

Or are you trying to suggest that we shouldn't ask any questions BEYOND this incident. That's it's a one-deal, single incident, one bad apple evolution.

Sorry--there are SEVERAL bad apples in this bunch. A COVERUP took place. GOP legislators KNEW, and CONCEALED information, and would have allowed a pedophile to be reelected.

It ain't the lie, it ain't the misconduct...it's the COVERUP. It's ALWAYS the coverup!!!!

[eleny]

12. Wait till FoxNews asks if the page is now a Dem

I wouldn't put it passed them.

[seabeyond]

15. i agree it is not about rove. helps repugs NOT. not even a little

the right voters and all of america is so sick of this shit. i talk to the most ardent die hard fox watchin repug last night and he is totally in disgust. with foley, with abramoff, with the greed adn corruption and money being spent.

[stillcool]

16. I haven't read any Rove threads...

but whenever the "media" "breaks" a story, I believe it is with the consent, or at least the knowledge of this administration. Timing is everything, they say...especially when weighing scandals.

[AlGore-08.com]

17. Agree. If Rove wanted to divert the news, he'd leak about a Dem

And just given the nature of politics, there are a number of Democrats who are a scandal waiting to happen, whether that scandal is monetary, ethical or sexual...

The Foley scandal doesn't benefit the GOP in any way. Foley was set to win in a walk, now his district is (at least) a toss up. Given the nature of the "modern" news cycle (report the accusation 24/7 for a day or two, barely report if the accusation turns out to be false), the natural question of "was there a cover-up" hurts the GOP.

This is not a Rove tactic. If anything, this is the media slowly turning a critical eye on the GOP.

[Virginia Dare]

18. No, it's not Rove, but one thing doesn't make sense...

originally the parents of the boy didn't want to pursue the matter further, why is this coming out now, a month before Foley's reelection bid, which was a complete lock? I just can't help but speculate that somebody out there, possibly with an axe to grind, broke it loose.

[Pale Blue Dot]

19. So?

Again, what you describe sounds pretty typical of sexual abuse cases.

[Virginia Dare]

21. Typically..

the victims in these cases are pressured by outside forces to come forward, I'm just wondering who those outside forces might be in this case, if any.

[Subdivisions]

20. Good old DC intrigue.

[question everything]

22. Indeed. The first report was that he asked a page how old he was

and whether he could get a picture, and everyone shrugged it off.

But once this story was out, others came with that sordid exchange that is posted on several threads here "how do you do this? In the shower? in bed? facing up? facing down? using lotion?" and from Foley "I am getting wood" - well there really was no place to hide.