(Video) The details of Rep. Mark Foley's perverted habits

Click to watch video clip about Mark Foley's explicit e-mail with a teenager

Republican Mark Foley, co-chair of the House Committee on Missing and exploited Children, has resigned for writing sexual online messages to under-aged Congressional pages.  Meanwhile, the GOP continues to use morality as a campaign issue.

Rep. Mark Foley's (R-FL) resignation follows a two-day roller coaster ride of rumors and finger-pointing.  Yesterday, when it was alleged that Mark Foley flirted online with a 16-year-old male page, the Foley Campaign immediately blamed Tim Mahoney, his Democratic opponent for waging "a smear campaign."

But today when even more graphic e-mails were released, there was nothing Foley could do to hide behind them.  Hours ago, Foley resigned from Congress.  CNN's Dana Bash put together a great run-down of what those e-mails contained:

Click to watch clip about Mark Foley's explicit e-mail with a teenager

--- Partial Transcript of e-mail conversations ---

FOLEY: "What ya wearing?"

TEEN: "tshirt and shorts"

FOLEY: "Love to slip them off you"

another e-mail conversation

FOLEY: "Do I make you a little horny?"

TEEN: "A little."

FOLEY: "Cool."

Another person that needs to be blamed for all this is U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), who confronted Foley about this one year ago, but failed to take any action.  Shimkus is the Chairman of the House Page Board.  This looks like a case of Shimkus wanting to protect his own political party more than his pages.  He should definitely step down immediately from his chair position.

From what I am reading, it looks like more than one page was victimized by Foley's e-mails.  So a lot more to this story might be revealed within the next few weeks.

As for Foley's reelection battle, the Washington Post has more:

Foley's name will remain on the ballot, which has alreadybeen certified, said Susan Smith, a spokeswoman for the FloridaDepartment of State. But Republicans have seven days to notifyelection officials of a replacement nominee who would takeFoley's spot if he wins, she said.

President George W. Bush carried the district with 54percent of the vote in 2004. Democrats said Foley had beenpolling at under 50 percent and they would contest the seat,but Republicans said they remained confident.

This seat is now in play!  Please give all that you can to the Tim Mahoney Campaign.  We're not just looking to take back Congress, we're looking for a landslide!

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Other sites blogging about this issue: AMERICAblog, Taylor Marsh, Blog for America, Down with Tyranny, Wonkette, Swing State Project, Center for Media and Democracy, Huffington Post, Expressions of Liberty, Bloggasm, Media Girl, The Lippard Blog, News Hounds.