Foley Scandal Tops Campaigns Nationwide
2006-10-04
Source: ABC News.com
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rss feedDemocratic candidates seized on a disgraced congressman's explicit messages with underage boys and House Republican leaders' handling of the situation to argue that voters should toss the GOP from power.
Their Republican rivals, in turn, are distancing themselves from former Republican Rep. Mark Foley.
"His unspeakable behavior should subject him to the strongest punishment under the law," Republican Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, in a tight re-election race in Pennsylvania, said in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
Like a growing number of Democrats, Fitzpatrick's opponent, Patrick Murphy, called for Hastert's resignation, and challenged the GOP incumbent to seek the same. "Their willingness to look the other way during such despicable activities speaks to their character," Murphy said of House leaders.
Foley's abrupt resignation Friday as reports surfaced that he had written salacious instant messages to teenage boys who once worked as House pages shifted the focus of congressional races five weeks before midterm elections.
Disclosures continued Tuesday when Foley's attorney, David Roth, announced in West Palm Beach, Fla., that his client is gay and was molested between the ages 13 and 15 by a clergyman.
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