Democrats?? According to the Fort Lauderdale Sun -Sentinel "But the majority of the smears came from ultraconservatives in Foley's own party. Foley ignored those GOP smears, choosing only to attack unnamed Democrats in a news conference this week." Here's the whole article. -- Welcome To The Crzy House

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Date Posted: 14:24:46 05/28/03 Wed
Author: Pete
Subject: Democrats?? According to the Fort Lauderdale Sun -Sentinel "But the majority of the smears came from ultraconservatives in Foley's own party. Foley ignored those GOP smears, choosing only to attack unnamed Democrats in a news conference this week." Here's the whole article.
In reply to: Patriot 's message, "But does it really matter whether anyone "approves" of a person or "likes" the person? Does disliking someone give others the right to ruin their lives? EVERYONE should have the right to decide for themselves whether they want to come out or not. I think it only shows how hypocritical the Democrat party can be when it comes to "gay rights."" on 14:01:58 05/28/03 Wed

Via the Web, Foley's privacy spins out of control
Published May 24, 2003

Mark Foley has been caught in the World Wide Web.

The Republican congressman running for U.S. Senate learned in the past month that in today's Internet world, nothing is private. Nothing is personal. Anything goes.

Foley is probably the most surprised that his sexual orientation has become such a controversy, since for years rumors about it were largely ignored. He has been repeatedly elected since 1977 in Palm Beach County amid the gossip that he is gay. He has been on the Lake Worth City Commission, in the state Legislature and finally was elected to the U.S. House in 1994.

Foley won all these offices despite the fact that media types and folks in the gay community thought he was gay. What changed to bring the rumors into the mainstream?

For the first time since the explosion of the Internet changed communication forever, Foley is in a competitive statewide race, for U.S. Senate. He's running for the seat now held by Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who may or may not run for re-election, depending on how his presidential bid goes.

Foley's predicament began April 26 when I wrote a column dealing with his voting record on gay issues. Although I did not touch upon his sexual orientation at all, the column raced across the state as fast as a blinking cursor. I got 2 dozen e-mailed messages accusing me of covering up Foley's personal life.

One of those who thought I didn't go far enough was Bob Norman, a writer for the alternative weekly New Times. Norman said as much in an article on May 8 and went on to quote various people claiming Foley was gay.

The information on the Internet doesn't have to be proved to spread. And spread it did, to Washington, to the gay press, to at least 20 Web sites and to assorted chat rooms.

Foley's story was helped along by the nature of the Internet.

Kevin Hill is an associate professor of government and politics at Florida International University who lives in Weston. He said that when researching his book Cyberpolitics four years ago, he visited dozens of chat rooms and Web sites.

"I found a lot of conservatives ... right-wing nut types spreading all types of misinformation on the Internet. Conspiracy theories. Personal smears. A lot of it is racist, stupid and full of bad grammar," Hill says.

In other words, just the type of people who wouldn't like a gay running as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

A staffer for a Congressional Democrat did encourage me to write about the Foley story. He, of course, did not want his name used.

But the majority of the smears came from ultraconservatives in Foley's own party. Foley ignored those GOP smears, choosing only to attack unnamed Democrats in a news conference this week.

Foley called the news conference because he thought the South Florida Sun-Sentinel was about to publish a story about his sexual orientation. The news conference ended up propelling the story into the headlines.

How ironic. No decision had been made about publishing anything.

Reporters were making calls to Republicans around the state to gauge how much damage the smear was doing to Foley's campaign. That's all.

Foley made it worse at the news conference. A reporter asked, "Are you gay?" He wouldn't say.

The congressman from Palm Beach Gardens is stuck between a rock and a hard place. If he says he is gay, he alienates many of the 30 percent of GOP primary voters who identify themselves as social conservatives. If he continues to stonewall, he alienates others.

A number of voters now think that Foley is gay and hiding it. That's bad.

"If people believe he's a liar, it's worse for him," Hill says.

I'm notoriously bad at predicting events. But I think we are seeing the end of Foley's statewide campaign for U.S. Senate.

He'll fold his tent, take his $2.3 million or so back to Palm Beach County and run for re-election to Congress. No serious Republican candidate will run against him in his heavily GOP district.

All this is sad, because Foley is the perfect Republican Senate candidate. He's a telegenic fiscal conservative with a moderate voting record on social issues. He's a strong backer of the popular George W. Bush.

But then there is that gossip about his personal life. The rumors will continue to haunt Foley on flat screens across the state.

No, I don't have a crystal ball. I base my prediction on one thing: A lot of voters have computers.

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Replies:

From the Free Republic someone wrote, "I don't care what he pokes as long as he votes right." to which others voiced their opinion that it DOES matter quite a bit. (more) -- Pete, 14:30:26 05/28/03 Wed