Who's Next?

In this Congress, Republican Representatives Cunningham, Delay, and Ney have all been caught up in scandals. The Vice President's assistant Scooter Libby has been indicted. And now Mark Adam Foley. Who's Next?

Florida Congressman Mark Foley abruptly resigned from Congress today after it was reported that he had sent inappropriate sexually graphic messages to Congressional pages under the age of 18.

The details are still a little bit fuzzy, but I have 3 thoughts on the matter:

1. The instant messages he sent were from account maf54 (mark adam foley, born in '54). Why would anyone send these messages from an account with his name on it?

2. There are conflicting reports as to how much the GOP leadership previously knew about this. If it is discovered that they were aware of the explicit messages and covered this up, it will be the final nail in their political coffins. This scandal is big news because it has the potential to destroy many political careers, not just Foley's.

3. The blog that "outed" Foley is very suspicious. It was set up in July in total obscurity with the stated goal of catching sexual predators. No one knew it existed and no websites linked to it. We are told that somehow several Congressional pages found it all at the same time and provided info on Foley. The website has never "caught" any other predators. Before the Foley story broke, the only information on the site is information copied from other web sites. What information? In August the site owner posted stories about Chandra Levy and other Congressional sex scandals. How conincidental is that? The owner refuses to identify her/himself. Who is behind this? I have no doubt in my mind that the owner of the blog knew about the Foley emails in July when the blog was created. If it is later discovered that some politician is behind this (one would assume a Democrat, but who knows) and held it back as a last minute political surprise before the upcoming midterm election, then it could backfire on them.