NY Times: Former Pages Describe Foley as Caring Ally

[ECH1969]

In the hierarchy of Congress, the high school students who serve as Congressional pages fall somewhere near the bottom, seemingly invisible as they scurry through the hallways of the Capitol ferrying messages to powerful lawmakers who often fail to give them a second glance.

In that rarefied world, Representative Mark Foley, the silver-haired Republican from Florida, stood out. He took pains to befriend the 16- and 17-year-old aides, several former pages said in interviews on Sunday. He chatted with them on the House floor, they said, sent handwritten notes and urged them to keep in touch when they left Washington for their hometowns.

Ashley Gallo, a 21-year-old former page who is now a senior at Western Michigan University, said on Sunday that many of her friends had viewed Mr. Foley as one of the few lawmakers who made a real effort to reach out to young people.“You didn’t have a lot of interaction with the members because most of them treated you like a kid, but he was pretty friendly,” said Ms. Gallo, who served as a page in 2001. “He would talk to people,” she said. “He would say, ‘Here’s my e-mail address if you want to keep in touch.’

Patrick McDonald, 21, a senior at Ohio State University, said he took Mr. Foley up on his invitation to keep in touch and sent him an e-mail message asking about internship opportunities two years after he completed his work as a page in 2002. He was one of the cool congressmen. He was willing to chill out with us.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/washington/02pages.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[driver8]

1. I'll bet he reached out...

to bad it was their crotch he was "reaching out" for.

[gatorboy]

2. So they asked a GIRL page for her opinion?

Wrong gender to be questioning.

[Erika]

3. the girls have verified he was caring and polite

the boys told the different story.

[undergroundpanther]

4. All pedophiles act

nice to kids, to seduce them,than after they molest they threaten to kill the kid's loved ones,their pets and bribe to "never tell". It creates a horrible catch 22 thing in a kids mind.And the cognitive dissonance of nice person/pervert threatening to kill loved ones if the kid tells,really traumatizes a child.Pedophiles should get the death penalty.20 plus years of therapy has not erased trauma scars these monsters put in me,and Other children get hurt bad too when pedophiles steal their innocence, their trust and their future sanity..for their selfish fantasy obsessive acting out evil hearted shit.Pedophiles and psychopaths should not exist in a sane world. Why do they exist and cause harm everywhere they go and people still haven't figured out a way to make them STOP ?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. This is completely irrelevant

No one said Foley is the devil personified. I'm sure the Catholic priests who molested boys also have acts of generosity, caring and sacrifice in their records. There are probably even serial killers who seem very nice at times. No one is all black or all white. But what Foley did is extremely foolish for a Congressman to do and very inappropriate, maybe illegal. Having been nice to certain pages won't make up for it. If he is tried for a crime, it might make a difference to his sentencing, but not to whether he committed the acts themselves. I'm not sure why the Times is trying to rehabiliate him at this point.