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CapitolLink: Blogging About Cyber Sex

Much of political America is preoccupied with sex these days -- the cyber sex that former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida reportedly had and wanted to have with congressional pages -- and that is true even at Congress Blog, the online forum that The Hill newspaper created for "blawgmakers" and others interested in what happens on Capitol Hill.

Sandwiched between serious policy posts that cover everything from mine safety and foreign aid to Sudan to government-sanctioned torture and military commissions are a series of random entries about the Foley scandal.

Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., made the first appearance yesterday. He is the lone Democrat on the three-member board of lawmakers that oversees House pages, and he is upset that he learned about Foley's interactions with pages months after board Chairman John Shimkus, R-Ill., knew.

"I was outraged to learn that the House Republican leadership kept to itself the knowledge of Mr. Foley's despicable behavior toward the House pages," Kildee wrote.

"I am now equally outraged to learn that Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced today that there will be changes in the policies of the House page program." He called that decision "yet another example of the House Republican leadership being more concerned with finding political cover for themselves than with the safety and well-being of the House pages."

Here are excerpts from other entries at Congress Blog:

-- Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala.: "As further details are disclosed about the interaction between Foley and congressional pages, the clearer it becomes that we must continue to educate our children about the dangers of online communications."

-- Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky.: "Earlier this year, Mr. Foley's Florida Republican leadership PAC donated $1,000 to my re-election campaign. On Friday, the same day as Mr. Foley's resignation, I donated $1,000 to Boone County court-appointed special advocates" for child court cases.

-- Angie Paccione, a Democratic House candidate from Colorado whose opponent is GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave: "This morning, I called on Marilyn Musgrave to join me in demanding that Speaker Dennis Hastert step down from his leadership post. ... I am asking Marilyn to help me in urging Foley to transfer his campaign funds to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children."

-- Chellie Pingree, president of Common Cause: "Common Cause calls on the House of Representatives to return to Washington, D.C., before Election Day on Nov. 7 to establish an outside ethics commission to provide ethics oversight and enforcement of a body that has proven now beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is incapable of policing itself."

UPDATE: More commentary from lawmakers below as I find their blog entries.

-- Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., at Congress Blog: "As a father and a grandfather, protecting the young people who come to Washington to work for the Congress as pages is my highest priority. I urge anyone who has information that they believe will help to call the page tip hotline number [created Thursday]: 1-866-348-0481."

-- Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., at The Huffington Post: "The Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday and hopefully we'll get a prompt investigation of this situation. We need to know if other pages were put in jeopardy because the leadership didn't act sooner."

Posted by Danny | 04:19 PM

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