Disgraced Congressman Foley Breaks Silence

(AP)  Even today, two years after Mark Foley's very public fall from grace, the former congressman can't explain why he sent lurid, sexually explicit computer messages to male teens who had worked as Capitol Hill pages.

Sitting in his room at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York this week, the Florida Republican, wearing a yellow tie with blue elephants, finally broke his silence.

"I'm trying to find my way back," Foley said in an interview with The Associated Press, his first public comments on the scandal since resigning from Congress on Sept. 29, 2006.

Foley insists he did nothing illegal and never had sexual contact with teens, just inappropriate Internet conversations. Investigations by the FBI and Florida authorities ended without criminal charges.

And while he concedes his behavior was "extraordinarily stupid," he remains somewhat unwilling to accept full public scorn.

These were 17-year-olds, just months from being men, he insists.

"There was never anywhere in those conversations where someone said, 'Stop,' or 'I'm not enjoying this,' or 'This is inappropriate' ... but again, I'm the adult here, I'm the congressman," Foley said. "The fact is I allowed it to happen. That's where my responsibility lies."

Foley had built a national reputation as an advocate for tougher penalties against child sexual predators. As co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, he helped craft a law to protect children on the Internet.

Still, he said, there was no hypocrisy.

"The work I was doing was involving young children ... You know, you hear the term 'pedophile.' That is prepubescent," Foley said, noting a "huge difference" from lurid chats with teens on the brink of adulthood.

"At the end of the day, they were instant messages that were extraordinarily inappropriate," he added, breathing a heavy sigh, his eyes wandering toward the ceiling.

So why talk now? Sympathy? Forgiveness?

Nope.

Just to free himself from the media clamoring for his first interview.

"I believed I owed my constituents an apology," Foley said. "I embarrassed them and I embarrassed my family and I wanted to have a chance in a public setting to lend my voice to what happened, not through an attorney, not through a spokesperson, but from myself."

Today, he's a pariah in Congress and the Republican Party. The affable man who reveled in the spotlight finds himself branded a pedophile, at best, a creep. Three former staffers refused comment because of their disgust with his behavior. He makes his living investing in real estate and other business.

"In public life, you dream of the day they'll name a hospital after you, or a bridge or a post office," Foley said, twisting a gold band on his ring finger identical to one his high-society dermatologist boyfriend wears.

"If I had a post office named after me today, they'd probably return to sender," he said. "It's not a pleasant place to be. It's not what I envisioned ... working this hard all my life to end up in an ash heap because of a momentary lapse of judgment."

But Foley carried on the computer conversations for months, asking about masturbation, sex, and other details.

Shortly after his resignation, his attorney announced that Foley was gay and an alcoholic and had been molested by a priest as a teenage altar boy in Florida. Foley then checked himself into a treatment facility.

"I loved my early life, and then along comes a priest ... who forces me into a sexual relationship at the age of 12. And right shortly thereafter, I fail eighth grade, I start drugs, I start drinking, I start smoking," he said. "My entire life ... implodes."

He was elected to the U.S. House in 1994 as a popular hometown boy who kept busy in glitzy Palm Beach, Florida, attending lavish parties and fundraisers with the likes of Donald Trump, Jay Leno, and actress Bo Derek.

While his homosexuality was said to be the worst-kept secret on the Hill and around Palm Beach, he cloaked himself in a false public persona, appearing at events with beautiful women.

He drank a lot and spiraled into darkness.

"Those demons that were inside me, by not addressing them, caused me to spin out of control," he said.

He doesn't feel fully responsible for Democrats taking over the House in 2006, but owns up to his role and calls his behavior "profoundly regrettable."

"They had the Republicans on a number of ethical scandals and, you know, I served up for them the moral dilemma," he said.

A Republican won back Foley's congressional district last week after the Democrat who replaced him was caught in an adultery scandal. It's become known as "The Curse of the Mark Foley Seat."

"It's not what I had hoped would be my lasting legacy," he said, pausing to brush away tears.

So what does the man who once was such a popular figure in politics and high-society do now?

"I don't know. I don't know," he said. "I'm just going to take it a day at a time."

[blackyowe]

Selfish looser with no morals, nuf said.

[blackyowe]

-Well the guy is sick through and through and sooner or latter it would have come out in some dramatic way.

[cockamammy]

hey markjessup78 - We get your point. You don''t have to post the same comment 20 times. Yes, he is a child molester 100%.

CBS Forum Moderator - Are you still at your desk??? Maybe you don''t even exist but someone should at least be doing their job making sure these repeat postings are restricted. Geez, considering that ExxonMobile has paid for this article (which clearly undermines journalistic integrity), you''d think you would have the cash to paid a mod to manage this forum.

[mc_outa_here]

downsteamjim at 08:49 PM : Nov 12, 2008 wrote:

"mc outa here: I wish Frank would take Foley by the hand and move to Iran. Contrary to your statement, there is no evidence Foley had *** with any underage males."

Where did I say that Foley did?

What I said was "This is quite far removed from what Foley did which DID involve underage children.".

Perhaps you should learn to read and take your own ignorant a$$ to Iran.

[downsteamjim]

mc outa here: I wish Frank would take Foley by the hand and move to Iran. Contrary to your statement, there is no evidence Foley had *** with any underage males.

[txgrouch2007]

J.Edgar Hoover is still the all time champ.
Posted by downsteamjim at 08:09 PM : Nov 12, 2008

He sure is. He somehow obtained copies of the tape recordings Joe Kennedy made of his son, the young JFK, having s*xual encounters with a female NAZI SPY during WW2.

Joe told JFK he was making the recordings, but JFK continued the encounters, knowing that his own father was recording and listening to everything that went on.

When JFK became president, Hoover called JFK to his office and played the tapes for him.

Yah, that Foley guy is SO IMMORAL.... but JFK was Camelot. LOL! I don''t seem to remember many Nazi spies in Camelot.

[txgrouch2007]

what this man did was sick.
Posted by drlori4 at 08:07 PM : Nov 12, 2008

I agree.

I also think it''s "sick" what these individuals did: Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and they guy who replaced Foley.

NONE OF THEM RESIGNED. And it was UTTER HYPOCRISY for a Democrat to replace Foley over a morality scandal when HE HIMSELF was engaging in immoral behavior himself, and he LIED and claimed to stand for morality and decency to take Foley''s place.

That was sick on top of sick on top of sick. But what the Democrats do is OK with you, you only want to condemn Republicans. Right?

[mc_outa_here]

downsteamjim at 07:38 PM : Nov 12, 2008 wrote:

"Barney Frank didn''t have to have a trial and only got a reprimand."

Maybe that''s because Barney Frank didn''t sleep with someone who was underage.

The "male escort", Steve Gobie, was 28 years old, and when Barney Frank realized that he was running an escort business from his home (not his office), he was fired.

Barney Frank himself reported this to the House Ethics Committee, who investigated Barney Frank.

This is quite far removed from what Foley did which DID involve underage children.

[downsteamjim]

txgrouch: You may have a point. J.Edgar Hoover is still the all time champ.

[drlori4]

This is ridiculous!! Don''t you people get this...whether you are democrat, republican or independant...what this man did was sick. A 17 year old is a child...I am sorry...but a child. How dare this man claim these boys were almost men. Am I the only one on this site getting shivers and about to purk up. Our children are in trouble with grown men talking dirty to them and then saying...they did not object. I mean...has this guy really understand what he is saying. Talk about denial...he is a pedophile..straight up with no chaser.