Foley IM's Were a Page Prank Gone Awry

From Drudge:

According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded an unwitting Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.

The primary source, an ally of Edmund, adamantly proclaims that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund. Both are fearful that their political careers will be affected if they are publicly brought into the investigation.

The prank scenario only applies to the Edmund IM sessions and does not necessarily apply to any other exchanges between the former congressman and others.

The news come on the heels that Edmund has hired former Timothy McVeigh attorney, Stephen Jones.

Hmmm. The whooshing sound you hear is the air going out of the Dem campaign to turn this into a major scandal. They'll keep trying, but I'm not sure there's enough scandal left to make it work. First the "underage" boy turned out to be an 18 year old adult, and now it turns out the whole thing was a prank gone bad.

I can't help but believe that this gives more credence to the whole thing being a political dirty trick. Somebody had this information and sat on it until the time was right to release it. Why September 29th? Think back a bit. The momentum, which had clearly been on the side of the Dems up until Sept. 11 had suddenly began to go toward the GOP once again. The president got aggressive on the stump, and the 9/11 commemorations reminded everybody that we're still at war. Instead of sure thing majorities in both houses, the Dems were now looking at another two years in the minority

Add to that the fact that the Florida primary was over and it was too late to replace him on the ballot. Break the story on the last day of the congressional session, and you create the biggest possible problem for the GOP.

Gateway Pundit's info seems to confirm the dirty trick aspect of this.

Remember - five weeks to go and lots of things can and will happen. This too shall pass.