Foleygate Gets Interesting

The sudden resignation of Rep. Mark Foley has got a lot of people asking questions. One of the big ones involves the curious timing of these events, given that some of the emails involved are as much as 3 years old (and who keeps old instant messages anyway?). Speaker Hastert has requested an investigation into the conduct of Mr. Foley, and more interestingly into the conduct of those who may have known about the emails but didn't tell authorities about them. That, to me, is a much more interesting inquiry. Here's part of his letter to the Attorney General:

Unlike the first communication, the second communication was a set of instant messages that contained sexually explicit statements and were reportedly generated three years ago. Last week, ABC News first reported these sexually explicit instant messages which led to Representative Foley’s resignation. These sexually explicit communications warrant a criminal referral in two respects. Initially, since the communications involve interstate communications, there should be a complete investigation and prosecution of any federal laws that have been violated. In addition, since the communications appear to have existed for three years, there should be an investigation into the extent there are persons who knew or had possession of these messages but did not report them to the appropriate authorities. It is important to know who may have had the communications and why they were not given to prosecutors before now.

Therefore, I also request that the Department undertake an investigation into who had specific knowledge of the content of any sexually explicit communications between Mr. Foley and any former or current House pages and what actions such individuals took, if any, to provide them to law enforcement. I request that the scope of your investigation include any and all individuals who may have been aware of this matter—be they Members of Congress, employees of the House of Representatives, or anyone outside the Congress.

Although there is no excuse for Foley's behavior, there are some questions about whether this whole thing was a carefully timed political assassination, designed for maximum benefit during the campaign season. Other bloggers are asking the same questions, and are now dissembling the evidence that's been presented. This post at Flopping Aces is particularly instructive - take a look.

If it turns out that people have been sitting on this information and waiting for the "right" moment to strike, this could easily backfire on those individuals and anyone they support. Stay tuned.