Rep. Foley: going the extra mile

LIKE MOST PEOPLE I’VE talked to over the past few days, I was shocked when I first heard about the latest Washington scandal involving Rep. Mark Foley of Florida.

In case you haven’t heard, Foley resigned from Congress Friday after it was revealed that he sent “inappropriate” e-mails and instant messages to former Congressional pages.

Unfortunately for Foley, the young men he was writing sexually explicit instant messages and e-mails to were under the age of 18, making his actions creepy if not an outright Federal crime.

The FBI has evidently opened a preliminary probe into whether the latter is the case.

Like the old adage goes, the best way to get into a Washington sex scandal is to be caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.

Evidently in the 21st century that applies to trying to get into the boxers of young men over the Internet — which is exactly what Foley apparently indicated an interest in doing, at least according to the AOL Instant Messenger logs released by ABC News.

What adds to the general creepiness of the story is that the six-term Foley was the chairman of the House Caucus for Missing and Exploited Children — and earlier this year he was in the White House Rose Garden for the signing of the Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

According to Newsweek magazine, Foley argued in favor of the legislation, saying, “we track library books better than we do sexual predators.”

Here the temptation arises to accuse Foley of hypocrisy by arguing for a bill while he was chatting up high school-aged boys on the Internet.

But, let me propose that instead of criticizing Foley’s extracurricular activities we should praise them.

If Foley weren’t making crude sexual statements to boys on Instant Messenger, how could he know what kind of behavior the bill should cover?

Clearly he was simply doing research for his Congressional post as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.

By trying to “exploit” children himself Foley surely has some of the best knowledge of pedophile tactics on Capitol Hill.

I wish all our Congressmen were as courageous and hard working as Foley.

You don’t see many Representatives working late nights and weekends doing important investigations to help protect our children by ostensibly attempting to have cyber sex with them.

I blame the liberal media for blowing this whole thing out of proportion.

Foley is simply the victim of a smear campaign designed to sully his good work in helping keep our children safe from Internet predators. Just look at his dedication in studying these dangerous criminals by posing as one.

For a clear example of how important this type of research is for crime prevention, just take a look at the new Showtime program entitled “Dexter.”

The show’s protagonist is an expert on analyzing blood splatters at crime scenes — but he goes the extra mile to solve his cases by moonlighting as a vigilante serial killer as well.

To further the wonderfully moral message of the show, Dexter’s victims are what he describes as “garbage” -— like the homicidal pedophile he offs in the series premier.

This serves as yet another illustration of the delightful brilliance of Foley.

A lesser man would settle for simply writing legislation — but Foley went the extra mile by not only learning about Internet predators but also becoming a predator himself.

His constituents in Florida should clearly reward him by sending him back to Congress this November.

If there’s one thing America needs, it’s more Representatives just like Foley.

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