A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

As reported here, Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) has resigned from Congress due to sexually explicit e-mails sent to former and current pages - all male. Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect. The fact that Foley is a Republican matters not one whit to me. The fact is that if these allegations are true, which appears likely, Foley is a predator, a wolf in sheep's clothing, who after sponsoring legislation to protect minors from sexual predators, then went after current and former pages to satisfy his own twisted desires, which is reprehensible.

This is one time I am in agreement with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who proposed to the House that its ethics committee investigate and make a preliminary report in 10 days. She demanded to know who knew of the messages, whether Foley had other contacts with pages and when the Republican leadership was notified of Foley's conduct.

Instead, majority Republicans engineered a vote to allow the ethics panel to decide whether there should even be an investigation.

That's wrong! This incident needs to be investigated not only by the House Ethics Committee, but by the FBI, not swept under the rug. I call on the Republican House Leadership (if you can call it that) to let the House Ethics Committee conduct an investigation, do it quickly and thoroughly, and then release it's findings to the public.