October 03, 2006

Page Wasn't "Warned" About Foley

It's important to know what happened and what didn't with Mark Foley. ABC News reported a former page remembers being "warned" about Foley. That former page, Matthew Loraditch, has clarified his statement:

Firstly, as to the ABC "Warned" story, while I may have inadvertently used the word, "warned," in communication, I can assure you it was not intended. The fact of the matter is in an informal situation a supervisor mentioned that Foley was a bit odd or flaky and did not connote by tone or otherwise that he should be avoided.

It's certainly possible the supervisor didn't warn Loraditch because higher-ups told him not too.

I wonder about this paragraph from the NY Times:

Matthew Loraditch, who worked as a page with Ms. Gallo and Mr. McDonald in 2001 and 2002, said a supervisor had once casually mentioned that Mr. Foley “was odd” and that he later saw sexually explicit text messages that Mr. Foley had sent to two former pages after they left the program.

Another former page, Patrick MacDonald also later learned "Mr. Foley had sexually explicit Internet conversations with several pages who had left the program." When did these two learn about the messages? Was it with the rest of the country last week, or was it weeks, months, or years ago? What did they do with this information? Did they contact anyone in the page program?

In Loraditch's statement he also defends the House page program's concern for page's safety:

Thirdly, I have stressed several key points in my contact with media that all situations with Mr. Foley occurred after we had finished our service as pages. That if anything had happed while we were in Washington, it would have been dealt with. That I have full faith and trust that any of the supervisors and staff we worked with would have properly dealt with any situation like the current one.

So, Foley might have been clever enough to merely make friends with pages when they worked in the Capitol. He might have been "window shopping." After the pages left the program did he made his horrendous electronic approaches. It's still creepy and disgusting, but Foley might have remember privious House page scandals and thought his approach was safer.

"ABC News Versus NY Times"

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