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Mark Foley: 'I took responsibility'
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(www.examiner.com/x-10482-Tampa-Liberal-Examiner)
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North Palm Beach, Fla. / Mark Foley has a message for Rush Limbaugh: "I don't think you have anything to worry about."
Reached at his home Sunday, the former U.S. representative says he's looking forward to entering the conservative talk radio fold tonight. It will mark the first time the public will hear from Foley since his sudden resignation from Congress three years ago.
"It's taken the last couple of years to get my feet under me again. I took responsibility. I resigned the job I loved," says Foley, who turned 55 this month. He'll host the hour-long "Foley On Politics" show, which will air on North Palm Beach's Seaview AM 960.
Foley, who represented Florida's 16th Congressional District, insists a return to political office is unlikely. His exit was rocked by scandal when, in Sept. 2006, explicit instant messages he exchanged with juvenile pages surfaced in news reports. Foley, a real estate broker, was never charged in connection with the controversy.
"When one door closes, another opens," Foley, quoting Alexander Graham Bell, posts on his Facebook page. Foley has developed a social networking following; he keeps his 1,383 Facebook constituents informed with personal photos and daily inspirations. Some come from Churchill, others from the Buddha.
Indeed, Mark Foley is at peace for the first time in years. "There's an optimism that's crept into my life," he says.
That optimism for which he was known crashed around him on Sept. 29, 2006, when the congressman abruptly abandoned his post of 12 years. The news was out. He immediately left the state.
"I'm in California, and I'm thinking, 'my life is over,'" Foley says.
He checked himself into an Arizona rehabilitation center, where he was treated for abuse he claims he suffered from a "priest molestation" episode earlier in life.
"It's not an escape. It's very intense and very lonely," Foley says about rehab. "You come to grips with your own failings and emotions. Are you cured from anything? No."
After 42 days, Foley emerged to find many of his friends had turned their backs. Family, he discovered, warmly welcomed him home. Even Foley's dedicated political supporters had missed him, and he admits his actions on Capitol Hill had hurt each of them.
"It's vile," Foley reacted in a 1998 interview with the St. Petersburg Times to prosecutor Kenneth Starr's report detailing Pres. Bill Clinton's affair. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."
Following Foley's departure from office, Bob Starr, chairman of the Charlotte County Republican Party, sent his representative a letter demanding a $500 contribution refund. “I wanted my money back and I got it. He was no longer using it for political purposes,” Starr told the Fort Myers, Fla.-based blog Breaking Views in 2007.
Foley's opinion still matters, it seems. These days the self-described "libertarian centrist" says he's frequently approached in the store and on the street about issues like the real estate market and Pres. Barack Obama's health care plan, which Foley plans to address during his radio show. A former member of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus and an opponent of gay marriage and banning gay adoption, Foley expects he'll get questions regarding those infamous instant messages.
"I'm certain we'll have those conversations. But anyone who wants to rehash that ground should tune in elsewhere."
"If 99.9 percent of those media reports were true, I would be in jail today," Foley adds.
He'll break his public silence when he takes to the microphone tonight. As for a campaign comeback, Mark Foley would prefer to connect with his supporters via the public airwaves.
"I'm not sure I want to be the Brett Favre of politics," he says.
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