Everyone knew Mark Foley was gay — his co-workers, his girlfriends, and, obviously, a few of his pages — says Vanity Fair in its latest feature on the disgraced congressman by Gail Sheehy and Judy Bachrach, sourced primarily from former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham, who helped Foley keep his private life closeted. Despite pressure throughout his life from friends and the gay community, Foley's political ambitions drove him to stay closeted and living a secret double life, what one Foley friend called "the gay elephant in the room."
Far fewer people, of course, knew about Foley's predilection for flirting with pages. The article traces how it all came to light, from Fordham's account of dealing with complaints (later passed among Republican representatives and to the head of the House Page board, who warned Foley but that's it) to the reaction once the story started leaking out, and then exploding. Sheehy and Bacharach describe how the Republican machine went into overdrive trying to squelch the story:
As one deeply knowledgeable source tells V.F., "In November [2005], why did the whole issue of Foley come up at all? Was it self-enforcement on the part of Congress? No! The St. Petersburg Times was calling around, asking tough questions! It created the spark. Even though they didn't publish [the story], the act of reporting was the only oversight there."
Interesting reminder of where Republican priorities lay at that time, and interesting rejoinder to those who accused ABC of timing the Foley scoop with the election. (Though it was one hell of an October Surprise).The article also describes House Speaker Dennis Hastert's response to it: Nothing, except gathering Republican leadership to get their stories straight.
It almost seems moot to retrace this story, now that the Dems are in Congress and most of those implicated are out of a job, the type of story that would have whipped around the internet in October but now seems like merely a denouement. But it is instructive as a cautionary tale, showing how recalcitrant, difficult sources can make stories disappear and how information — no matter how much it wants to be free — can still take a while to get there. It's also instructive as an example of how spin and smear can continue to work after a scandal breaks, when the reshaping and repositioning of old information can change the story: In this case, Fordham says that the Republicans party has blamed and maligned him despite his efforts to address the issue much earlier — no doubt why he told Vanity Fair his story.
Don't Ask, Don't Email [Vanity Fair]
— Nick Douglas, Rachel Sklar
