Blogs afire over Foley e-mail scandal

It doesn't take much to create a buzz in the blogosphere, as we all know, so you can imagine what happens when a veteran congressmen, a 16-year-old male page and a series of publicly posted e-mails are involved.

Florida Republican Mark Foley has submitted his resignation after the disclosure of five e-mails he had sent to the boy, who was 16 at the time he received them while working as a congressional page last year. The scandal alone offered plenty of headline fodder, but reaction intensified when the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics posted a PDF file of the e-mails.

Word apparently hasn't gotten to Capitol Hill that e-mails never die.

Blog community response:

"Now, Raw Story has the actual emails, and you know what? The kid had a right to be freaked out. Here's the creepiest email of them all (the misspellings and ellipses are Foley's): 'I just emailed Will ...he's such a nice guy...acts much older than his age...and hes in really great shape...i am just finished riding my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym....whats school like for you this year?'"
--ReidBlog

"The email snippets show at worst bad judgment by Foley but remember we haven't seen the full emails. Like with the recently leaked NIE, a document or email can have parts of it used to paint a picture or draw almost any conclusion someone wants. In other words, without the full email, I wouldn't be passing any judgment."
--The Florida Masochist

"How many middle-aged men do you know that ask random 16-year-old kids what they want for their birthdays, and what 'stuff' they like to do?"
--Shakespeare's Sister