With his resignation last week and new developments breaking every day, it's clear that Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) viewed the House pages as his own private fishing pond (or cruising strip). It's pretty damn clear that the Republican leadership had some idea of the behavior of the gentlepervert from Florida, perhaps as far back as 2001.
Foley's out of the House, which is a start. But what about his money?
Should Republican officeholders, candidates, and committees be expected to (for once) do the right thing and return donations Foley gave to them recently? If not as far back as he's been asking pages about their underwear and degree of horniness?
Foley's campaign checkbook has been busy: $525,000 to the National Republican Campaign Committee since 1997, including $300,000 in the last two years, $100,000 of which was sent two months ago; as well as smaller donations to candidates and incumbents like George Allen, Katherine Harris, Elizabeth Dole, Dave Weldon, and the already-resigned Bob Ney. (All data publicly available from the Federal Election Commission's Disclosure Report Search; these results at http://query.nictusa.com/....)