In his first interview on the sex scandal that pushed him out of Congress, Mark Foley isn't afraid to show his emotional side. Asked what he thinks about "The Curse of the Mark Foley Seat", which is what people now call Florida's 16th after his successor, a Democrat, was caught up in a sex scandal of his own:

"It's not what I had hoped would be my lasting legacy," he said, pausing to brush away tears."

America, you've made Mark Foley cry. Foley points out that he never did anything illegal (which is true) and feels that he's been unfairly maligned as a pedophile.

"There was never anywhere in those conversations where someone said, 'Stop,' or 'I'm not enjoying this,' or 'This is inappropriate' … but again, I'm the adult here, I'm the congressman," Foley said. "The fact is I allowed it to happen. That's where my responsibility lies."

Foley had built a national reputation as an advocate for tougher penalties against child sexual predators. As co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, he helped craft a law to protect children on the Internet.

Still, he said, there was no hypocrisy.

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It's been more than two years since Mark Foley garnered notoriety for sending salacious emails to congressional pages.

The Floridian Congressman has since resigned, come out and been cleared of any illegal wrong-doing, which means it's a perfect time for right-leaning journalist James Kirchick to come out and blast the left for addressing Foley's misdeeds in the first place.

Though he describes Foley's online activities as "reprehensible," Kirchick wags a righteous finger at "democratic operatives" and other liberal activists who, he says, simply used Foley as a political pawn.

The Congressman didn't deserve such malicious attention - rather, he needs our sympathy and understanding. Or something.

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Congressional Republicans sure have some queer values.

You'll recall that the GOP went insane with outrage following Senator Larry Craig's toilet trolling arrest. So, too, with former Floridian Representative Mark Foley - although, to be fair, that one did involve sexual instant messages with teenage Congressional pages.

In contrast, Louisiana lawmaker David Vitter faced little party opposition after his hooker scandal. This week, meanwhile, there was little indignation over Alaska Senator Ted Stevens' corruption indictment. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell barely said a word about it, but once demanded an Ethics Committee investigation into the Craig affair.

All of this leads super journalist Margaret Carlson to this not-surprising yet notable observation:

Let's take a civics quiz. In Congress which is worse: being corrupt or being gay? Time is up. Pencils down. If you answered being gay, you've been paying attention, class. Of the 10 Commandments, it is much better to break the one about stealing than the one about sex.

How does that song go? "Teach your children well…"

Mark Foley still hasn't been properly investigated for his salacious exchanges with underage Congressional pages.

The case hit a roadblock last summer when House lawyers refused to turn over Foley computers. Hoping to cut through the red tape, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to grant them access. She refused. Instead, Pelosi passed the matter on to the House Office of General Counsel. Said a spokesman: "The speaker referred the commissioner's request to the House Office of General Counsel, and that response is the response of the House."

The Palm Beach Post ain't happy with Pelosi's shenanigans - the editors published a scathing letter this morning, which reads:

Rep. Pelosi should allow the FDLE access. Foley should be allowed to declare which files he thinks are protected. If a judge agrees, those files would be withheld.
…
A lawmaker's legislative materials should be off-limits. But we already know that Foley sent all those lewd messages to former pages. In a milder exchange, he said of a teenager's shorts, "Love to slip them off of you." That remark has nothing to do with lawmaking. The public deserves to know whether it had to do with law-breaking.

And, if nothing else, Foley's guilty of supremely tacky lameness: "Love to slip them off of you"? Who says that?!

• Out's February issue proves what we already knew: Richard Simmons is the queen of all queens.

• Lauren Williams hung out with Phylicia Rashad and the rest of the cast from the Debbie Allen Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and all we got was this incredible post!

• Hummer inspired by NYC-based fag rag HX? Wouldn't be the first time…

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The Mark Foley scandal got an extra epilogue today. The Washington Post> reports that former House speaker Dennis "Hasturd" Hastert settled with the Federal Election Commission after failing to file his Foley-related legal bills.

According to FEC documents, Hastert (R-Ill.) failed to disclose in early January 2007 that his 2006 reelection campaign had run up $147,000 in legal bills stemming from his connection with the Foley investigation. Hastert agreed to settle the matter and pay a $1,000 penalty.
…
Through the first half of 2007, Hastert raised more than $540,000 in campaign funds. More than $130,000 of that went toward paying off old legal bills, FEC records show. On Sept. 30, the end of the most recent reporting period, Hastert had $1,557.86 in his campaign account but more than $52,000 in outstanding debts. That includes the last $11,000 owed to his law firm, McKenna, Long & Aldridge, which represented Hastert during the Foley probe.

Hastert was complicit in Foley's explicit exchanges with underage Congressional pages: they failed to heed reported warning about the Congressman's carnal pursuits.

The Washington Post launched it's new "Where Are They Now?" column by following up on everyone's favorite Congressional page loving politico, Mark Foley.

Floridian Foley's been keeping a low profile since last year's disgraceful resignation, but rumor has it he's hoping to break back into the national scene:

Foley has been paying visits recently to Beverly Hills, where he was spotted just last weekend. We figure he may be looking for a job in Hollywood. Because in addition to his cringingly ironic role as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, Foley - until he resigned on Sept. 29, 2006 - also served as head of the Congressional Entertainment Industries Caucus. In that role, he cultivated lots of contacts in Hollywood.
…
We're told Foley is quietly plotting a comeback in some form, political or not. "He's talking about how to re-emerge publicly after the investigation is over," a source close to Foley tells the Sleuth.

Foley's press folk won't officially comment on the former Represenatives plans until they sort through that nasty criminal investigation. The politico and his dermatologist boyfriend, however, are reportedly all over the Palm Beach social scene, which gives us one more reason never to go to Palm Beach.

Sex scandals certainly aren't anything new. Politicians and public figures have been canoodling since the beginning of time. The frequency and potency of sex scandals, however, seems to be on the rise.

No surprise, then, that it only took Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer about six months to write The Brotherhood of the Disappearing Pants: A Field Guide To Conservative Sex Scandals. Why just conservative sex scandals? Says Amann, "Liberal scandals aren't as fun. And, honestly, it doesn't look like there are as many."

In Disappearing Pants, Amann and Breuer - who previously wrote Fair and Balanced My Ass, about Fox News - skewer the most repugnant, disgraceful and ultimately hilarious of the conservative sex scandals. As the publication date rapidly approaches, we'd like to share a conversation between our editor and Amann.

Lap it up, after the jump…

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Former Speaker of The House and Mark Foley enabler Dennis "Hasturd" Hastert will leave his post earlier than expected:

The Illinois Republican had announced in August he would not seek re-election in 2008, but said he planned to finish his current term, which ends in January 2009. Republican aides, speaking on background only because Hastert had not yet publicly announced his new plans, said he now intends to leave office late this year or early next year.

What's really funny is that Hastert's the 13th Republican to announce his resignation in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Congressional outcast Larry Craig refuses to quit. More proof that the GOP's backwards.

Mark Foley's political career may have ended after Lane Hudson exposed his page-loving ways, but the Floridian Republicans still holding on to a lot of dough. Even more than Democratic Representative Tim Mahoney, who's currently running for reelection:

Although freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney is expected to report later today that he has more than $1.1 million in cash on hand for his 2008 reelection bid, he’s not the cash king in congressional District 16.

That distinction still belongs to scandal-tainted former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned last year. The still-existing Friends of Mark Foley campaign reported today that it has $1.3 million in leftover money even after dishing out $151,202 in legal fees last quarter and cutting refund checks totaling $18,492 to past contributors.

Wait, wait - Mark Foley still has friends? Also, why should a disgraced politician be allowed to use donated money to fight a salacious legal battle?

Republican leaders can't feign surprise over Larry Craig's toilet trolling ways. Politico-journo Robert Novak says some of the GOP helped keep Craig in the grand old closet:

I have talked to several of my sources in the Senate, and this came as a surprise to me…They knew about it. They knew that he had this problem, and it was in the closet. And it was not just a homosexual relationship. It was this weird conduct. They didn’t do anything about it. So Republicans, again, as in the case of Congressman Foley, their cover-up is coming back to haunt them.

In the same episode, Margaret Carlson says, "Republicans are much more forgiving of heterosexuals than homosexuals". It would seem, however, they're perfectly willing to overlook homo-relations, until it comes out. The "values" party would rather shield a potential embarrassment than lose a conservative vote. Perhaps they should be the the Grand Old Protectors…