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Bad-Boy Mahoney Deserves Same Thrashing As Foley

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 22, 2008

You remember former Republican Congressman Mark Foley of West Palm Beach, who abruptly resigned after news broke two years ago that he had sent lewd internet messages to boys serving as Congressional pages.

The name Tim Mahoney probably doesn't ring a bell. Mahoney, a Democrat, replaced Foley in Washington after running a campaign that promised "a world that is safer, more moral."

So what does Mahoney do while running for office? He has an affair with a campaign aide.

Some family values you've got there, Tim.

But wait. It gets worse.

When aide Patricia Allen discovered that Mahoney might also be involved with other women, ABC News says she broke off the affair. Not long later, Mahoney called and fired her. "You work at my pleasure," he hissed into the phone. "Do you understand what that means?"

We understand, Tim. Allen lost her job because she stopped pleasuring you. She was right to threaten legal action. That you gave her $122,000 to go away - and destroy all audio and video tapes made - makes us think no better of you.

Yet for some reason, Democratic leaders in Congress, who had kept the Foley case front-and-center for months before the mid-term election, are expressing little outrage over Mahoney's contemptuous behavior.

Rather, the episode has been brushed off as an adultery scandal and a personal matter between Mahoney and his wife, who has just filed for divorce. Congressional leaders seem only to care that Mahoney didn't use campaign funds to pay off Allen.

That's it? What about condemning Mahoney's vicious and harassing behavior toward a female employee?

Oh sure, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an ethics committee investigation, but don't count on seeing the results before Election Day.

And nowhere in her brief statement did Pelosi express the outrage that citizens expect.

Remember, when it was discovered that Foley was sending lewd messages to teenage boys and that House leaders had an inkling about it, there was no shortage of condemnation. Surprisingly, it was ultimately determined that Foley broke no laws by sending those emails.

But make no mistake this time. Sexual harassment is most definitely against the law.

Where are the calls for Mahoney to abandon his re-election campaign, as futile as it is?

Where is the outrage from the National Organization for Women? Surely an organization that condemns sexual harassment must have something to say about Mahoney's despicable behavior.

A perpetrator of sexual harassment should not get a pass simply because his victim went away quietly or because his party secretly hopes he will, too.

The Foley-Mahoney double standard can only be explained by the "D" or "R" after their names.

And that's why Republicans worry about the Democrats possibly dominating both houses of Congress after the election, with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

If that happens, there will be no check on partisan-driven decisions.

When she was elected speaker, Pelosi promised to be a leader for "the entire House."

We're still waiting.

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