The word to describe former Congressman Mark Foley's sexual inclination is of course pederasty rather than pedophilia. Pederasts like their boys sexually mature, at least physically, while pedophiles go for the pre-pubescent and younger. Technically, since the greek παις means "boy," the term cannot be applied to, say, Humbert Humbert or Jerry Lee Lewis. When an older man manages to have sexual relations with a younger woman at or above the age of consent the common term is "lucky," although in the case of the President of the United States partisan jealousy can quickly lead to articles of impeachment.
Because of its deep classical roots pederasty seems better suited to the U.S. Senate than the House of Representatives. Seducing and screwing those less powerful than yourself is the hallmark of confident hereditary rule. While senators may not wear togas and spend hours in the baths discussing matters of state, they are, absent a few patrician families like the Kennedys, Bushes and Rockefellers, the nearest thing we have to an entrenched aristocracy. The lower chamber has been making progress by using gerrymandering and lobbyist schemes to carve out permanent fiefdoms, but our Senators have for a long time believed that they should hold their jobs for life and can be very upset (witness Joe Lieberman) when they are seriously challenged. No wonder pages are better paid in the Senate than in the House ($20,491 per annum vs. $18,817); Senators require more oiling and lathering.
Foley had a good run for a lowly Congressman. With six terms and an obvious lust for life under his belt he was perfectly situated to take advantage of the new Republican credo: that government is something to be despised instead of respected, that with a gelded ethics committee, an incurious press, an executive branch run by a war profiteer, and an electorate hypnotized into complacency by evangelical Christianity, everything and anything goes--whether it is slopping up the corporate droppings spread by Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay or getting to bugger those cute sixteen year-olds scurrying about the House Chamber.