Ben Smith over on
The Daily Politics has a strange bit of political theater in a TV ad Tom Reynolds is currently running in his district. Here's an excerpt:
"But last week, we all learned of other emails, worse than anything I'd heard before. I immediately forced Foley to resign."
He did what? As far as I can tell, Reynolds had nothing to do with the resignation. From The Blotter:
September 29, 2006 3:02 PM
Brian Ross and Maddy Sauer Report:
Saying he was "deeply sorry," Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.
A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Considering that Foley resigned hours before the actual IMs became public, it's hard to credit Reynolds with asking him to resign about something he couldn't have known about.
In especially as he subsequently denied knowing that his chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, was working with Foley on the matter.
Or considering that there is no prior record of any such demand by Reynolds - anywhere.
Something here doesn't add up.
(Cross-posted on The Daily Gotham)