Why I outed Foley

I was sitting on the train to Baltimore/Washington International Airport when my cell phone and BlackBerry simultaneously started buzzing. The text message confirmed the e-mail. Mark Foley had resigned from Congress. My heart nearly stopped. What had I gotten myself into?

In the following days Foley's actions and the subsequent questions of who knew what and when dominated the news. Before long, the media discovered the mysterious blog that had scooped ABC News. This set off a firestorm of questions: Who was the mysterious blogger? Where did he get the e-mails? Was this politically motivated?

The fallout of exposing the Florida Republican showed the extent to which the Washington culture allowed this behavior to continue. Rumors of Foley's being involved with male pages had been around Capitol Hill for nearly as long as he had. That no one did anything about it is pathetic.

More than a year ago a 16-year-old page from Louisiana had the courage to report Foley's inappropriate behavior. What did that get him? His parents prevented real punitive action. A dozen media organizations ignored the story. The FBI thought the e-mails were perfectly innocent. Louisiana Republican representative Rodney Alexander slapped Foley on the back.

We tell our children to report any inappropriate activity from an adult. In this instance the adults did nothing. So, after some savvy computer sleuthing, here I am. I hope gay rights advocates will stand up and say they're proud that it was a gay man who finally took action to stop Mark Foley.

Where did I get the e-mails? It doesn't matter. They were floating all around America in the hands of people who didn't care. Were my actions politically motivated? Yes and no. I'm a romantic when it comes to democracy; I expect a lot out of our politicians. I'm also a Democrat and a political operative. It's rare that taking a risk and doing the right thing reap tremendous political benefit. But that's what happened here. Mark Foley is a pervert who abused his office. I am happy that my efforts brought justice and helped to elect a more fair-minded majority to the United States Congress.

I sleep well at night.