Mark Adam Foley an American politician who had served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 until 2006, had to resign in shame on charges of sending sexually explicit messages to minors. Ironically he was known as a crusader against child abuse and exploitation.

Foley was elected to the U.S. House in 1994 with 58 percent of the vote. There after he got re-elected after every two years. He was a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. In late 2000, Foley played a large role in aiding George W. Bush during the Presidential election.

While Foley’s popularity soared rumors surfaced that Foley was either gay or bisexual and was in a long-term relationship with a man. The story was published in local and gay press. Foley promptly held a press conference to denounce it. He stated that his sexual orientation was unimportant.

On September 28, 2006, ABC News reported that, in 2005, Foley had sent email messages from his personal AOL account to a former Congressional page, asking the page to send a photo. Another page reported of having received sexually explicit messages from Foley.

As a result of the disclosures, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement opened investigations of the messages to find possible criminal charges. Foley had to resign in shame. Foley said in a statement, “I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent”.

This scandal of 1992 involved not only hundreds of politicians but also their bank. It revealed that these politicians continued to overdraw money from their bank and were not penalized for it. It was also known as the Rubbergate.

The House Bank functioned under very loose regulations and did not use a computerized system to track its operations. A practice which being followed by the House Bank was, to permit the House members to overdraw their accounts by an amount equal to one month’s pay check.. The House Bank failed to keep a regular track of the over drawls and the politicians took advantage to draw huge sums as over draft.

The House banking scandal involved more than 450 representatives and was enquired into by the House Ethics Committee. Twenty-two congressmen and -women were indicted by the House Ethics Committee for overdrawing money for as long as 8 months.

Up to 77 representatives were either thrown out or defeated in elections as a fall out of this financial scandal. Former Rep. Donald Lukens (R-OH) was convicted on bribery and conspiracy charges. Former Rep. Carl C. Perkins (D-KY), Former Rep. Carroll Hubbard, Jr. (D-KY), Former Rep. Mary Rose Oakar (D-OH) and Delegate Walter E. Fauntroy (D-DC) pled guilty to felony.

Politicians have had a long history of having sexual relationships by exploiting powerless people associated with politics. At times even minors have been victimized. The 1983, Congressional Page Sex Scandal was one such scandal, which rocked the country.

Pages are High School students sponsored by political parties to carry out administrative functions in the House of Representatives. Two politicians, Rep. Dan Crane (R-IL) and Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) were involved in one of the most famous sex scandals of the 1980s. In 1983 the House Ethics Committee recommended these two politicians for a reprimand.

Crane was accused of having had sex four or five times at his suburban apartment with a female page sometime in 1973. The age of the page then was 17 years. Studds was accused of having a gay relationship with a male page. He took him to Portugal on a visit and also had sex with him in his apartment in Georgetown.

The House took a serious note of the conduct by the two politicians and voted by a supermajority to revise the reprimand recommendation to censure. The award of a censure was more severe than a reprimand. Before the censures were pronounced both the politicians admitted to serious errors of judgment.