RU Lonely Tonight?
Roll Call Staff
After his well-chronicled departure from office, former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) had all but fallen off the map. We had expected Foley might provide a steady diet of salacious items, but earlier this year, the disgraced Rep. sold his house in Washington, and that, it seemed, was that.
Yet traces of Foley, who resigned from Congress after sending naughty e-mails to underage pages, are still around — if you know where to look. And one such place is JDate.com, the dating Web site for Jewish singles looking for that special someone.
An HOH tipster pointed out a profile of Foley posted on the popular personals site. “FoleyMaf54” — Maf54 was the very same screen name Foley used to send those no-no instant messages to the pages that landed him in hot water — is listed as a single man, seeking a man (for marriage and children), from Washington, D.C.
“Whatever you’ve read in the papers, or on Smoking Gun or Drudge Report is not true. I’m a sensitive caring individual who’s just very misunderstood,” his entry reads.
HOH’s hair-trigger radar was detecting a phony, though. While there were some tidbits that rang true (the right hometown: Newton, Mass., physical description, educational background — all Google-able), the profile didn’t have much detail and a few errors: It lists him as a “public servant” although he is no longer in office, and besides, Foley isn’t Jewish. And anyone can post a free JDate profile.
JDate spokeswoman Gail Laguna told HOH that the profile likely is a fake, citing the photo of Foley, which looks like a news photo of the suit-and-tie-clad former Congressman speaking into a microphone, and the lack of detail in the profile.
Efforts to reach Foley on Monday were unsuccessful.
While JDate screens all profiles, Laguna allows that some fakes might slip by. “All profiles are reviewed manually by our customer care team before they go live on the site,” she said. But she said the Foley profile might have gotten by the screeners, since Foley isn’t immediately recognizable in the same way that other celebs might be.
Since HOH drew her attention to it, Laguna said she will have the profile reviewed and that JDate will try to reach the profile’s poster. It likely will be removed from the site, she added.
And it seems that just as his career in Congress was cut short, so too is Foley’s stint as a JDater. Oy!
Button Proxy. Forget polling. One prognosticator has your 2008 presidential election results right here. Steve Shuman, the owner of Trover Shop, the popular Capitol Hill purveyor of books and sundries, says the winner is Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), hands down.
Obama-for-president buttons have been outselling other presidential wannabes by a mile, he said. Shuman told HOH he had to restock the Obama buttons after they sold out last week.
Next most popular are the buttons for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), followed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.). Bringing up the rear in this highly scientific proxy race are Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R).
Shuman also reordered Clinton buttons and is “running low” on Giuliani and Edwards pins.
Shuman deadpanned that the contest might as well be over, since the results of his button polling were so overwhelming. But he showed some serious political acumen, too. “It just might be someone whose name isn’t even on the shelves,” he said.
Maybe we should try to pre-order some Fred Thompson buttons now.
Escape Goat. So let’s say you’re a U.S. attorney general facing pressure from Congress to resign. You’ve been cramming for hours on end, getting ready for some high-stakes Capitol Hill testimony.
Wanna get away? Try going to the movies.
An HOH tipster reported catching embattled Bush appointee Alberto Gonzales attending a movie at Tyson’s Corner on Friday night. The casually dressed Gonzales family, with what looked like a few extra kids in tow, checked out the “The Namesake,” the HOH spy said. The Mira Nair-directed film about an Indian immigrant family may have been just the break from reality that Gonzales needed.
Hey, Mr. AG, that nine-buck tub of popcorn might be a lot less painful on a private-sector salary ...
Please send your hot tips, juicy gossip or comments to hoh@rollcall.com.
Taylor: Preventing Another Underwear Bomber
March 19, 4:09 p.m.
The intelligence community faces challenges daily. No example is more emblematic of the problems faced than the so-called underwear bomber of 2009. As threats emerge, the hunt for “persons of interest” must occur in a more reliable and efficient manner because the consequences of inaction can be catastrophic. Read Full Article
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