'Inside the Mind of Mark Foley': Disgraced Congressman Turned Talk Radio Host
Foley, Brought Down by Sexually Explicit Messages to Underage Pages, Tapes First Show
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH
Sept. 9, 2009—
Nearly three years after then-Congressman Mark Foley, R-FLA, saw his political career crumble following the revelation of his sexually explicit emails with underage congressional pages, he's garnering the spotlight once again: as a radio talk show host.
Foley, who resigned after ABC News' The Blotter broke the story before going to rehab in Arizona, is set to debut his radio show entitled "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley" on Sept. 22 on West Palm Beach radio station WSVU 960am.
"You're going to be amazed," said WSVU spokesman Joseph Raineri of Foley. Raineri said that "with everything that's going on with healthcare and everybody questioning what's happening in Washington, DC, we thought who better to explain what's going on than Mark Foley."
In between the musical stylings of Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow and Barbara Streisand, Foley's show will discuss, Rainier said, "the inner workings of DC and how things are being decided and what the process is."
He said the sexually explicit emails that brought Foley down are "not really for us to comment on" and that "as far as what he did with his personal life, that's not for us to say."
When the page scandal broke, Foley was the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. He resigned hours after ABC News questioned him about the instant messages with former congressional pages, some of whom were under the age of 18 at the time of the exchanges. Officials in Florida announced a year ago that Foley would not face criminal charges because of "insufficient evidence."
Foley Show Debuts Sept. 22
Foley taped the first half of his one-hour premiere on Tuesday, which will be presented as a conversational, 'Meet the Press' style show, Rainier said, with Foley talking with the station's general manager.
The show's full schedule will be announced the week of the premiere, said WSVU, which describes itself as an "Adult Standards music station catering to an older audience that is concerned with the current healthcare issue."