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The pages did, however, receive a lot of attention from Foley. He attended one of their parties in a tuxedo. He donated to the fundraiser that helps pay for their prom and spoke admiringly about them in floor speeches. He learned their names and asked them about themselves. For many, it was welcome attention.
"He was consistently kind," said Bryce Chitwood, president of the 2002 page class. "He was just a very friendly man and was always willing to befriend a page. It was something we appreciated. You find yourself very low on the totem pole of the congressional power scale. For a congressman to act like he was interested in a person and cared about us was something pretty special and pretty important."
It’s not Mark Foley’s sexual orientation that’s at issue here. Such people come in all flavors of gender preference. And as for being a pedophile, he was consciously avoiding that category, asking, "How old are you now?" in one of his Instant Massages. He was operating at the lower limit of the "age of consent" [16 in Washington]. He was obviously thinking about this day coming and being careful to avoid legal responsibility when it finally happened. He played it close to the line, as do most predators. Like the priest, or the scout leader, he positioned himself to be always in a situation to capitalize on an opportunity – always on the make. Whatever the other psychology of such people, the "getting away with it" is a big part of the game. Like other criminals and compulsive gamblers, "winning against the odds" is a big part of the thrill. Many hypothesize that this is, in fact, the major point – "I’m special because I can pull it off."
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