Rep. Tim Mahoney, who replaced scandal-scarred Rep. Mark Foley, now has his own
Remember Rep. Mark Foley? Republican. Florida. Suggestive text messages. Congressional pages. Scandal. One of several. 2006. GOP loses the House of Representatives.
Well, according to ABC News, Foley's Democratic successor, Rep. Tim Mahoney, now has a mistress problem. Actually, a mistress payoff problem. To buy her silence. And avoid her lawsuit for something.
Mahoney, who is married, also promised the woman a $50,000-a-year job for two years at the agency that handles his campaign advertising, Mahoney staffers said.
Senior Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chair of the Democratic Caucus, have been working with Mahoney to keep the matter from hurting his reelection campaign, the Mahoney staffers said.
Good luck with that 22 days out.
A spokesperson for Emanuel denies that account, but said Emanuel did confront Mahoney "upon hearing a rumor" about an affair in 2007 and "told him he was in public life and had a responsibility to act accordingly."
The spokesperson added that it was a "private conversation" that had nothing to do with Mahoney's reelection prospects.
Mahoney's district leans Republican. President Bush won 54% of its vote in 2004 and 53% in 2000. Mahoney's in an already tough reelection race against Republican Tom Rooney, grandson of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney.
Coincidentally, it was ABC News in 2006 that broke the Foley story right before that election that cost Republicans control of the House.
Thank goodness those reformers got into office after 2006 because now things have totally changed there in Congress and everything's just fine. Our blogging buddy Frank James has the full Mahoney story over at the Swamp.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Photo credit: Office of Rep. Tim Mahoney.
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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It's Bush's fault
Posted by: Mike Cole | October 13, 2008 at 04:43 PM
The first clue that this is a Democrat scandal is because the offender had sex with an of-age person of the opposite sex. A Republican scandal would have involved little boys and scuba-suits.
Posted by: Dinsaur Sarah | October 13, 2008 at 05:10 PM
Holding Democrats to the same standards as Republicans is outrageous! This is nothing but democratism!
Posted by: Jeff | October 13, 2008 at 06:11 PM
Dems certainly are cleaning up that "culture of corruption"
Posted by: James | October 13, 2008 at 07:28 PM
Is anybody surprised by Mahoney's behavior and Emanuel's complicity? Congress is an absolute joke on both sides of the aisle.
My count is roughly 20 Senators and Reps that actually give a crap.
Posted by: Joe Voter | October 14, 2008 at 05:56 AM
Bush/Cheney are responsible for what Mahoney did.
Posted by: Costas Meghir | October 14, 2008 at 08:34 AM
She worked for his campaign, what ever happened to "Sexual Harassment," I forgot that ended with Clinton and an intern.
The NY Times from the tape of him firing her :
“You work at my pleasure,” Mr. Mahoney told Ms. Allen in a Jan. 20 telephone call that was recorded and played for Mr. Mahoney’s employees. “If you do the job that I think you should do, you get to keep your job. Whenever I don’t feel like you’re doing your job, then you lose your job. And guess what: The only person that matters is guess who? Me.”
Democrats, and "cleaning up the culture of corruption," that only applies to Republican corruption.
"Cold Cash" Jefferson from New Orleans was found with $90,000 in his freezer. In June 2007 he was indicted on 16 charges by a grand jury but those who were going to clean up the "culture of corruption" have sat on their hands.
They also have the support of the national press, did you hear anything on the national news shows about this, thought not. Just like the John Edwards affair, until it blows up this too will be ignored.
Posted by: Jean | October 14, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Just waiting for "Voter fraud" even before the poles open up in November.It's a repeat of last election state of Florida.Having all the over seas campaign donations roll into "Obama campaign" no wonder Hillary lost and in debt.Let hope every vote is counted including the "absentees" from Iraq and US
Posted by: LOTUS | October 15, 2008 at 12:01 AM
I just read somewhere that this guy was a lifelong Republican before this run as Democrat. Is that true?
Posted by: ENB14 | October 25, 2008 at 09:59 AM