MARK FOLEY IS BACK

Need a full service realtor/ex-congressman?

No, not in Congress; he's back in high society. Even when he was a congressman, the alcoholic gay blade spent a lot of time in West Palm Beach society which wasn't exactly part of his district, just adjacent to it. His district was more about sugarcane farmers and quiet church goers than it is about West Palm Beach's flamboyant go-go social life and laughable "Old Money" pretensions. Foley did his hunting in West Palm-- for campaign contributions... and other prey. This weekend he had a little social coming out party there according to the Palm Beach Post.

And speaking about "adjacent to," Foley has reinvented himself as a realtor to the rich and pretentious. It's not that different from when high paid execs in the music industry need to find a new line of work. What can you do that pays a lot and doesn't require much work other than the ability to schmooze? Real estate! Bad time-- in large part because of the policies he and his reactionary party pushed-- for that industry, though. He told someone at the gathering he has a couple of nibbles and he's keeping his fingers crossed.

He's also keeping his fingers crossed that he gets off without being indicted and that the media keeps talking about his case as though he only sent some naughty e-mails instead of luring young men into actual sex-- which, according to several young men-- is what he is actually guilty of. But, as the Post society columnist put it this weekend, "for a couple of hours Friday night, it was as if former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley had never gotten himself into a heap of trouble."

The place: Palm Beach's Mar-a-Lago. That's where Foley once found plenty of political support, never mind that the district he represented is a few miles north.

The occasion: the charity-gala opening of Palm Beach Fashion Week. There was filet mignon and a runway show by Greek ready-to-wear king Vlassis Holevas.

The sideshow: Foley's grand return to Palm Beach society-- 17 months after he resigned from the House for allegedly texting blue thoughts to at least two 16-year-old male former congressional pages.

...Clad in an impeccable pinstripe suit and blue shirt that highlighted his eyes, the 53-year-old shed months of self-imposed near-exile from large events to take his place at the most visible of tables alongside the runway. He was the first person any of the 400-plus who walked into the grand ballroom would see, stealing the limelight from the likes of former Creed frontman Scott Stapp and club owner Donald Trump.

...Once the consummate politician with a knack for befriending millionaires, citizen Realtor Foley fell into society's open arms.

Although at arms length; the seats on either side of him were empty. I guess, for some, he still has the cooties.


UPDATE: IF ONLY FOLEY WOULD HAVE LISTENED TO OBAMA!

Foley didn't have to go skulking around in dark allies (of the Internet) looking for illicit sex. He and the host of other Republican closet cases should have listened to Barack Obama explaining that Jesus loves them. That's right, according to the next president of the United States, the Sermon on the Mount justifies his support for legal recognition of same-sex unions.