Foley on the Prowl: 2 Creepy 2 B 4Gotten

What R U wearing?

Comfy?

Don't get 2 comfy.

Newly resigned Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida) could be blaming his recent troubles on U, 2.

After getting caught hitting on congressional pages with lurid shorthand e-mails and instant messages, the Florida congressman first blamed his keyboard adventures on alcohol, insulting alcoholics everywhere.

Actually, I shouldn't use the word "blame." Foley, 52, made it clear through his attorney that he accepts responsibility for what he's done, which I guess includes asking a teenage boy: "Do I make you horny?"

There must be a PR manual out there for public figures who find themselves in a jam, and maybe Foley borrowed a copy from actor Mel Gibson.

Take full responsibility, then immediately enter rehab.

Oh, people will say. Must have been the booze.

But Tuesday afternoon, ABC News reported that Foley once interrupted a vote in the House to engage in Internet sex with a former page.

Hard to blame that one on a three-martini lunch. Maybe that's why Foley's attorney went public shortly after the ABC bulletin with a headline of his own. Foley was molested between the ages of 13 and 15, he said, by a clergyman whose name he did not divulge.

Are we to believe him, or might this be another play for understanding, if not sympathy?

I don't know. We're all keenly aware that molestation by a priest is not beyond the realm. As far as I know, however, being molested by a priest doesn't mean you have to become a molester yourself. It could simply be that Foley became a creep all on his own.

But there was a certain symmetry to Foley's latest claim, since it brings us around to another national institution that has failed to keep children out of harm's way.

Here's a strange but convenient coincidence. Who was Foley running against in his congressional race?

Guy's last name is Mahoney.

Which brings us to my favorite priest.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, of our very own Los Angeles Archdiocese, did not exactly distinguish himself as a crusader for justice in the sexual abuse scandal that rocked his own church. In fact, there may be no more dangerous thing for a young male to do than visit Capitol Hill or a monastery.

"The similarities are remarkable," said Mary Grant, a sexual abuse victim who has long criticized Mahony's shuffling of accused priests and is livid at his continued refusal to release church files on suspected pedophiles.