Paid Republican tipped off Foley e-mails

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The original source who tipped the news media about sexually suggestive e-mail to House pages from former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley was a paid Republican employee.

The Hill newspaper said the unidentified aide is no longer employed in the U.S. House of Representatives but after tipping off the media about the Florida Republican's messages backed them up by posting un-redacted e-mail messages on the Internet site stopsexpredators.blogspot.

ABC News first reported about the e-mail Friday, just as Congress was about to recess for the midterm November elections.

In one exchange from August 2005 Foley asked a teenage former page his age and requested a photograph. The youth's parents were concerned enough to ask their son's congressional sponsor, U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., to take steps to stop Foley's correspondence, the Hill said.

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the House Page Board, said in a statement that after hearing from Alexander he ordered Foley to cease all contact with the page and to be "especially mindful of his conduct with respect to current and former House pages, and he assured us he would do so."

Foley resigned last Friday and entered an alcohol rehabilitation clinic Monday.