ABC reporter: Foley's office tried to strike a deal

By Alex Koppelman

Monday, Oct. 2, 2006 15:29 EST

According to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, a strategist for Rep. Mark Foley tried to strike a deal with ABC's Brian Ross under which Ross would get an exclusive -- the announcement of Foley's resignation -- in exchange for Ross' agreement not to go public with the explicit instant messages Foley sent to pages.

Ross said no.

Kurtz's brief report on Foleygate also pokes a serious hole in the theory -- coming from some quarters on the right -- that ABC sat on news about the congressman in order to inflict the most political damage possible on the GOP. Ross tells Kurtz that he first received Foley's sexually explicit IM exchanges after he published Foley's less incriminating e-mail exchange on ABC's news blog Thursday.

― Tim Grieve

Currently in War Room

VoteVets targets McCain with new ad: In the spot, a veteran of the Iraq war says, "'freedom' means when the Iraqi people and their Prime Minister ask us to make a plan to leave, we do."; Thursday, Jul 24, 2008 02:00 EDT
Who'll be the Republicans' Obama now?: Bobby Jindal, who'd been discussed as a potential running mate for John McCain, says he doesn't want to be nominated for the vice presidency.; Thursday, Jul 24, 2008 00:41 EDT
More bad news for McCain on Iraq: A new poll shows Americans favor a timeline for withdrawal, which McCain's campaign has argued against.; Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008 22:31 EDT
Republicans lose a major financial backer: T. Boone Pickens, who gave millions to support the Swift Boat Veterans, among other GOP causes, is now focusing on energy independence instead.; Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008 21:22 EDT

Current Salon Politics Stories

The Obama show lands in Israel

He got a rock-star reception here, but an intriguing question lingers: Which U.S. presidential candidate is better for this country?

By Aluf Benn
Exposing Bush's historic abuse of power

By Tim Shorrock
McCain: Enough about you, let's talk about me

By Mike Madden

’08 Update

19:00 EDT, July 23, 2008: VoteVets targets McCain with new ad In the spot, a veteran of the Iraq war says, "'freedom' means when the Iraqi people and their Prime Minister ask us to make a plan to leave, we do."; By Alex Koppelman; War Room; 13
17:41 EDT, July 23, 2008: Who'll be the Republicans' Obama now? Bobby Jindal, who'd been discussed as a potential running mate for John McCain, says he doesn't want to be nominated for the vice presidency.; By Alex Koppelman; War Room; 19
15:31 EDT, July 23, 2008: More bad news for McCain on Iraq A new poll shows Americans favor a timeline for withdrawal, which McCain's campaign has argued against.; By Alex Koppelman; War Room; 29
14:22 EDT, July 23, 2008: Republicans lose a major financial backer T. Boone Pickens, who gave millions to support the Swift Boat Veterans, among other GOP causes, is now focusing on energy independence instead.; By Alex Koppelman; War Room; 28
12:37 EDT, July 23, 2008: Obama camp debuts Spanish-language radio ad Highlighting Obama's personal history, the spot concludes, "It's time we had a president who understands we all deserve a chance to make our own way."; By Alex Koppelman; War Room; 7

Salon Politics Blogs

Joan Walsh
Obama's grand tour
The high-risk trip has been mistake-free to date. McCain's answer: Blame the media.
Joan Walsh
Glenn Greenwald
The honorable centrist Joe Lieberman
Even after John McCain was forced to repudiate pastor John Hagee's views as "deeply offensive and indefensible," the Connecticut senator will share a stage with Hagee and speak to his group.
Glenn Greenwald

From the wires

Posts by Topic

Posts by date

July 2008
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

About War Room

War Room is written and edited by Alex Koppelman, with contributions from Salon reporters around the country.

Table Talk

How is the campaign trail heating up?

Who's the veep to be?

Copyright ©2008 Salon Media Group, Inc. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. SALON® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon Media Group Inc.