How Foley Skirted Rules To Pursue Relationships

Besides, he said, "it was embarrassing."

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One evening early in the spring of 2000, a half-dozen pages -- three girls and three boys -- went to supper at Hawk 'n' Dove, a Capitol Hill pub. One boy had mentioned to Foley that they would be there, but no one expected that a congressman would show up.

Between House votes that night, Foley walked in. "It was the craziest thing. He ate wings off everybody's plate," recalled Rebecca Hoffman, a Democratic page who was there. He shot billiards with them, another page recalled.

"We were just absolutely shocked," said Hoffman, now 23. "We went back and told all our friends, 'You won't believe what happened.' "

Though Foley's willingness to socialize with pages stood out, their world granted them rare proximity to political power.

The page program is as old as the republic. Today, pages are all high school juniors and must be at least 16, and they typically work on Capitol Hill and take classes for an entire school year. They are the only people other than House members allowed entree to certain corridors, rooms and chambers in the Capitol, including the floor of the House.

Pages are taught to speak to a member only when spoken to. But those with plum assignments, in the Republican and Democratic cloakrooms or on the floor itself, find opportunities to talk with a few members who are particularly receptive.

"There's something that really feels good about getting to hang out with people who are powerful and well known," said Michael Buck, who was a Republican-sponsored page from Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1999-2000 and now is a teacher in the Mississippi Delta.

"You have your select group of people you become certain friends with," said Ray Lahoud, a law student who was a page in 1999-2000, referring to members of Congress. "They were sort of your mentors. They replaced your parents. . . . Mark Foley was one of those people who was always . . . talking to us. He knew us all by name."

Jacob Kosoff, a cloakroom page in 1997-98, remembers looking out a Capitol doorway one warm spring day and noticing Foley arriving on his bicycle below. He sprinted down a marble staircase, zipped through a metal detector and arrived on the House floor in time to catch the congressman. "Oh wow, you cycle to votes. That's cool," Kosoff recalls telling him.

Foley liked the attention. "He could not only tell you every time he was in a picture in the New York Times, but where he was in the photo," said one man who worked with him in Congress. "He thrived on the adoration of the people in the room. And here was a group of people who gave it unhesitatingly."

"I remember him riding by in his Bimmer and talking about all the cars he got and going down to Florida to take out his yacht," said Kristopher Hart, a page in 1999-2000 who went on to George Washington University and now runs a day spa near the campus. "He was like a little bit of a showman, but he was a great guy."