On eve of first radio show, Foley embraced by conservative activist
by Michael C. Bender | September 21st, 2009Javier Manjarres, the head of the Fort Lauderdale-based Conservative Republican Alliance, sent out word this morning that former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley “is still popular and loved by many of his friends and supporters in his former Congressional District as well as throughout Palm Beach.”
Case in point– last Tuesday, following a fundraiser at the West Palm Beach hot spot Pistache, talk show heavyweight and lovable little fuzz-ball himself Rush ‘El Rushbo” Limbaugh identified Mark sitting down at a table, walked up to him and bellowed out, “Mark Foley, how the hell are ya!,” before embracing Foley in warm bear hug.
Manjarres
He calls Foley’s new radio program, “Inside the Mind of Mark Foley,” a “must listen event.” Foley’s first show airs Tuesday at 6 p.m. on 960AM in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. It can also be heard on the Web at www.seaviewam960.com.
Manjarres also e-mailed the transcript of his interview with the Fort Pierce Republican. Read it after the jump.
JM: Your 2006 Congressional sex scandal has been well documented. It seemed to me that in the reporting, a lot was left out. I am a firm believer that there are two sides to every story. One thing that I have heard from your constituents, is that you didn’t put up much of a fight when the scandal the broke. What is your side?
Foley: I am solely responsible for the problems I faced in 2006. I took responsibility, I resigned from the job I loved and a career I had built for 30 years. I did not break any laws; however I owed my constituents, my colleagues, and my family a far better standard then I set. I was not going to drag them thru any further humiliation by attempting to hold on to my job and fight the allegations in the media. I am grateful to the support I have received throughout these last 3 years and to having the joys of knowing real friends and supporters.
JM: It’s been several years now since the scandal, what have you been up to?
Foley: I have been working on numerous business deals- in banking, telecommunications, real estate, and some consulting work. I have enjoyed the time outside the spotlight, focusing on the future, and the communities in which I have lived for 52 years.
JM: Lately, have you been closely following politics?
Foley: Politics is in my blood…. maybe I need a transfusion…but I enjoy the vigorous debate taking place both locally and on the national stage. I am heartened to see the town hall meetings brimming with citizens who are determined to have their opinions counted in the wide-ranging topics from health care, cap and trade, budget deficits. For far too long people have depended on politician for answers, and now we are reclaiming our democracy and demanding elected officials be held accountable.
JM: Recent polls have shown that Americans, as a whole consider themselves as Conservatives. Do you agree with this?
Foley: I believe most people are conservative, especially as it relates to their property, values, and what they see as the future for their families. The disconnect occurs when we allow politicians to treat the national treasury as other people’s money. IT IS OUR money and that is finally sinking in to the national psyche. We can’t spend our way to prosperity and we must start treating government spending as we would our own checkbook.
JM: History has shown us that compromising our principles translates into defeat. Just look back to last year when the party backed a losing cause in the moderate, so called ‘maverick”, John McCain as its presidential candidate. Do you feel that promoting Conservatives principles and ideas are the key to victory in upcoming elections?
Foley: People want to support a cause and an alternative to the status quo; it doesn’t help trying to be a me-too party…trying to be everything to everybody. Independents have long supported our values on gun owner’s rights, property rights, lower taxes and a strong national defense. We lost our way in the last few years when we controlled Congress by spending with reckless abandon in order to insure our continued control of government. We lost our zeal for reform and for fiscal sanity in order to be popular. This is not a popularity contest…tough decisions have to be made or there will be nothing left as a legacy of this great country.
JM: Considering your popularity and extensive support have you thought about getting back into politics? If yes, at what capacity would you get involved and have you thought of running for office again?
Foley: I doubt I will reenter the political arena as an office seeker, but I will use my experience and my voice to help others, to rally for economic sanity, to bring about real reforms on a local, State and even national level. I am always available and have been helping those that offer hope any suggestions I can to insure we have new voices and new enthusiasm for the important jobs of elected officials.
JM: My friend Sid Dinerstein, the Palm Beach GOP ‘Poobah’, has done a great job in promoting the party throughout the county. Are you involved in the local party?
Foley: We are very fortunate in South Florida to have strong County Party operations despite the numerical disadvantage we face in registration, I have always believed that the grass roots efforts of our party are the reasons we won strong victories in Tallahassee and in the 1994 Congressional victories. We are starting to see a dramatic shift in attitudes around the country starting with the Governors election in Virginia, New Jersey and possibly New York with strong republican candidates that if their momentum continues it could be a bellwether for the very important mid-term elections in 2010.
JM: How do you feel about Sarah Palin?
Foley: I like Sarah Palin, she is enormously talented and seriously maligned by the talking heads and the national media. She is refreshing, opinionated and honest. I think she has great potential to help reshape our party and our message. No matter whom McCain selected we were likely to have the same outcome that transpired on November 2008. But the party needed to suffer the defeats that we did in order to change complacency to a renewed sense of urgency in the direction of our country. With the Town Hall meetings, The Tea Party events, and average Americans returning to political involvement, this may be the best time for a new generation of republicans to emerge on stage to lead the party out of the wilderness to a promising new future.
JM: Who do you think are the up and coming superstars of the Republican Party?
Foley: There are many up and comers and current leaders of The party that deserve mention…Jeff Atwater, Mike Haridopolous, Adam Putnam, Paula Dockery, Tom Rooney to name a few…People who have seasoned leadership and a political spine to tackle the tough issues without trying to conduct field polls for every decision.
JM: How do you feel about offshore oil drilling?
Foley: I opposed Off Shore oil drilling during most of my career due to concerns for the environment, but when gas hit record highs and we continue to see unrest in the Middle East, Venezuela, and other global hot spots, we cannot continue to be held hostage to the vagaries of political dictators for the economic realities of oil. WE need to be self-reliant, eliminate the threats of embargoes and get our noses out of global oil politics.
JM: Many Washington, D.C., and around the country, have touted Governor Charlie Crist, the self-proclaimed ‘Moderate”, as being one of the top Republicans in the nation. Considering his recent moves of pandering to the left (Endorsing Obama spending bill, increasing taxes, supporting amnesty for illegal aliens), do you feel the same way about Governor Crist?
Foley: I have enjoyed working with Charlie Crist since we were both elected to the Florida senate in 1992, we were the two new Senators elected that changed the electoral landscape bringing republicans into the majority of the Senate chambers for the first time since reconstruction. And have admired his rise to the Governorship of this great state. He is talented and a force in Florida politics. I have also known Marco Rubio since his first days in the Florida legislature; he is bright, energetic, conservative and articulate. If anyone thinks this election for US Senate is over, then they better pay attention. We are in a very unique time in America’s political life…. There are no sure bets in politics, and money alone is not the key barometer to electability, just ask Democratic moneybags, and key Clinton Confidant Terry McAuliffe who ran and lost the democratic primary in Virginia for Governor.
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September 21st, 2009 at 5:11 pm
The only way that Congress will pass immigration reform, is by–FORCING—it through the House and Senate? There is the gigantic obstacle of public opinion on this conflagration of an issues and it will only be enacted over the dead carcasses of the American culture. We have already seen the utter indifference of our legislators who have trampled on citizens rights to allow millions of cheap foreign labor past our borders and ports of entry. They have spawned awesome lies, to cater to the business world, whose wealthy favors have performed for those in seats of power. In the majority of laws passed by both Democrats and Republicans, the overall authority–THE PEOPLE–have intentionally been left with no redress? This is likely to happen with another path to citizenship, whom by no means deserves such an award. They knew full well the consequences of breaking into another country and should bare the penalty of deportation.
Compassion doesn’t enter the situation, because in most other countries deportation is far from the worst solution that awaits you? We are governed by the “Rule of Law” and without it; we would become just another dictatorship. Last time there was a very lenient AMNESTY, the whole enactment turned into fraudulent pantomime. Our country cannot afford to keep turning a blind eye to the rampant corruption in Washington? This time the American people are fully united in a cause to stop this path to citizenship, because the outcome is exorbitant taxes to support those already here and those who will descend on us afterwards? The conveyor belt must be stopped or our beautiful country will turn into a toilet bowl of poverty stricken foreigners, who do not assimilate and have no intentions of speaking the common language.
In nighttime committees they have secretly under funded the border fence, 287 G, a federal training program to apprehend illegal aliens on the streets and highway by the police. They have all but rescinded the no-match-letter, to disclose illegal immigrants in the factory, office, store or any industry. ICE raids have been smothered by a lady Napolitano with questionable excuses? Then pro-illegal immigration comrades Sen.Harry Reid, Speaker Pelosi tried to restrain E-Verify, the verification identity process available on any computer, but were defeated by the voices of millions of the US population. Both have very low rating in the public domain; both are elected officials of massive illegal families in their home states.
Now in corrupted legislation they want to count the 20 million plus illegal immigrants in the 2010 census, and thereby stealing congressional seats from states with smaller populations who should be receiving the correct slice of federal billion dollar funding. California–the SANCTUARY STATE–should be cut off sharply from any extra money from the government, owing that they genuflected to the foreign invasion and released millions of dollars in citizen welfare, to any body not legally in this country. Some Border States cities are more like third world enclaves, instead of the 1980′s shining metropolises. Our health care has suffered almost irreparable damage from free treatment, our schools and other public services have also been jettisoned to attain more indigent foreign labor.
All the billions spent should have been allocated to repairing our collapsing infrastructure, instead of pandering to the business consortium’s, congregational religion, unions, mega business entities and a nefarious mix of ethnic organizations. Don’t let your politicians of the hook. Contact them at 202-224-3121 and demand–NO MORE– Immigration Reform. Find out who is undermining immigration enforcement laws, and remember to throw them out of office. There is a distinct smell of corruption in the hierarchy on the Potomac that you need to learn about at NUMBERSUSA & JUDICIAL WATCH.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 am
[...] Rush something in common (no, not pills … at least I don’t think so …) Per the PB Post On Politics blog: Javier Manjarres, the head of the Fort Lauderdale-based Conservative Republican Alliance, [...]
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
[...] On his sex scandal: “I am solely responsible for the problems I faced in 2006. I took responsibility, I resigned from the job I loved and a career I had built for 30 years. I did not break any laws; however, I owed my constituents, my colleagues and my family a far better … [...]