State representative Bob Allen of Florida (R - Merrit Island) was arrested yesterday by an undercover officer for soliciting oral sex in a public restroom at a Brevard County park. There are conflicting reports about how it went down, but investigators claim that they were initially tipped off by his suspicious behavior: repeatedly entering and exiting the restroom. What's been especially, and comically, unclear until now is whether Bob Allen offered to pay the officer $20 in order to perform said act, or whether he offered to perform the act for $20.

Police revealed new details about Allen's arrest on Thursday. His arrest affidavit says Allen followed the male undercover officer into the men's restroom and then, after talking to him from over the stall door, Allen stepped into the officers stall with him and stood against the door.

According to the report, Allen asked the officer, "This is kind of a public place isn't it?" The officer replied, "Do you have somewhere else we can go?" Allen then responded, "How about across the bridge? It's quiet over there."

The conversation continued and, police said, Allen told the officer he wanted the undercover officer to ride with him to the wildlife refuge and Allen would give him the $20 and perform the sexual act on the officer there.

The money was never exchanged because, as soon as they left the bathroom, the lawmaker was arrested.

Ironically, Bob Allen sponsored a failed Florida bill that would dramatically expand what constitutes a felony lewd public sex act to include images and video of voluntary exposure online. Also, Bob Allen is the chair of John McCain's presidential campaign in Florida which may be especially disconcerting for McCain since he has recently blamed his campaign woes on the "gay sweaters" he was forced to wear by his staff. (Personally, I thought they were a nice touch.)

This is the third in a weekly series of articles, written by John Javna, that will appear on BlogPAC.org, recognizing unsung heroes of the progressive movement -- ordinary people who are working tirelessly to make America a better place. If you have suggestions about people who deserve more recognition for their work as progressive activists, please contact us at fighttheright@opendoor.com.

A brief interlude: We need to support our own in the netroots. We have to ensure that the next hero knows we'll have their back if what happened to Lane happens to them. Lane was the first BlogPac Hero to receive a monetary reward. When Lane was blacklisted, BlogPac stepped in to make help him keep his apartment, pay for groceries and, in general, sustain him until he could find another job. To help defray BlogPac's expense and to ensure we can continue to do this for future heroes, please consider donating here.

BLOGPAC NETROOTS HERO #3: LANE HUDSON

Ever wish you could single-handedly deliver a knockout blow to the right-wing, like a political Rocky?

For most of us, it's just a fantasy... but every once in a while, it actually happens. It did to Lane Hudson. Armed with only a computer and a nugget of information, he was able to turn the 2006 elections upside down... and give the Democrats the weapon they needed to take Congress.

His reward? Well unfortunately, as you may have heard, "No good deed goes unpunished."

Here's the story:

This is fairly important.  Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that goes WAY out on a limb to pursue corruption and ethical problems in DC, has been vindicated in a big way.  Here's the backstory.  Prior to the Mark Foley scandal, CREW, which had copies of the scandalous emails, forwarded them to the FBI, which did nothing.  When the scandal finally broke, the FBI first claimed that CREW had redacted the emails, and that the FBI sought further information from CREW to no avail.

The Inspector General today released a report showing that neither of these claims were true.  Now, to give you a sense of how aggressive Melanie Sloan and Naomi Seligman are, they were accused of lying by the FBI during a really heated political campaign even as they were being smeared by the right for acting appropriately in the biggest political scandal of the year.  That's pressure.

If only all progressive groups acted this way.  I've had my disagreements with CREW.  I think their strategy is too focused on ethical guidelines without looking at structural solutions, and I think they bend over backwards to go after Democrats, even when it's not entirely warranted.  But standing up to the FBI is a big deal, and I don't know many progressive groups who could or would do this without turning into a puddle of equivocation and caving shortly thereafter.

UPDATE: I really like this comment from wingnut Dan Riehl:

They must be genuine moonbats at CREW to believe they are going to get into a he said, she said with the FBI and come away a winner.

An interesting article in the Sharon (PA) Herald refers to the web site recently funded by Steve Porter, who unsuccessfully challenged the morally challenged Phil English in the PA-3 Congressional election last month.
http://www.sharon-herald.com/cnhi/sharon herald/homepage/local_story_352220407.ht ml?keyword=leadpicturestory
The web site can be found at http://www.dumpphilenglish.com/

The site succeeds where the Northwestern PA media has largely failed: in pointing out English's persistent failure to effectively represent this district, by repeatedly supporting the Bush anti-worker agenda has crippled this economically depressed district.

Phil's transgressions, which are detailed on the site, include his fifth rank in all of Congress in the acceptance of privately funded travel, totaling $181,000.  This included a trip to Saipan, an American territory described as a cesspool of prostitution, abortion, and textile sweatshops by Connie Chung in a May 1999 20/20 episode with Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.  It seems that Mr. English is ardently anti-abortion, unless that abortion is forced on a Saipan sweatshop worker.  

Reprinted from The Satirical Political Report http://satiricalpolitical.com

And you thought Lou Reed had captured real debauchery:

Mark Foley came from Miami, F.L.A.
"Pork-barreled" his way across the USA
E-mailed some pages on the way
Sought teenage sex and then he was an "ex"
He says, Hey son
Take a walk on the wild side
Said, Hey Junior
Take a walk on the wild side

Abramoff came, from, the Reservation
In the backroom, backstabbing Choctaw Nation
But he never lost his head
Even when, busted by the feds
He says, Hey Congress
Take a walk on the perp side
Said, Hey Ney
Take a walk on the perp side
And the Black Caucus goes
doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo doo doo ...

CONTINUED at: http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=443

It's already fairly clear that House Republican leadership and top aides knew about and covered up for Mark Foley's inappropriate advances towards underage pages -- and as much, and perhaps more, will likely be confirmed whenever the ethics panel finally releases its report (after election day, of course). But now, in a rather important scoop, Ben Smith of the New York Daily News reports that one of the top House Republican spinmeisters went to work to try to defuse the Foley story before it was broken by ABC News.

Two senior aides to National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds participated in "damage control" conference calls concerning correspondence between Congressman Mark Foley and a former congressional page -- two days before the scandal became public, and earlier than previously reported.

NRCC Communications Director Carl Forti and Reynolds then chief-of-staff Kirk Fordham both took part in the first call the evening of Wednesday, September 27, and one call the next day, Forti and other sources familiar with the call confirmed. Forti's involvement and the NRCC's role in the run-up to the Foley scandal add another link between the disgraced former congressman and Reynolds, who has said he knew only indirectly of questionable emails, and that he reported them to his House superiors. They also reflect another moment at which House GOP leadership was aware of concerns about Foley and pages.

[...]

The conference call, described by a Hill staffer familiar with its contents as focused on "damage control," also included Foley's Florida-based political consultant, Richard Johnston, and his communications director, Jason Kello, according to two people familiar with the call. The participants were unaware of the explicit instant messages that would force Foley's resignation two days later.

Foley's aides were "seeking [Forti's] advice and keeping him abreast of" the ABCNews inquiry, said the Hill staffer.

This story puts more culpability on Reynolds than was previously there. Whereas before this development Reynolds may have been able to brush off allegations about the complicity of his office in the cover-up by blaming a rogue staffer who had previously worked for Foley, now a second of his closest aides, the communications director and chief spokesman for him at the NRCC, is directly implicated in the cover-up, indicating a pattern rather than an aberration.

There is now even less doubt that Republican leadership in the House actively participated in keeping information about Mark Foley's actions away from both the press and the American people -- a cover-up if there ever was one. For Reynolds, a continuation of the Foley scandal with particular focus on his actions and the actions of his staff can only serve to dampen his hopes at reelection this year. Likewise, for the House Republican caucus as a whole, another round of rehashing their role and seeming complicity in defending Foley from due scrutiny makes it that much more difficult to fire up what by most indications remains a depressed party base.

Just saw on Breaking blue that Melissa Hart (R-PA) is in a tightening race.

She is also a member of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, aka the Ethics Committee.

This diary speculates on what that could mean for the Foleygate investigation underway by the committee.

Fresh of off polling showing Speaker Denny Hastert barely cracking 50 percent in Illinois 14, Hastert's Democratic challenger John Laesch is going on the air with a powerful ad using the words of NRCC chairman Tom Reynolds to place blame on the Speaker for failing to act in the Mark Foley scandal.

The production quality isn't perfect, and it shouldn't be expected to be given the modest level of fundraising success achieved thus far by the Laesch campaign (though it should be noted that the flow of money has picked up in recent weeks, particularly through ActBlue). Yet the ad does make a strong argument -- using words from this ad from Reynolds -- that Hastert knew about Mark Foley but simply failed to act on it.

So while most Congress-watchers are still overlooking the race in Illinois 16, if Laesch is able to get this ad, and perhaps some others, on the air and keep it there from now until election day, polling on Hastert indicates that this might -- might -- be a race the Democrats can sneak away with come November 7.