The Congressional Page Program -- which has been around for more than 150 years -- was overhauled and a board was created to monitor it. A dormitory for pages was created near the Capitol.

It's telling that right wing defenders of the disgraced pedophile

And it was 1983 not 1973

in Studds's case, a 1973 relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page.

the admitted pedophile

And it was 1983 not 1973

in Studds's case, a 1973 relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page.

the admitted pedophile

I was pointing out the Dems hypocrisy which began in 1983 when they merely censured a fellow member for pedophilia. I think the age disparity is of marginal importance. It is the power that each Congressman exerted over their victims. And maybe it is a little more important that Stubbs admitted to having sex with a page, while the other did not.

In 1983, two congressmen, Reps. Gerry E. Studds and Daniel B. Crane, were caught having sexual relationships with pages -- Studds with a male page and Crane with a female page. Studds, a Democrat, would go on to be re-elected in his Massachusetts district and served until his 1996 retirement, while Crane, a Republican, would lose his Illinois seat to the scandal.

FLORIDA The age of sexual consent is 16 for adults who are under 24 years of age, or if the adult that is 24 years of age or older is married to the minor.
VIRGINIA A person 18 and older having sex with a 13- or 14-year-old faces a felony charge, which carries a punishment of two to 10 years in prison and up to a $100,000 fine. A person 18 and older having sex with someone age 15, 16 or 17 faces a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

In contrast to the generally accepted medical definition, the term pedophile is also used colloquially to denote significantly older adults who are sexually attracted to adolescents below the local age of consent[1], as well as those who have sexually abused a child.

A Florida law makes it a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, to transmit "material harmful to minors by electronic device." The law defines the material broadly to include descriptions of "nudity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement." There is an exception for materials with serious literary, artistic, scientific and political value. The e-mail messages disclosed to date appear to fail that test, though they may have serious political value in a different sense.

I'll give you that. Yet a minor is still a minor.

In contrast to the generally accepted medical definition, the term pedophile is also used colloquially to denote significantly older adults who are sexually attracted to adolescents below the local age of consent[1], as well as those who have sexually abused a child.

On Friday afternoon, a strategist for Rep. Mark Foley tried to cut a deal with ABC's Brian Ross.
The correspondent, who had dozens of instant messages that Foley sent to teenage House pages, had asked to interview the Florida Republican. [Congressman Reynolds' own chief of staff (and former Foley chief of staff), Kirk Fordham] said the congressman was quitting and that Ross could have that information exclusively if he agreed not to publish the raw, sexually explicit messages.
"I said we're not making any deals," Ross recalls.