Don't call it a comeback, but disgraced Republican instant-message seducer Mark Foley has a tidy $1.2 million to spend on a campaign to take back his congressional seat, as you can see from the FEC filings (oops, link doesn't work but just use the search engine... or trust me). Compare that to the current officeholder, Tom Rooney, who has raised only $22,000 more than he's spent on campaigning.
Foley's treasure chest is misleading, however. The funds are left over from the 2006 Foley reelection campaign that was short-circuited by the page scandal. And, oh yeah, Foley has shown no interest in staging a comeback.
But when last we heard from him, Foley wasn't ruling it out either. In fact, he whipped out a sack (no giggling) of letters from supportive constituents and admitted to missing the pageantry of elections and the satisfaction of public service. And around the seven-minute mark of the video below from WPTV he tells of how, in answer to his prayers, he received a call from some of the most conservative members of Congress telling him he would always be welcome in Washington. To the question of whether he'd ever run again Foley said, "I don't know." Video on the other side of the jump.
Maybe a party-backed Foley candidacy could be a vehicle for Republicans to prove that they've adapted to a new world -- even if they're really just worried about protecting a seat that Democrats are said to be targeting in 2010.
