NETWATCH . . .DE-FOLEY-ATING

Poor Tom Foley. The House Speaker, now badly trailing a neophyte G.O.P. challenger in his Washington State district after 30 years in office, is being attacked in cyberspace too. "De-Foley-ate," a Perot-like grass-roots campaign, is seeding the Internet's popular USENET newsgroups with electronic press releases that urge Spokane-area voters to make Foley the first sitting Speaker in 134 years to be dumped. The group claims it's raised more than $10,000, most of it through Net users across the country since it began online appeals Sept. 28. One tactic: reprinting testimonials from already hooked fish: "I am not rich, and I gave what I could," wrote one E-donor. "However if Foley is not defeated (and others like him), I will be even poorer." Organizer Mary Hartman of Spokane told TIME Daily that her husband Richard, an engineer by day, was drafted into the political fray by angry voters he encountered while cruising USENET. What kicked off the reaction? Foley irked conservatives twice t