“‘Voters are tying both of these scandals together,’ said Paul A. Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists, a lobbyist trade group in the capital. ‘First with Abramoff and now with Foley, corruption has risen to play a big role in this election. It disappoints me, but it’s happening.'” It disappoints you? As the lobbyists lament, it appears Foleygate has brought ethics in government back into focus as a central 2006 campaign issue, despite the GOP’s earlier banking on Casino Jack fading from memory. And, worse still for the Republicans, it seems the so-called “values vote” won’t save them this time ’round.
Category: Election 2006
And I feel fine.
One small piece of consolation in this increasingly dark, troubled world: A new post-Foley Gallup poll puts the GOP in an absolute freefall: “Democrats had a 23-point lead over Republicans in every group of people questioned — likely voters, registered voters and adults — on which party’s House candidate would get their vote. That’s double the lead Republicans had a month before they seized control of Congress in 1994 and the Democrats’ largest advantage among registered voters since 1978.” Moreover, two other polls by CBS News/New York Times and ABC News/Washington Post confirm that an electoral rout may now be in the making.
Elephant’s End.
“Every revolution begins with the power of an idea and ends when clinging to power is the only idea left. The epitaph for the movement that started when Newt Gingrich and his forces rose from the back bench of the House chamber in 1994 may well have been written last week in the same medium that incubated it: talk radio.” As Foleygate continues to conflagrate and the FBI looks for answers, a TIME cover story wonders if the Republican Revolution of 1994 is dead. Yep.
Foley Reverberates.
“The social conservatives are frustrated with what’s going on…We have heard disappointment and disenchantment. The level of commitment isn’t as fierce as it ought to be.” Another Foleygate update: As another GOP staffer backs up Kirk Fordham’s account of telling Hastert about Foley in 2003, the NYT reports that the scandal has put at least five more GOP House seats in play, and gay Republicans begin to fear they’ll end up the scapegoats of it all. “I’m just waiting for someone in a position of authority to make this a gay issue.” Update: With new revelations from Representive Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), the Foley-clock moves back to 2000.
More Foley Follies.
“The fact is, even prior to the existence of the Foley e-mail exchanges, I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest levels of the House of Representatives, asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley’s inappropriate behavior.” Foleygate update: Any hope of the GOP leadership coasting through the ugliness likely ended yesterday when Foley’s former Chief of Staff Kirk Fordham announced he told them about Foley in 2003. Now, with the House Ethics Committee grinding into action, Dennis Hastert says sorry, but I’m not going anywhere. Well, Mr. Speaker, I get the sense the decision may soon be out of your hands.
The GOP lose their Will.
“If, after the Foley episode — a maraschino cherry atop the Democrats’ delectable sundae of Republican miseries — the Democrats cannot gain 13 seats, they should go into another line of work.” In the face of Foleygate, conservative columnist George Will concedes the midterm elections.
Propaganda, all is phony.
Iraq, Abramoff, torture, wiretapping, energy, the economy, Delay, Foley…In a perfect world, of course, the GOP would be dead in the water right now. But, as Bob Dylan famously noted, money doesn’t talk, it swears. And, with a month to go before the election, the GOP are rolling out their dough machine, and the loot is awash over everything. Some system.
Foley and the Fall.
More Foleygate fallout: As the representative in question heads to rehab for alcoholism (I always thought alcoholism meant you drank too much…never knew about the whole IM’ing underage folks about their masturbation habits part of it), the House GOP leaders’ story keeps changing about what they knew and when they knew it (apparently, warning signs of Foley’s shadiness go back to 2001), and the Republicans as a whole wonder if this might be the straw that broke their electoral back… Update: As Foley’s story continues to get creepier, his attorney adds childhood abuse by a Catholic clergyman to the explanatory alcoholism. Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion?
Foley’s Tomfoolery.
The GOP’s annus horribilis continues: Another once-safe House seat comes into play as Florida Republican Mark Foley abruptly resigns in the wake of a growing scandal involving inappropriate (or “sick sick sick“) e-mails sent to a 16-year-old page. “Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.” Foley was the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
The United States of Torture.
“We don’t blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans have made it clear that they’ll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration. They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.” Abu Ghraib becomes standard operating procedure as Dubya’s terror bill — horrifying as it is — passes the House 253-168 (roll call) and the Senate 65-34 (roll call.) Twelve Senate Dems (well, eleven Senate Dems and Lieberman) voted for the bill: Carper, Johnson, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Menendez, Nelson, Nelson, Pryor, Rockefeller, Salazar, Stabenow. Chafee was the only Republican to vote against it, Snowe abstained.
Shameful, pitiful, demoralizing, pathetic. What else is there to say? As Rebecca Blood sums it up (via Medley): “We have lost the war on torture. It’s devastating.“