An interesting article over at The American Spectator verifies what I've been hearing from other sources. Democrat operatives are confirming that the Foley story wasn't supposed to be released until about 10 days before the election - and it was supposed to be the culmination of a series of orchestrated October surprises, rather than the beginning.
What changed? Poll numbers. Republicans were coming back strongly -- Democrat hopes were evaporating. With the new age of media and the Internet, Democrats figure that a poll swing that results from a story like Foley would last about two weeks before voters start paying attention to real issues again - and that's nationally. In individual races, where often local issues are paramount in a non-presidential election year, the swing benefit from such a story might even be shorter (see NYT story later in this post):
"You pull out the bright shiny things that distract the average American voter away from the issues we all know they care about -- national security, anti-terrorism -- and focus on the ugly: Foley and Iraq."
...'Republicans had to have known we'd be looking to change the national debate,' says a House Democrat leadership aide. 'You had our leadership looking at cratering polling numbers. A majority within grasp wasn't drifting away, it was being yanked back by Republicans. I wouldn't be surprised if Foley had to be bumped up on the scandal schedule. That makes a lot of sense given where we were two weeks ago, and where we are now.' "
As much as Katie Couric et al try to keep the Foley fires burning, there is now enough evidence that this was a political stunt -- and that no one out there knows where this is heading. Leaders and operatives from both parties are going to be put under oath by the FBI and the Justice Department in the investigation of a cover-up.
Democrats beware -- there was just too much coordination beween liberal groups like CREW, a fake blog, American Family Voices, David Corn's McCarthyesque "Gay Staffers List", and Nancy Pelosi to be a coincidence. Now that evidence has surfaced that the communicant with Mark Foley of the IMs (not the e-mails, which not even Brian Ross was willing to write about in August) was a legal consenting adult, the story turns into a gay version of the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal. The differences are homosexuality, a page instead of an intern, and there being no physical contact in the Foley story.
The latest twist, that congressional staffers like Kirk Fordham "warned" Hassert's office three years ago about Foley's penchant for young men, lacks any detail about what the warning was, and is contradicted by Fordham's own documented actions regarding the Foley Scandal.
If no evidence that any crime was being committed, what can be done about someone like Foley except what the National Journal is saying happened?:
Foley's friends ruefully speak of knowing that Foley was friendly with congressional pages. One recalls jokingly telling Foley to be careful not to confirm a stereotype about sexual predators. Foley laughed, a friend says.When the Foley story first hit, I was furious. Based on what I was reading and hearing, I thought that Mark Foley was at the very least a sexual predator and a pedophile. Now, even according to Andrew Sullivan, no evidence exists that he is either. Right now I'm glad he's gone (he seems like a time-bomb waiting to explode), and we may still find out that he has committed crimes against young children. But right now this whole thing is looking more and more like a political hit piece designed to surpress the conservative vote. And according to the New York Times, it's not looking as if it's going to work long-term:
...But then, in the fall of 2005, a page sponsored by Rep. Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, complained. After Foley had furtive discussions with House officials, his friends warned him to police himself. And one former Foley staffer recalls asking the lawmaker directly whether there was anything more serious floating around. Foley, according to the former aide, said no.
...Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, last spring promised both Rep. John Shimkus, the chairman of the page board, and a top assistant to Hastert that he would make sure Foley behaved himself. At that time, Fordham was the chief aide to Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Fordham's assurances, according to this account, apparently were enough to persuade Hastert's staff not to recommend further action
...Fordham told ABC News that in 2003 he warned Hastert's powerful chief of staff, Scott Palmer, that he was worried about Foley's penchant for doting on male pages. Palmer, according to Fordham, subsequently notified Hastert. Palmer responded that Fordham's version of events is untrue. And a House leadership aide wondered aloud why Fordham, who professed to be surprised by Foley's conduct on Monday, was saying two days later that he remembered having long-standing anxieties.
But in dozens of interviews here in southeastern Virginia, a conservative Christian stronghold that is a battleground in races for the House and Senate, many said the episode only reinforced their reasons to vote for their two Republican incumbents in neck-and-neck re-election fights, Representative Thelma Drake and Senator George Allen. "This is Foley's lifestyle," said Ron Gwaltney, a home builder, as he waited with his family outside a Christian rock concert last Thursday in Norfolk. "He tried to keep it quiet from his family and his voters. He is responsible for what he did. He is paying a price for what he did. I am not sure how much farther it needs to go."So the ABC News polls out this morning reflect the American public being hit in the face with the Foley Scandal and its spin, and the trickle-down from that. But it reflects national opinion, not local races. The local polling will take a hit as well, but only for as long as local issues (or the War on Terror and Immigration) aren't the focus. The more the Democrats use Foley in their ads and the media obsesses over it, the more of a chance that the Democrats will experience a blow-back from the voters. It sometimes takes a while, but generally voters know when they're being played for fools - and don't appreciate it. This Foley business certainly doesn't help the Republicans, but it's not the fatal blow that is being portrayed in the media, either.
The Democratic Party is "the party that is tolerant of, maybe more so than Republicans, that lifestyle," Mr. Gwaltney said, referring to homosexuality.
Reader Comments ( Page 11 of 12)
151. ITS THE SAME OLD STORY. THE BLAME GAME PLAYED BY THE REPUBLICANS. WHY DONT YOU JUST GET IT RIGHT TO START WITH THEN YOU WOULD NOT HAVE TO BE BLAMING CLINTON FOR ALL YOUR MISTAKES. DID YOU NOT BLAME THIS ON CLINTON?
IF THE WASHINGTON TIMES A REPUBLICAN PAPER HAD THE STORY IN JUNE THEN PRAY GOD HOW DO YOU FIGURE THE DEMOCRATS WERE JUST TRYING TO SMEAR YOU IN OCTOBER?
WHY DONT YOU BLAME THEM? WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE CLINTON, OR THE DEMOCRATS?
ISABELLE PENNINGTON at 1:56PM on Oct 11th 2006
152.
It's a question of standards. One party has them and one doesn't. When these standards are broken, Republicans administer punishment, Democrats deny standards exist and back up "the rights of Dems. private personal lives" to do whatever makes them feel good.
When republicans do something sexually wrong, which may or may not have been technically illegal, they resign or are fired.
When Democrats mouth-bang 21 year-old girls, and cigar them, and are credibly acused of rape and sexual harrassment by past subordinates, they are supported, because of course their personal lives are their own. When Democrat congressmen have gay sex with 17 year-olds, and proudly and defiantly refuse to apologize, they are reelected - like Gerry Studds. Or when they run a gay brothel out of their apartments like Barney frank, that's just fine by Democrat standards, since moral standards don't exist. "Don't force your puritanism on me, you mean ol' Republicans!"
Travis at 2:47PM on Oct 11th 2006
153. THE GOP (GAY OLD PEDOPHILES) REPRESENT THE SO-CALLED "MORAL MAJORITY CHRISTIAN" HYPOCRITES POSING AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST. THEY ARE AS PHONY AS THE WHITE SUPREMIST RACISTS WHO USE THE SAME TERMINOLOGY.
THEIR "FAMILY VALUES" INCLUDE THE KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS, THE LEVELING OF THEIR HOMES AND INFRASTRUCTURE, TORTURE AND REFUSAL OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS, BIGOTRY (IE, GEORGE ALLEN CALLING AN INDIAN-AMERICAN "MUKAKA"), DISSOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUTION,
LYING (ABOUT THE REASONS FOR INVADING IRAQ), STEALING FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS TO GIVE TO THE RICH (BUSH'S TAX CUTS), DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH (IGNORING THE KYOTO PROTOCOL), CRIMINAL USE OF BILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS TO FUND COMPANIES LIKE HALLIBURTON, REFUSAL TO GIVE AID TO IT'S CITIZENS (KATRINA), AIDING AND ABETTING THE 9-11 TERRORISTS SO THEY COULD HAVE THEIR "NEW PEARL HARBOR", THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.
THEIR HATRED AND BILE CANNOT BE ASCRIBED TO GOD OR JESUS, BUT ONLY TO SATAN AND HIS FOLLOWERS WHO DELIGHT IN THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT THESE NEO-CON WIMPS INFLICT - THE BIGGEST BEING GEORGE BUSH.
THE GOP (GAY OLD PEDOPHILES) REPRESENT THE SO-CALLED "MORAL MAJORITY CHRISTIAN" HYPOCRITES POSING AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST. THEY ARE AS PHONY AS THE WHITE SUPREMIST RACISTS WHO USE THE SAME TERMINOLOGY.
THEIR "FAMILY VALUES" INCLUDE THE KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS, THE LEVELING OF THEIR HOMES AND INFRASTRUCTURE, TORTURE AND REFUSAL OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS, BIGOTRY (IE, GEORGE ALLEN CALLING AN INDIAN-AMERICAN "MUKAKA"), DISSOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUTION,
LYING (ABOUT THE REASONS FOR INVADING IRAQ), STEALING FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS TO GIVE TO THE RICH (BUSH'S TAX CUTS), DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH (IGNORING THE KYOTO PROTOCOL), CRIMINAL USE OF BILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS TO FUND COMPANIES LIKE HALLIBURTON, REFUSAL TO GIVE AID TO IT'S CITIZENS (KATRINA), AIDING AND ABETTING THE 9-11 TERRORISTS SO THEY COULD HAVE THEIR "NEW PEARL HARBOR", THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.
THEIR HATRED AND BILE CANNOT BE ASCRIBED TO GOD OR JESUS, BUT ONLY TO SATAN AND HIS FOLLOWERS WHO DELIGHT IN THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT THESE NEO-CON WIMPS INFLICT - THE BIGGEST BEING GEORGE BUSH.
THE GOP (GAY OLD PEDOPHILES) REPRESENT THE SO-CALLED "MORAL MAJORITY CHRISTIAN" HYPOCRITES POSING AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST. THEY ARE AS PHONY AS THE WHITE SUPREMIST RACISTS WHO USE THE SAME TERMINOLOGY".
THEIR "FAMILY VALUES" INCLUDE THE KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS, THE LEVELING OF THEIR HOMES AND INFRASTRUCTURE, TORTURE AND REFUSAL OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS, BIGOTRY (IE, GEORGE ALLEN CALLING AN INDIAN-AMERICAN "MUKAKA"), DISSOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUTION,
LYING (ABOUT THE REASONS FOR INVADING IRAQ), STEALING FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS TO GIVE TO THE RICH (BUSH'S TAX CUTS), DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH (IGNORING THE KYOTO PROTOCOL), CRIMINAL USE OF BILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS TO FUND COMPANIES LIKE HALLIBURTON, REFUSAL TO GIVE AID TO IT'S CITIZENS (KATRINA), AIDING AND ABETTING THE 9-11 TERRORISTS SO THEY COULD HAVE THEIR "NEW PEARL HARBOR", THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.
THEIR HATRED AND BILE CANNOT BE ASCRIBED TO GOD OR JESUS, BUT ONLY TO SATAN AND HIS FOLLOWERS WHO DELIGHT IN THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT THESE NEO-CON WIMPS INFLICT - THE BIGGEST BEING GEORGE BUSH.
MARK MUKKAKA at 3:35PM on Oct 11th 2006
154. The biggest problem with all of this, is that Republicans DID know that something inappropriate had been going on-they've admitted it. For some reason, however, it's more important for those that had prior knowledge to blame the 'exposure' on Democrats as a political ploy, instead of examining the fact that they KNEW, and did nothing. Quite frankly, I find that disgusting.
It is such hypocrisy. Protect yourselves and your political party before protecting young adults placed in your care. Nice.
Gee whiz, this nonsense blaming reminds me of the line that is always said by the bad guy at the end of a Scooby-Doo cartoon: 'I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those pesky teenagers.'
Jamie at 6:50PM on Oct 11th 2006
155. Jim Johnson, you must get your facts straight. Do you even know what a 'pedophile' is? Apparently not. Yes, if Monica Lewinsky were an adult and asked an adolescent Bill Clinton if he wore boxer-and then showed him her thong by pulling up her dress, then yes, I would consider her a pedophile. However, in light of the fact that she was a 21 year old woman enticing a middle-aged man, then no, we wouldn't call her a pedophile.
It's Studds, not Stubbs, and had he been caught in 2006 vice 1973 when he was, I imagine his life in politics would have been considerable short. Keep in mind that in 1973, just about everything regarding child sexual abuse was taboo-it didn't happen, at least not that people wanted to admit.
Have Democrats made mistakes? Of course, but by the mere fact that some Republicans have resigned office doesn't excuse their behavior, nor give anybody a reason to cover up for them. You can't take back what happened and cover it up, despite the GOP's effort to do so.
Jamie at 7:15PM on Oct 11th 2006
156. Wow the ethics committy is doing a great job, wait, no hastert testimony something sounds fishy.
Do you really think the ethics commity is going to hang one of their boys...right. This is just proof of how your government works...lie.lie.lie...cover up lie.
Now that Hastert has full support of el presidenta do you really think the truth will see the light of day...are you that stupid.
Rick at 11:22AM on Oct 12th 2006
157. I am truly concerned about this Foley situation. It causes me to be more fearful of the people my children are surrounded by. As a christian and hearing so many Republicans speak of christianity, I wonder if they realize there is more to look at as it relates to our children. We need to see how children see us as role models for faith. Additionally, Foley headed up an area that was supposed to protect children. One wonders if there are links to protecting sexual predators and this situation may end up revealing more than Foley's bad deeds.
mom of two at 2:25PM on Oct 12th 2006
158. What really pisses me off as a Gay (young adult) is the fact that Foley is Gay. Besides for the obvious reason, that he is a republican (CAUSE THAT I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND ALONG WITH THE LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS) I am upset cause this scandal somewhat proves the "IMORRAL" party's theory that all gays are rapist and "oh we can't let them adopot because of what they will do to the kids" and "you can't let them get married". This idiot Foley is a disgrace not only to gays but to his immoral party. THAN K OU though Foley for this cause now we as DEMS have a better chance of taking control and changing things in DC and lastly holding what some call the President (to me he is not one and if that is what a president is GOD help us)accountable for all the bullshit he has put us through. OUR country is hated because of him and thousands of our troops have died because of him. bastard. JUST LIKE YOU DADDY. "HE TRIED TO KILL MY DADDY" -bush during a speech about why he hates SADDAM
HEY at least you dad knew when the hell to get out of there. Maybe you should take some advice. Oh and fire your whole staff. They are a disgrace Maybe RICE needs some MEDs that let you remember when someone tlls you something very important like "OSAMA BIN LADIN DETERMINED TO ATTack>
Gio at 7:26PM on Oct 13th 2006
159. Its nice to know that Congressman Shay would protect Congressman Hastert who would protect Congressman Foley so he could continue to victimize our children. Birds of A Feather, Flock Together....so whats new?
There is likely some congressional democrats involved in the same or similar activities, but even so it doesn't earn a free page pass. This includes aiding & abetting. These positions are public trust. Mr Shay, Mr. Hastert, and Mr. Foley and anyone else who would protect these individuals who pray upon children or help those that do, I can only say one thing...Bye. I hope they will look to other congressional pages (past & present) to screen them across the board without regard to political affiliations, and dismiss those people responsible for the Page Program who failed in their job. No excuses. All Page correspomdance needs to be through a central server open to those folks from preverted justice. Call Chris Hansen from Dateline. Plant some Pages every now and again to keep people honest.
Mr. Shay, I did not and would never vote for Mr. Kennedy. I have not ever shook his hand, agreed to sit in a room he was sitting, or spoke to him. All these things you sir have apparently done. Now look what you have done?
/s/ A Republican
Sid Busick at 6:59PM on Oct 13th 2006
160. This guy gives a bad name to all alchoholics in the nation. What does alchohol got to do with
pedophiling children????
bryan choi at 9:45PM on Oct 13th 2006
161. Mark Foley......who cares!!!
There are more important things to be concerned about in this country. The media is having a field day with this. In my opinion the media is what's ruining this country, not politics.
Tom Ribaudo at 1:54PM on Oct 15th 2006
162. Maybe the North Korean nuke test was a secret republican plot to distract attention from the Foley scandal.
John at 7:28PM on Oct 15th 2006
163. Wow, Republicans complaining of dirty campaign tricks. That's really quite ironic.
Even if it were true that Democrats held the information, and that evidence is extremely weak, the Democrats' behavior would make them look like choir boys compared to the Grand Old Party of October Surprises.
Jay at 2:37PM on Oct 17th 2006
164. tony you need to go to the blog about Beware Moral Outrage Ahead and read what Doc Castellano wrote. Judging from the comments he has done a bit of investigating on the Republican pervs in Washington
PamSimmonsl at 5:35PM on Oct 18th 2006
165. This is just a mess!Castrate Foley, Impeach Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. An considering the track record for texans for getting elected, I'm voting for Kinkey Friedman for governor. Like he says how hard can it be?
PamSimmons at 6:02PM on Oct 18th 2006