Still wouldn't surprise me if before this one was over it's the Democrats that are successfully painted as the root cause of the entire affair. The public is trained to believe the worst about Dems, especially as it relates to sex, and to giving Repubs the benefit of the doubt. Also, Republicans are the paymasters so the MSM ticks them off at their own peril.
Posted by steve duncan at October 5, 2006 05:58 AMHey - I'm wrong seven days a week.
But this is such a nice thing to be wrong about, paradox.
Posted by idiosynchronic at October 5, 2006 06:10 AMUnlike Hitler in his bunker, and bush in his bubble, it takes a real man of integrity to admit he was wrrrr, wrrrr, wrrrr, you know what I'm trying to say.
Did anyone else watch "Capitol Crimes" K street expose by Bill Moyers on PBS last night? Judith and I had to take a shower after that one.
Posted by TIKI AL at October 5, 2006 06:31 AMHere is the "scandal" through Rove's eyes: Woodward's book shoved off front page, Condi's lies shoved off front page, questions about Bush 9/11 knowledge shoved off front page, NIE report shoved off front page, BIll Clinton's attack on BushCo shoved off front page, Iraq GI deaths shoved off front page, GOP bomb-waiting-to-explode Foley dumped, gay House aide dumped, DeLay cronie about to be named Speaker, Evil Gay behavior on the front page. All in all, not so bad.
Posted by T2 at October 5, 2006 06:32 AMJudith and I had to take a shower after that one.
Do tell!
Posted by snark at October 5, 2006 06:41 AMBTW, now that the roach named Paul Weyrich has surfaced in Foleygate, he was on NPR yesteday stating that it is a well known fact that having sex was all gays were concerned with. The reporter, seemingly shocked, asked if he was serious and he said sure, its a well know fact. These, folks, are the sicko's currently running our government.
Posted by T2 at October 5, 2006 06:47 AMah, the joys of being wrong...
You were just saying what a lot of us were trying not to feel. It has been a very long seige and there's a fatigue with that that weighs heavily on a soul. I'm no optimist myself, but I've got a hunch that we're going to have to change hats pretty soon and have to start figuring out what to about this unholy mess, rather than just sitting around night after night exposing it.
Thanks for all your good work...
Posted by Mickey at October 5, 2006 06:51 AMStill wouldn't surprise me if before this one was over it's the Democrats that are successfully painted as the root cause of the entire affair.
Only if you let it.
Jesus, when did this battered spouse-like thinking become so prevalent?
Posted by Richard Bottoms at October 5, 2006 07:15 AMSee, paradox: Karl Rove set you up!
Posted by dj moonbat at October 5, 2006 07:39 AMHere is the "scandal" through Rove's eyes: Woodward's book shoved off front page
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], Condi's lies shoved off front page [And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], questions about Bush 9/11 knowledge shoved off front page
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], NIE report shoved off front page
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], BIll Clinton's attack on BushCo shoved off front page
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], Iraq GI deaths shoved off front page
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], GOP bomb-waiting-to-explode Foley dumped
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], gay House aide dumped
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], DeLay cronie about to be named Speaker
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!], Evil Gay behavior on the front page
[And a GOP House Leadership covering for pedophiles!]. All in all, not so bad.
Are there silver linings in this cloud for the GOP? Sure, I guess. But if you really, really think that Karl—or any serious GOP partisan—thinks this is a beneficial development, you've really let their propaganda live in your head.
This event is going to push some serious, serious Bush misdeeds off Page One for a while. But (a) nobody was paying enough attention to those misdeeds in the past and there's no reason to think they were about to start just in time for the election; (b) Bush isn't up for reelection right now—Congress is, and this scandal is a congressional scandal.
Not everything is a GOP conspiracy, T2. They're working on it, but they're not there yet.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 5, 2006 07:47 AMDJ, I'm not thinking Karl devised the Foleygate debacle, merely that the mass of of GOP failure is such that every new Mess clears the old messes off the radar screen. So a silver lining is created, if only by accident. Maybe everything isn't a planned conspiracy by the Rove group, but bare-knuckled politics is at the core of every action they dream up, and no one is quicker to take political advantage than someone with no conscience like Rove. For example, the planting in every cable news program a sentence suggesting the Dems should slack off Foleygate or risk backlash....yeah, I call conspiracy on that one, maybe you'd call it a coincidence.
Posted by T2 at October 5, 2006 08:34 AMBTW, now that the roach named Paul Weyrich has surfaced in Foleygate, he was on NPR yesteday stating that it is a well known fact that having sex was all gays were concerned with.
I think Steve Chapman's take on it is probably a wee bit more accurate:
Political sex scandals come in all varieties. Some involve Democrats, and some implicate Republicans. Though most feature consenting adults, the exploitation of minors is not unknown. Neither heterosexuals nor homosexuals are immune. Virtually all these episodes, however, have one thing in common: The politician is a man.
Posted by ann at October 5, 2006 08:35 AMthe planting in every cable news program a sentence suggesting the Dems should slack off Foleygate or risk backlash....yeah, I call conspiracy on that one, maybe you'd call it a coincidence.
Yeah, that one's planned, and it's an indicator that Silver Linings or no, they really wish this thing would've blown over.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 5, 2006 08:36 AMI had thought your assessment was unusually pessimistic but in keeping with our "reality-based" world you were able to accept new data.
What I didn't like was the NPR interview I heard this morning with their anecdotal interview of 14 "rural values voters" that said that this is not having an impact on their voting. NPR said that this anecdotal, non-scientific survey was mirroring the information in PEW survey due out later today. Does NPR get advanced notice of PEW content? How did they know?
I think this scandal is unlikely to result in (m)any votes switching into the D column. But I'll bet it knocks quite a few votes out of the R column. This kind of thing is likely to be very demotivating for the Values (and we all know what that means...) folks.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 5, 2006 08:50 AMDJ, agreed. I'm sure the GOP would like Foleygate to stop at noon EST today. And I'm VERY sure they wish it would have never seen the light of day, as evidenced by all their efforts to conceal it.
Posted by T2 at October 5, 2006 08:59 AMbush actually said "we should challenge mediocrity" while touting his "no child from behind" policy from an elementary school this morning.
I caught myself out of habit looking out the window for low flying planes.
snark: I knew that shower crack would get a rise out of you.
Posted by TIKI AL at October 5, 2006 09:04 AMsnark: I knew that shower crack would get a rise out of you.
You're not a 17 year old Congressional page are you?
Cause if you are I was simply being friendly.
Posted by snark at October 5, 2006 09:21 AMWhen I was 17 I was "dating" my 22 year old high school teacher. Back then they didn't put them in jail, they got xtra credit for sex education.
Posted by TIKI AL at October 5, 2006 09:42 AMOn the plus side, our loyal trolls have sure clammed up haven't they?
Posted by cheSF at October 5, 2006 09:42 AMThis scandal is the gift that keeps on giving. The Republican House of Cards is coming down.
Posted by NorCalRINO at October 5, 2006 09:54 AMTIKI AL,
That activity would have resulted in your teacher losing their job and possibly their credential to teach, depending on which state and which community within the state you live. It's like here in the Sacramento area. A high school staff member has been suspended (fired) and arrested for sleeping with several seventeen year old boys. Under "Jessica's Law," she will now become a registered sex offender as if those boys did not know exactly what they were getting. Boys cannot give sexual consent in CA until age 18.
By contrast, in D.C. you are sexually an adult at age 16, so Foley was not breaking any local laws with his emails and IMs. The real scandal is still the coverup and not the "crime."
Posted by NorCalRINO at October 5, 2006 10:04 AMJudith and I had to take a shower after that one.
Be careful! Her El Salvadoran pool boy, Pablito, is the jealous type.
so Foley was not breaking any local laws with his emails and IMs.
Doesn't matter. He broke Federal law, and many of the IMs came from Florida.
Posted by phidipides at October 5, 2006 10:19 AMAs to Foley's CRIME-remember that prosecutors are very creative.
Federal Laws and State Laws figure into this and no one can figure how the Law will play out until charges are filed.
Soliciting a minor for sex has been suggested.
The politics of Foley/Boy: Whether Hastert stays or goes, in the next 5 weeks Democrats have one more face for ads-GOPer pictured with Bush and GOPer pictured with Hastert.
Foley-3200 stories on Google News in 7 days-and more to come.
I'm not being a troll, but I wish that the Democrats should be really really careful aboutthis Foley thing because it has the ability to blow up in their faces.
So far we have what appears to be a classic scandal: Attempted pedophilia, a cover up. Then we all thunder about how bad the republicans are.
Now what if the Republicans have a great big bucket of Sh!t that they have ready and waiting to pour over a Democrat? We have all been drawn out inot the open, thundering about morality and hypocrisy. But if the republicans drop this (imaginary) bucket, we all get covered with it!
That is my concern. How "pure" are the Democrats? I'm not talking about being closet gays or something, we had better be 100% sure that no democrat has been chasing (let alone catching) pages.
Stick to the main message and let the fringe get shrill about Foley and Hastert.
Posted by Walrus at October 5, 2006 01:46 PMI think every blog needs at least one "Dewey Defeats Truman" post :)
Posted by Killjoy at October 5, 2006 05:14 PMNor Cal: Milwaukee. The nice thing about being an agnostic hedonist is that you can sleep with your teacher and enjoy every glorious minute of it without any guilt whatsoever.
Because she didn't want to be a bad influence, afterwards I was offered chocolate instead of a cigarette.
phid: Think Pablito is behind the threatening Spanish IMs?
Posted by TIKI AL at October 5, 2006 06:58 PM