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 En Flagrante Deliscioso
Bad week for Republicans. On Wednesday, Rep. Mark Foley (R-FLA) got caught stalking a congressional page by email. Foley’s campaign called the emails “a political stunt,” but on Thursday, news of his who’s-your-daddy text messages to other cute young pages surfaced, and it was all over but the resigning. Nasty boy. Naturally, he denied it at first, but by the end of the day he surrendered his seat in Congress (decidedly not to spend more time with his family), leaving his constituents, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and the rest of FL16 without proper representation in Washington.
What’s the Christian right going to think? Well, since Foley was the right’s favorite confirmed bachelor, what did they think? Not much. They cheered for him when he tried to shut down a Palm Peach nudist resort, and they counted on him as a reliable vote for the Christian right agenda. The Neddites only vilify gays who want a seat at the table. Those who are comfortably discreet, in the words of Blackjack Bill Bennett are, “Tolerated, not accepted.”
Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) knew about Foley’s young-stuff proclivities, as did Speaker Denny Hastert. Yet they not only ignored it, they allowed him to chair the House caucus on missing and exploited children. Foley, acting out of apparent personal expertise, wrote the sexual-predator provisions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. So yes, the inmates are running the asylum.
Foley earned his wings as a loyal foot soldier in George Bush’s America – he was instrumental in stealing the election for Bush-Cheney in Palm Beach County in 2000, has been an avid supporter of the war in Iraq, illegal wiretaps, torture galore, and anything else George Bush could throw at him. But now he’s gone, and with any luck will be hoisted by his own petard and prosecuted for cyber-diddling.
The political question is not whether this will hurt the Republicans; in the big picture, it’s small beer, but contributes to the week’s aggregate damage, which adds up to a solid block of bad press. The real upshot for Democrats is that since Foley’s the Republican nominee in his district, Democrats now need only 14 seats now to regain control of the House. Unless Ann and Rush want to send Foley back to Washington, rather than the Democrat, Tim Mahoney, which is entirely possible.
Earlier in the week, news of an investigation into the Republican candidate for NY State Att’y Gen’l Jeanine Pirro was leaked. It seems she asked felon Bernie Kerick to bug her “family yacht” (you have one of those, don’t you?) so that she could ascertain if her ex-con husband Albert Pirro was up to his old tricks of siring children out of wedlock. Or at least going through the motions.
“What am I supposed to do, Bernie,” she’s on tape asking Kerick. ”Stand by and watch him fuck her?” Oh, those lawyers and their rhetorical questions.
The Republicans started the week with the revelations that RNC Chairman Ken “Brokeback” Mehlman is neck-deep in the Jack Abramoff fiasco. Abramoff referred to Mehlman as a “rock star” – someone who could get anything done, including withholding an endorsement from a Republican candidate for governor of the Marianas Islands who was opposed to the sweat shops and child labor camps that pump out “Made in America” clothing for Abramoff’s clients. He also got Mehlman to deep-six a public servant at the US State Department for the same reason. Orthodox Jack had some very unorthodox business arrangements. And some shady friends, too.
~Jack McEnany
Also see: Perfect Sturm
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