The Foley Mess

The Foley scandal is probably going to kill the GOP's chances of retaining the House. That's just a guess on my part, but the GOP base isn't going to feel too ready to run out to the polls anyway, and this certainly doesn't help.

Forgetting the political issues for a second, let's consider something important here. Basically, we have a Congressman, a person in power, abusing that power in order to... well, other than making inappropriate advances toward someone who may or may not have been of age, I don't know what Foley has done. It's not criminal, so far as I can tell. Just disgusting and unseemly. And he damn well should resign.

But therein lies the problem. Maybe it's just the fact that I live in DC, or that I'm a bit of a cynic, but I tend to believe that this goes back to what famed Louisiana pol Edwin Edwards once said: "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy." Part of me is glad Foley got caught, but I would feel a hell of a lot better if (a) I knew that we also had the same level of concern about Congressmen opting to make passes at young women who work on Capitol Hill, particularly married Congressmen, and (b) the same people would muster the same outrage if this was a Democrat.

And yes, while the age of the person matters, the page who received the infamous IMs was 17 going on 18 when he received them. I can't defend the conduct, but I do know that plenty of past male politicians, including one former President of the United States, decided it was okay to actually engage in sexual relations with women that age or just a shade older than that. One Democrat actually kept getting re-elected after admitting to actually having sex with a 17 year old male page. We put up with a lot of this crap from our politicians, mostly because the people involved keep their mouths shut and the press looks away too often. I'm not asking for a Congress filled with saint-like people, but a little more character in the halls of power would be a good thing.

Back to politics... It's not like the House leadership has had me thrilled for the last few years anyway. Most of me shudders at the thought of Nancy Pelosi two heartbeats away from the Presidency, but the opportunity for jokes about her for two solid years does lighten the mood.

Of course, the Dems are now stumbling with their response to the matter. Making stuff up for a campaign commercial is particularly problematic in the Internet age, as Petty Wetterling, who's running as a Democrat in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District, is claiming the GOP leaders covered up the molestation of children by Foley. If she believes sending sexually explicit IMs is molestation, then she probably doesn't understand the law. Jim Geraghty says it beautifully...

Here's what gets me: Who's the advertising strategist who looked at the current circumstances - Foley's repulsive messages, his resignation only after getting caught, the sense that Hastert and other GOP leaders should have been more on the ball and picked up on the problem quicker - and said, "eh, these circumstances aren't good enough"?

Who said, when they put together this ad, "we had better say that he was molesting pages"?

Who said, when they wrote the script, "we had better accuse them of admitting a coverup"?

The Democrats have been handed the ugliest and most notorious GOP scandal in decades on a silver platter. They've got a gale-force wind at their back. All they've got to say is two simple messages: 1) "We're appalled." 2) "This won't happen on our watch." That's it. That's all it takes to capitalize on the Foley scandal.

And yet somehow, the very first ad from the Democrats that addresses this issue feels a need to... well, lie. To stretch the charges beyond anything resembling the facts as we know them.

All that Michele Bachmann, Wetterling's opponent, has to do is put up an ad accusing Wetterling of "lying" and "playing politics when we ought to be focused on protecting young people." And it would work, because it's accurate.

Geraghty's right, but no one's accusing the Democrats of actually having a plan or knowing what to do with good fortune. In fact, if Tom Maguire has it right, the Dems are about to make a major mistake. their colleagues in the press are already proceeding, based on last night's news on CBS. This of course assumes (a) anyone watches CBS, and (b) anyone considers a broadcast helmed by Katie Couric to be news.

Isn't it great? We have a set of incompetent people running Congress, and our choice to replace them is another set of incompetents. I'd say we need to go look for term limits or a stiff drink.