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Pious Perverts See other Pious Perverts Articles Title: Scandal May Further Alienate Republican Base [Members Formerly Behind GOP May Now Pull Out] Party's Handling of Foley Riles Up Voters Frustrated By Immigration, Spending WASHINGTON -- As the scandal over former Rep. Mark Foley has expanded to entwine Republican leaders who knew of his emails to underage male House pages but took little action, the party has new reason to worry about two key constituencies: Christian conservatives and suburban soccer moms. Long before the disclosure of the unduly personal Foley emails and separate, sexually explicit instant messages last week, and the six-term Florida Republican's sudden resignation, his colleagues were fretful that many conservatives would stay home on Election Day, turned off by high federal spending, illegal immigration and inaction on a number of social issues. Moderate suburbanites, meanwhile, complain of a party agenda that is too beholden to the conservatives on issues such as federal funding for medical research using embryonic stem cells, which President Bush vetoed in July. WALL STREET JOURNAL VIDEO [link]1 Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) and John Shimkus (R., Ill.) say2 no Republican leaders were aware of inappropriate emails by Mark Foley until ABC News broke the story last Friday. Greg Valliere, chief political strategist for Stanford Washington Research, says3 that the Foley sex scandal and its cover-up puts Republican chances in upcoming mid-term elections "in real jeopardy." REPRESENTATIVE RACES [Local Issues]4 • Look at local issues5 facing voters in nine congressional districts nationwide - from southern Connecticut to suburban Seattle to Mark Foley's Florida district. Now the Foley fallout has united both Republican voter groups in anger, just five weeks before midterm elections that will determine whether the party holds its House and Senate majorities. "It's one of the worst congressional scandals ever. A top House Republican who denounced sex predators as 'animals' stands accused of acting like one," Cliff Kincaid, editor of the conservative Accuracy in Media Report, wrote in an editorial circulated by the pro-Republican Web site http://GOPUSA.com. His headline reflected an ire that went beyond Mr. Foley to envelop other House Republicans who acknowledge they had heard complaints about Mr. Foley's questionable contacts with a former page. "Who Protected the Perverted Congressman?" it read. "I think there's more pain to come" for Republicans, says party pollster Tony Fabrizio. With clients among House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates in places such as suburban Philadelphia and swing-state Minnesota, he adds, "I'm very much watching how these things play out." Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to win a House majority and six seats in the Senate. Many of the Republicans' most vulnerable House districts are in a swath from the moderate Northeast westward through the Ohio River valley, and in suburban districts in Arizona, Florida, Washington state and elsewhere where Republicans already were on the defensive. Democratic pollster Peter Hart, noting that Republicans already have lost the support of most independent voters, says, "Voters in general want change, and this just puts another nail in the Republicans' coffin." "At the end of the day," the Republican Mr. Fabrizio says, "we need moderate voters to save people like Chris Shays," a Connecticut Republican who is among the most endangered incumbents. "The Republican Party holds itself out, rightly or wrongly, as the guardian of values, and for something like this to occur does not bode well for the party," said Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council and a frequent ally of Republican leaders. As for Christian conservative voters, "there's clearly a lack of enthusiasm as compared to" the 2004 election. [Mark Foley] Yesterday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Rep. John Shimkus, chairman of the House Page Board, again sought to contain the damage with a statement to reporters reiterating their disgust with Mr. Foley and their determination to help state and federal authorities pursue the matter. The two Illinois Republicans left without answering questions. Later Mr. Hastert spoke to a smaller group of reporters, providing his most complete account to date. The speaker said a portion of a Foley email to a former page from Louisiana asking for a photo of the teenager was "a red flag." But he said his staff didn't need to "bump it up to me at that time." Democrats charged that the failure of Republicans to take the initial 2005 complaint, from the parents of a then-16-year-old boy, to the bipartisan six-member board that oversees the page program was evidence of Republicans' desire to shield Mr. Foley -- and the party's House majority. The board's top Democrat, Michigan Rep. Dale Kildee, has said that Mr. Shimkus, the board's Republican chairman, never told him of the issue. Yet Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York, who heads the House Republicans' campaign committee, was informed of the questionable Foley emails. Mr. Reynolds says he raised the Foley matter with Mr. Hastert last spring, though the Speaker reiterated yesterday that he doesn't recall such a conversation. The matter further imperils Mr. Reynolds. Though the House and Senate campaign chiefs of both parties typically get those jobs because they are safe at home, Mr. Reynolds already had reason to worry about his hold on his moderate-to-conservative upstate New York district. Wealthy local businessman Jack Davis, his Democratic foe, has vowed to spend $2 million. Tomorrow, first lady Laura Bush will campaign for Mr. Reynolds in his suburban Buffalo district, and then separately participate in a local radio program about youth issues. House Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, conceded in a television interview late yesterday that he expected Republicans to lose Mr. Foley's seat, a seat that he had been expected to win. His comment came as Florida Republicans tapped state Rep. Joe Negron to run instead, though Mr. Foley's name must remain on the ballot. Democrats have their sights on four other Florida districts as well. The fallout also could give impetus to Democratic candidates who previously were making an issue of online sexual predators. Among them are Ed Perlmutter, a former state senator favored to seize an open Republican-held seat in Colorado, and Phil Kellam, who is threatening freshman Republican Rep. Thelma Drake in Virginia. Action against sexual predators on the Internet has been a popular theme for politicians of both parties. Its resonance with the public, especially parents, is reflected in the popularity since 2004 of the Dateline NBC series "To Catch a Predator," which films sting operations against suspected sexual abusers of children. Last August at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting, Karin Johanson, the executive director of the House Democrats' campaign committee, predicted to members that Republicans would run attack ads in the fall depicting Democrats as soft on sexual predators. In anticipation, Democrats developed an Internet-safety proposal. With Democrats now the ones on the offensive, they called on Republicans to return funds from Mr. Foley, who had been a prodigious party fund-raiser and donor. In North Carolina, the Democratic Party released a statement asking of the incumbent Republican, "Who does Robin Hayes stand up for? Mark Foley and the Republican House leadership or underage children?" In Virginia, Dick Wadhams, the campaign manager for embattled Republican Sen. George Allen, said the campaign would donate its $5,000 from Mr. Foley to the charity Enough is Enough, a nonprofit group based in Great Falls, Va., that works against Internet-based pornography
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#3. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
"Viguerie Calls for Immediate Resignation of House GOP Leaders" These are the high points. 1. Calls GOP leadership "enablers" to Foley's offense. Viguerie stated that any public official who takes advantage of a page or intern – someone to whom they are “in loco parentis” (in the place of a parent) – should be treated the same as a teacher or member of the clergy who commits a similar act. “And anyone who covers up such behavior should have the full wraith of the authorities and of the public fall upon them, because they are the enablers who made it possible.” 2. Calls Speaker Hastert's call for a Justice Dept investigation a possible "cover up." He said that calls for a Justice Department investigation “could be part of an effort to cover this up until after the election. Once an investigation is under way, they may claim, falsely, that they can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.” He said House GOP leaders must “tell the American people the truth right now, not sweep it under the rug for the next six weeks.” 3. House GOP leaders will do "whatever it takes to hold onto power," no matter how "despicable." Said Viguerie: “This isn’t an isolated situation. It is only the most recent example of Republican House leaders doing whatever it takes to hold onto power. If it means spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars on questionable projects, they’ll do it. If it means covering up the most despicable actions of a colleague, they’ll do it.” 4. House GOP leaders have "lost their moral rudder." “They’ve lost their moral rudder,” Viguerie said of any House leaders who tolerated Foley’s behavior. Conservative icon Richard Viguerie calls on House Republican leadership to resign .
#4. To: aristeides (#3)
Pills Limbaugh was talking about the Foley scandal and suppressing the Pubbie vote in November. Pills said, "Who benefits?" implying the timing of this scandal was calculated. Of course he didn't address the depravity of Foley or anything related to reality.
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