See other Pious Perverts Articles
Title: SCANDAL ALIENATES REPUBLICAN BASE - The Wall Street Journal
Source:
The Wall Street Journal
URL Source: http://online.wsj.com/public/articl ... 1102.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
Published: Oct 5, 2006
Author: By JACKIE CALMES
Post Date: 2006-10-05 22:19:19 by Uncle Bill
Keywords: Groping, Old, Pedophiles
Views: 162
Comments: 5
Party's Handling of Foley The Wall Street Journal 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. 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. "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. 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.
Scandal May Further Alienate Republican Base
Riles Up Voters Frustrated
By Immigration, Spending
By JACKIE CALMES
October 3, 2006; Page A4 
"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 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.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Uncle Bill (#0)
I'd love to see James Webb kick Allen's butt at the election box in November.
#3. To: Fred Mertz (#1)
Hi Fred, BAC thinks the following is a lie: 97. To: BeAChooser (#93) Let's see, we have Bush stating on TV that explosives were used high in the trade towers, Lucky Larry Silverstein stating on TV that he instructed folks to bring down building 7 via demolition, Rumsfeld stating on tv that flight 93 was shot down over Pennsylvania, and Rumsfeld stating in an interview that a missile slammed into the Pentagon, not a plane. It just doesn't get better than this. So often is the case, criminals usually get around to confessing to their crimes. Just when does the revolution start? What else do Americans need, a signed confession? LOL! LOL! LOL! Hehehehehehehehehe!! Yahoo! God is great!! Uncle Bill posted on 2006-09-22 13:37:45 ET Reply Trace As I told BAC and everyone else, I stand behind the statement completely. I posted video for the morons, and linked the following article I posted here: George W. Bush and Administration Join The 9/11 Truth Movement If you break it down: 1. Bush stating on TV that explosives were used high in the trade towers. 2. Lucky Larry Silverstein stating on TV that he instructed folks to bring down building 7 via demolition. 3.Rumsfeld stating on tv that flight 93 was shot down over Pennsylvania 4.Rumsfeld stating in an interview that a missile slammed into the Pentagon, not a plane. Each one of those are documented in the above link. Here it is again: George W. Bush and Administration Join The 9/11 Truth Movement 3 out of the 4 are on video! BAC is a waste of my time. I already shoved this down BAC's throat. http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi? ArtNum=159872&Disp=132#C132 Spinnin wheel, spinnin round.... Bush Tacitly Implies WTC Controlled Demolition "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks" He was talking about the Library Tower in Los Angeles? ROTFLMAO!!!! No really, you're funny. Note that BAC usually shows up after I make my 20 posts. LOL! I must scare the hell out of them. I have only been allowed 20 posts every 24 hours for a year and a half. LOL!
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestIn Virginia, Dick Wadhams, the campaign manager for embattled Republican Sen. George Allen...
Replies to Comment # 1.
He wasn't talking about 9/11 at all. He didn't mention the WTC in his speech. Bush was talking about plots they'd foiled. Do you know that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told interrogators that al-Qaeda had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago? It seems more reasonable thinking he was talking about those plots? A lot more reasonable than claiming the US government OR al-Qaeda planted bombs to bring down the towers. The evidence for that is simply NONEXISTENT. Professionals would have found that evidence by now. Now MAYBE al- Qaeda planted a bomb or two somewhere in the towers to disrupt escape. But the notion that the government or al-Qaeda needed or used bombs to collapse the towers is simply a FANTASY on the part of K**Ks who just can't let go of their Bush/US government hatred. It's pathetic.
BeAChooser posted on 2006-09-18 16:32:56 ET - Source
George W. Bush - http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906- 3.html
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Donate] [Help] [FAQ] [Register] We're sorry, but our records presently show your account with limited posting status, and you have already posted the maximum number of comments (20) in this 24 hour period. After midnight tonight, you may again begin posting more comments. If you have qustions about this, feel this account setting was made is in error, or wish to have this setting changed, please email goldi@LibertyPost.org and your account status will will be reviewed as soon as possible. Thank you!
End Trace Mode for Comment # 1.