Mine. All mine. Stole it off my cousing Clay more than thirty years ago, so its mine. I get to use it all I want, but if you do it, you gotta send me a nickel.
Yeah, boys are free to bend over in his postal code now.
Sorry.
On NPR this morning, or maybe it was yesterday morning, Cokie Roberts was speculating that the Foley thing just might be damaging enough to tip the scales in the Dems’ favor in November. Meanwhile, this afternoon on NPR they quoted Gov. Jeb Bush as saying that it was still possible that the Republicans could hold on to Foley’s district.
Translation: Jeb’s folks on the elections board are on the job. If I were the Dems I’d have that district so packed with poll-watchers, lawyers, private investigators, public instigators and general watchers-outers that the voters will hardly have room to turn around at the polls.
Yes and we need reporters standing outside demanding of everyone exiting: “so, did you vote pro-pedophilia today? Why?”
Pro-HOMOSEXUAL-pedophilia. Big difference to some voters.
Really? I was kinda thinking to most Republican Christian conservative fundie voters homosexual & pedophile were pretty much interchangable.
I was hoping to introduce some sort of crippling cognitive dissonance where these people would have to choose between Republican homo-pedophile or demo… uh… dem… um, de… well you know. That other party. Or just stay home.
The biggest grinning rubber ducky on this carnival shoot for me is: Why did those in the know let Foley continue to serve on the Congressional Caucus for Missing and Exploited Children? I guess one thing wags the other, but if his proclivities were known, and swept under the rug, why the hell would you let this person dictate mores and legislation for pedophile cases?? This just boggles my mind, and it’s the hard ball question that every decent Congressperson, regardless of party, should be asking now. How does that pass as credible government?
You know, it just struck me. None of this is Bush’s fault. Well, whaddaya know?
Oh, come now. Was it not the Bush Administration that insisted that every last Republican in Congress get on the same page with them?
Foley’s name is on the ballot. Republicans are telling voters that a vote for Foley is really a vote for his replacement. (I heard one say that the voters who couldn’t punch all the way through a piece of paper are smart enough to figure this out.) Foley has resigned from congresss and withdrawn as a canditate. What does the latter really mean? If the name “Foley” gets the most votes what’s to prevent him from claiming he was elected? How can you tell what was in a voter’s mind? It is simply impossible to know, or to prove, that a voter who marked “Foley” really meant some other guy.
Okay, so, I’ve been thinking. Y’know this stupidly scummy bafflegab the Pubbies are trying to float on this story, to the effect that had they gone after Foley immediately they would have opened themselves to accusations of gay-bashing, and isn’t it sad how the Dems are attacking One Of Their Own (i.e. a queer) out of political convenience?
Obviously, it’s a painfully dumb attempt at spin. I don’t expect anybody but the typical hardcore rightwinger will see a legitimate point there.
But maybe that’s not the objective. Maybe the idea is to bait the Democrats into high dudgeony trumpets of “Nuh-uh, not true, cuz we LOVE queers!”
Now that might sell.
Too complicated?
Republican from Oregon in 95? Bob Packwood?
CMC fnord!
Thus demonstrating that, to the modern-day Republican, the truly unforgivable crime is making the GOP look bad.
Party before nation. Be afraid.
Very good point. I’m glad you brought this up.
Don’t buy into the head fake! They want us to focus on this district so they can cheat on all the others. Every election needs to be monitored as aggressively as possible to keep the Grand Old Pervert party from stealing their way to a continued majority status.
That was him - state and party wrong - no wonder google wasn’t bringing up anything.
I fail to see how Foley’s latest confession about being molested–whether it’s true or not–is supposed to make us feel better about this whole situation. As if his actions haven’t been stupid enough already, he had to go and add more flammable material to the bonfire. I’m starting to think the guy really is a Democrat, because I can’t believe a Republican would engage in this much self-sabotage.
Up until now, the Republican spin factory was doing an okay job at protraying this as a “horny politician only making inappropriate remarks to sexually mature young adults; Clinton did it too!” kind of scandal, but Foley’s confession seriously undermines that message. Seemingly apropos of nothing, he tells the world that he was molested as a kid, which leads inquiring minds to wonder: what relevance is this supposed to have? Has he molested kids, too? We haven’t found any evidence of that, but he certainly isn’t helping to relieve us of that idea. If there was nothing inherently sinister about his attraction to teens, then why is he talking about how he was abused as a kid by a pedophilic priest? He is attempting to explain his behavior by citing alcoholism and a history of sexual abuse, two things that portray the man as a sicko and not as a harmless, boys-will-be-boys type of horndog that I would think the Republicans would prefer him to be, if they want to keep comparing him to Clinton.
I wouldn’t be surprised if evidence does turns up that he did have sex with teens, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these teens were really really young teens. You don’t make these type of confessions if there’s smoke but no fire. I think he is sick (hence all the stupidity) and when you’re sick you’re liable to do anything.
It’s almost a non-sequitur, and this “try any excuse you can think of” thing is not going to help him in the court of public opinion.
AFAICT, elelle, they’d gotten away for so long now without having to even give a passable impression of credible government, they’d completely forgotten that they occasionally might need to pass as credible.
Long time since we’ve been in the same thread - good to see you!
I’d just like to say as much as I’m not-so-secretly enjoying this is a mostly Republican fiasco, there are a lot more asses that need to be threatened with a red-hot poker.
In all fairness, Republicans and Democrats alike share blame in this. Washington DC is a pretty close-knit gossipy place. Everyone there with any reason to even know the name Mark Foley probably at some point heard reliable gossip about his proclivities. He’s been chasing sixteen-year-old male tail for at least ten years! Any politician saying they had no idea is a damn dirty liar. George Bush probably has known about Mark Foley’s dalliances for some time.
In this day and age, how can you hold such a position of influence & power and not know the difference between doinking sixteen-year-olds and being Gay? Is that really the same thing to these people? “Oh, we didn’t want to gay-bash him.” Bullshit.
Everybody knew, no one did anything. They should all, every single one of them, have to worry about the next election and whether they’re going to have a job. You’re unfit for office if you honestly don’t know the difference between “sex with minors” and “Gay.” I bet there are at least 10,000 males in the DC area and another 10,000 males in Florida between the ages of say, 30-60 who’d be more than willing to have hot gay sex with a congressman (however distasteful an image that invokes.) Dude ain’t Gay! Perv. P-E-R-V. Perv! Teh Drink didn’t make him one. Teh Church didn’t make him one. Teh Gay definitely didn’t make him one.