Poor thing, I know you're completely out of control. I feel bad for you, I really do. It's hard to lose gracefully and you don't have the hang of it due to your mental illness/mental retardation. Never mind hon, I have real live people in my life and in my house so I have to go soon. You can rant and rave and talk a bunch of deflection bullshit all you like, I won't mind at all. No worries, you have my permission.
Conservatives Fear Foley Scandal Will Cost Votes Share full article
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — Conservatives struggled today to turn back criticism over the Congressional page scandal involving former Representative Mark Foley of Florida, but some said they expected it to prove costly for Republicans in the midterm elections on Nov. 7 and others hinted that Representative J. Dennis Hastert’s future as speaker of the House was unsure.
“You’re going to have marginal candidates who will suffer at the polls,” said Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, on “Fox News Sunday.” But he said he thought it was “premature” for Mr. Hastert to resign, even as Democrats kept up their criticisms that he had acted far too slowly in the matter.
David Bossie, president of the conservative group Citizens United, disagreed with Mr. Perkins, saying, “I just say Dennis Hastert is going to end up not being the next speaker” because he appeared not to heed early warnings about Mr. Foley’s interest in teenage pages. ( [italic] edit: Turned out that's not why Hastert didn't heed those warnings [/italic] )
Taking the offensive, some Republicans sought today to shift blame for the scandal to Democrats who, they suggested, might have known about Mr. Foley’s behavior for months.
“I hope we don’t find out that people sat on information just so they could leak it here a month before the election,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas said on CNN. But he acknowledged that he had no evidence of this.
Some Republicans argued that Mr. Hastert’s resignation would be an extreme remedy.
“Give me a break on this resignation stuff,” Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said on CNN. “President Bill Clinton actually had sex with an intern in the White House — he didn’t resign.” ( [italic] McHenry loves the CLENIS!] )
Other conservatives were hoping the matter would simply die out — at least in local newspapers.
Such scandals “have to be fed daily,” said Patrick Buchanan, the conservative commentator and former presidential candidate, adding that this one could fade within a week. But if new information emerges, Mr. Buchanan said on CNN, “it will continue, it will deepen and it will worsen.”
The scandal has jolted Republicans battling to retain control of the House and Senate. Political analysts from both parties say the scandal has placed at least five more Republican Congressional seats into serious contention, undercutting Republican support among elderly voters, women and religious conservatives.
It produced the extraordinary scene over the weekend of another Republican leader involved in the matter, Representative Thomas Reynolds of New York, airing a campaign ad that included an apology.
“Nobody’s angrier and more disappointed that I didn’t catch his lies,” Mr. Reynolds says in the television commercial. But Mr. Reynolds notes in the ad that he called complaints about Mr. Foley to Mr. Hastert’s attention months ago. “I trusted that others had investigated. Looking back, more should have been done, and for that, I am sorry.”
Other Republicans insisted that if their leaders had known how sordid Mr. Foley’s communications were, they would have acted.
“If Tom Reynolds had had any, any, any indication that Mark Foley was this sick,” Mr. McHenry said, “he would’ve taken Mark Foley’s head out on a pike.”
Democrats have largely stood aside, enjoying Republicans’ intramural squabbling over who knew what when. But in the face of the more aggressive Republican defense today, some lashed back.
