Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Circular Firing Squad

After years of watching the Democrats turn on each other at the first sign of trouble, it's nice to see the House Republicans doing the same thing in the wake of Predatorgate.
ABC's Teddy Davis reports: In a radio interview with 700 WLW radio in Cincinnati, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) placed responsibility for the Foley matter not being handled properly on House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL).

"I believe I talked to the Speaker and he told me it had been taken care of," said Boehner. "And, and, and my position is it's in his corner, it's his responsibility. The Clerk of the House who runs the page program, the Page Board—all report to the Speaker. And I believe it had been dealt with."

Please note that by saying that he talked with the Speaker about Foley, Boehner is reversing course and going back to his original position.
Wow. That's the House Majority Leader squarely laying the blame for a pedophilia scandal cover-up at the feet of the Speaker of the House. (And, as the piece notes, flip-flopping in the process.)

I can't believe this is happening just five weeks before a critical election, but with the Washington Times and the Majority Leader leading the charge, we just might see a coup against Denny Hastert. No one can understand what goes on in the mind of the Moonie Times, but I've got to assume Boehner sees this as his ticket to the top.

But even if Hastert goes down, I don't think it's over. The entire Republican leadership is going to be stained by this scandal and put completely on the defensive for the rest of the campaign. Any press conference they give is going to lead to questions on this, and any snide comment they make about Democrats is going to be brushed back by a quick *cough*pedophiles*cough*!

Indeed, this thing will taint the entire Republican Congress. (Sadly, this is what it takes. As widespread as the Abramoff scandal was, it required math and finance skills and thus didn't really seize the public's attention. But a congressman preying on kids? Cue the Soledad O'Brien bridgade: "Won't someone think of the children?!?!") The Republicans are already in some tight races in unlikely places, and this is just the kind of thing that nudges the polls a point or two in each race and could very well lead to a big blue wave in a few weeks.

If you haven't already done so, now's the time to dig into your pocket and send along a little cash to your favorite Democratic candidate for the final push. If you're looking for recommendations, I'd point you in the direction of some of the House candidates in suburban Philly -- Joe Sestak, Patrick Murphy, and Lois Murphy -- or perhaps the anti-Macaca, Jim Webb, in his Senate race against Felix the Cad.

If money's tight -- and Lord knows it's tight with the Republican incompetents in charge -- just ask yourself: How much you'd spend to see real congressional investigations of this administration? How much would you pay to prevent another conservative justice from going to the Supreme Court? How much would you pay to get a two-year break from these incompetent boobs?

Yeah, I'd pay a lot, too.

Update: Courtesy of Firedoglake, check out this great piece in the Washington Post about the likely impact of all this on the election.

10 comments:

Thrillhous said...

Kudos for refraining from headlining the post "Circle Jerks"

I'm just waiting for a swiftboat-type thing to happen. I figure a bunch of pages from the 90s will all of a sudden come forward to claim that democratic congressmen did the same thing to them, only their dog ate the chat transcripts.

Otto Man said...

I guarantee some effort is made to target a Dem, too. I hope the Dem leadership is smart enough to immediately jettison whoever it is as soon as the guilt seems clear.

InanimateCarbonRod said...

As widespread as the Abramoff scandal was, it required math and finance skills and thus didn't really seize the public's attention.
This reminds me to plug the Bill Moyers Capitol Crimes special airing tomorrow on PBS. He's going to lay out the intricacies of the Abramoff affair over the course of two hours. I obviously haven't seen it, but Moyers did an incredible job explaining the Iran/Contra scandal years ago. I expect he will do a great job with the Abramoff scandal, too.

Otto Man said...

Thanks for the tip. Moyers is the last of a dying breed. When he goes, it'll be nothing but Nancy Grace harpies.

We really need to start cloning Olbermann now.

Noah said...

Kudos for refraining from headlining the post "Circle Jerks"

Bwahahahahahaaa!! Best laugh I had today.

It really is to bad that Iraq, terrorism, the undoing of more than 500 years of Western justice systems, Abramoff, record numbers of bankruptcies among middle-class Americans and the like wasn't enough to dethrone these guys. It took something core to their base to finally move them away (which means that immorality overall isn't so bad...just immorality against kids).

But hey. I'll take whatever opportunity we get. And let me second the charge to give to Congressional races, and one up it: go door-to-door for State House and Senate races. There is the breeding ground for the next generation of Congressional Reps.

Mr Furious said...

Throw some money towards Hastert's opponent. He's a 32-year-old Navy guy. Wouldn't THAT kick ass?

Campaign site

He has a blog, too.

--

Or help out Danny Stover. He's running against Shimkus, who is also hip (balls?)-deep in this mess...

I get the feeling neither of these candidates were being given much in the way of resources as previously extremely long-shot candidates, but now? Hopefully they get an infusion...

Otto Man said...

Good suggestions, Furious. John Laesch seems like a great guy, and if Hastert gets thrown under the bus over this -- as he should and now likely will -- then Laesch is going to be sitting pretty.

For all the people out there who badmouthed Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy, this is one of many, many reasons why it's so important. We've got to have people out there to take advantage of these moments.

Anonymous said...

Great photo of Hastert. It really captures the essence of the guy.

O.M., you're so right about the need to clone Olbermann. Jack Cafferty, too. I'm not worried about Nancy Grace types. Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer and their clones and wannabes do worry me.

BTW, check out The World Can't Wait and if you've got time Thursday, join the fun.

Anonymous said...

smitty makes an excellent point that I just started working on a post about.

But then I've felt for some time that if Democrats score huge wins solely on the basis of being the other guys when the Republicans are in deep doodoo, they won't keep control for long.

They have to come forth with ideas, reforms, make things work, give people some things to feel good about. And they have to build some brand loyalty while they're doing it.

Otto Man said...

The photo does work well. Apparently, fat, drunk and stupid *is* a way to go through life.

You're right, SWA, that the Democrats can't just be the not-GOP party. We tried that in the wake of Watergate and got our asses handed to us in the elections that follow.

The scandals and incompetence of the GOP get our foot in the door. We've got to do a better job of making the sale now.