Round up from Thursday
“[Hastert] is a symbol for the decline and the feeding frenzy is happening because of him, not despite him.” – from BayouBuzz
Hot Air has a round up from today’s events concerning the Mark Foley scandal.
During Hastert’s press conference today, he actually said that the GOP was holding the line on spending (you can watch the video of the press conference through the Hot Air link). He really does need to resign if he believes that. I do agree that the economy is treading along at a very strong pace, but that could change so quickly. But thanks to the GOP we are running huge deficits and that will catch up with us at some point. As Lynn Westmoreland said the other night, the United States Congress is the only place where a less of an increase in spending is considered a cut in spending.
Check out these numbers though:
House Republican candidates will suffer massive losses if House Speaker Dennis Hastert remains speaker until Election Day, according to internal polling data from a prominent GOP pollster, FOX News has learned.“The data suggests Americans have bailed on the speaker,” a Republican source briefed on the polling data told FOX News. “And the difference could be between a 20-seat loss and 50-seat loss.”
That is sobering and it’s also the reason that I am a member of the Libertarian Party.
Cross posted over at my site, www.jasonpye.com.
If Republicans do not clean up the House this could kill 2008.It is time to stop the bleeding.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080261/
If you read between the lines it looks like the gay community is going to do a big outing before the election.
BTW will this hurt the GOP!
Hey we are not a bunch of gay bashers! This is what the Democrats want the voters to think.
This was an interesting article by Dick Morris. Who BTW is an expert on sex scandels( Clinton and Dick).
Foley scandal is the nail in the GOP coffin
http://jewishworldreview.com/1006/morris100506.php3
In a curious way, the former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) scandal will be to the Republican congressional leadership what the Monica Lewinsky imbroglio was to the Clinton presidency.
After all the boring scandals — Whitewater, Hillary’s investments, Paula Jones, Travelgate, the FBI files, the Rose Law Firm’s billing records — the Lewinsky scandal seared into everyone’s consciousness. Those who failed to read the many volumes of Whitewater documents published by The Wall Street Journal or who despaired of following the paper trail that led to the Travel Office firings could easily grasp the simple facts of Clinton’s dalliance with Monica. Nothing complicated. Nothing subtle. Easy to understand. And so the Clintonian penchant for scandal became universally known and has been an enduring part of his legacy.
Now, after the lobbyist travel scandal and the Abramoff favors for legislators and the growth of earmarking and the financial scandals that have faced Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and a host of others, there is finally a simple sex scandal for everyone to focus upon. Nothing complicated about this one either.
It is not that the voters believe that all congressmen are child molesters, nor is it the details of what Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) knew, and when he knew it, that makes this scandal so important. Its centrality stems from the sheer arrogance and hypocrisy it demonstrates both on the part of Foley himself and his colleagues who hushed up the affair until it burst onto the public stage.
One more pious member of the Moral Majority, one more legislator who makes a career out of fighting for “values” and crusading to protect children turns out to be a hypocrite and an abuser himself!
One more congressman, a sponsor of legislation to help children, a member of the caucus on abused and exploited children, has abused and exploited them himself. The gap between what Foley professes and what Foley did is so huge that you can sink the entire Republican majority in both houses into the gap.
And once again, the arrogant leaders of the Congress circled the wagons and looked the other way to avoid investigating or even recognizing the child abuser in their midst.
John Konop,
Republicans everywhere should hold out hope if Dick Morris is saying this. He is ALMOST ALWAYS wrong. Of course, he could be like a blind squirrel, once in a while he finds a acorn.
caroline,
This what I am hearing “once again, the arrogant leaders of the Congress circled the wagons and looked the other way to avoid investigating or even recognizing the child abuser in their midst”.
They still circle the wagons while wishing we had been more careful before. And they still look askance at Republicans like me who bash the insiders and the hippocrites. And people on both sides still make the mistake of thinking that a clash of ideas, internal strife, and attacking some of these phony power structures is bad for Republicans.
I think that people think it’s bad for the Republicans because it is so unlike the Republicans. Heck, they mostly have agreed on everything for years.
Bill,
As you know, people like us take heat for pointing out the hypocrisy in the Republican Party. When I ran for Congress, I said the biggest problem with the Republican Party is Republicans not Democrats. Do you think would it not be best in the long run for Republicans to take a hit November? Would not the Party have to re-group and get back to basics?
That’s a tough one. But if we take a big hit in November I think you can blame the actions of the RNC and blind loyalty to the status quo as much as anything else. Once people start seeing healthy debate occuring within the party again they’re going to really start perking up and getting excited.
Blaming our own, that’s a more noble thing to do than pointing fingers.
Bill,
I am a member of a conservative think tank called the Madison forum. The question always comes up if we keep voting for the out of control spending Republicans are we not just enablers? Why would they ever change behavior?
They won’t. But there’s always better folks waiting in the wings ready to take their place. Been reading about more Republican outings. I hope there’s a stable of replacement candidates. Of course this process can happen after November with special elections I suppose. Too late now but It’s almost like there should be another group (besides the RNC) to throw more support behind Republicans disliked by the status quo. Of course that was the Minutemen in the Arizona primary with Randy Graf. The RNC said he can’t win but I think they’re wrong.
And most people haven’t even heard of this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLNLQVVGgug&eurl= Hannity, Limbau, and the RNC should be ashamed. All they talk about is Hillary. In this day and age I think Someone like Spencer could have recieved contributions to defeat Hillary from around the country… THIS NOVEMBER!!!! How?? Political chain letters.
Bill,
The RNC willnot give any real money to Graf. They want guys who will play follow the leader!
Bill,
That would make a great post story for the Blog. Would you like to make into apost and beef it up. If so e-mail me at john@johnkonop.com. Thanks jk
Sure. So who are the real party detroyers? The enablers or the exposers?