In back-to-back stories on Foleygate this morning, NPR reported that an informal survey they conducted with independent and Republican voters who claim that "moral values" are their leading concern showed that Foley's indiscretions and the Republican leaders' dereliction of duty in failing to do anything about it apparently was unlikely to affect the way they will vote next month. Although the NPR sample was small (14 voters, all Republicans or independents in key congressional districts who are churchgoers or self-select "moral values" as being important to them), the reporter claimed that the responses they got were in line with a larger, scientific study by the Pew Research Center to be released today.
And in the very next story, while Foley's office has been locked and his staff has been ordered not to remove or shred any documents in his files, J. Dennis "I see nothing! I know nothing!" Hastert would look unfavorably on any attempt by the FBI to search Rep. Foley's former office in the course of the investigation into Foley's conduct that Hastert himself requested. In other words, Hastert (like the Rubber-Stamp Republican leadership on so many issues) is still fighting the last battle. He's still pissed off about the FBI search of Rep. William Jefferson's office a few months ago, when Rep. Jefferson was under investigation for possible bribery.
From some of the comments made by NPR's "values voters," I surmise that the Mighty Wurlitzer has come through for the Republicans in a clutch again. Every one of them made at least one of the usual Republican talking points. "Well, the Democrats did it, too." "Clinton was boffing an intern." "This kind of thing has been going on in Washington forever." "There are a few bad apples in Washington, but that doesn't mean the Republican Party itsef is corrupt."
What planet do these people live on?
There is no equivalency between Bill Clinton's consensual affair with Monica Lewinsky and what Mark Foley was doing (and trying to do) to underaged congressional pages. And yes, the way the Republican "leadership" in Congress responded to Foleygate is completely indicative of the overall corruption in the Republican Party--as is the leadership's attempts (apparently successful) at blaming the scandal on the Democrats, even though it was a Republican staffer who leaked the e-mails to the press, and all the people involved in the scandal were Republicans.
Clearly, Democrats have got to work harder--a lot harder--to tie this scandal firmly about the necks of all Republicans. We must make the case that this scandal is only the latest in a long line of Republican misrule, the logical consequence of core principles at the heart of the Ghastly Old Perverts' party platform. Otherwise, we shouldn't count on either convincing the Republican base to vote Democratic or else to stay home in five weeks' time.
And yes, I did consider the possibility that these NPR reports (and possibly even the Pew survey itself, though that's a harder camel to swallow) were propaganda pieces put out by the Republicans themselves, in the hope of salvaging their majority by discouraging Democrats' expectations of a sweeping victory and thus hoping to get us to slack off between now and election day. Even if that hypothesis is true, it should make no difference to us. We must behave as if every word of those NPR stories is the Gospel truth--and counter the perceptions that gave rise to the opinions they reported. Otherwise, we're likely to find, if not Hastert in the speaker's chair come January 3, 2007, then another one of the Ghastly Old Perverts.
And that would be a crying shame. And a national disgrace.
You could also read these two poll results as confirming what some of us on the left have been saying all along... The great swath of our country between the coasts - so-called "flyover country" - really is a realm of mouth breathers whose family trees look more like telephone poles.
None of the options are all that attractive, though, are they?
Maybe, just maybe, despite all our best efforts we really do have the government we deserve.
Posted by: Charles2 | Thursday, 05 October 2006 at 13:11