Just as Katrina ended the illusion of Republican competence, Iraq is beginning to destroy the illusion of Republicans being strong on national security, the Foley scandal is ending the myth that Republicans are more moral than Democrats. Eugene Robinson has an excellent column on the effect of the Foley scandal on Republicans. He explains that the view that Republicans are the defenders of moral standards is an illusion:
The Republicans wouldn’t be where they are today — in control of the White House and all of Capitol Hill — if they hadn’t portrayed themselves as the stalwart defenders of moral standards and painted Democrats as a bunch of anything-goes libertines. Republicans promised social and religious conservatives that the values they treasure would not only be respected but written into law. Even if they didn’t deliver on these promises, or even try very hard, Republicans paid enough lip service to moral issues to keep “values voters” inside the tent.
It was a political masterstroke, but it required creating and sustaining an illusion — that Republican officeholders themselves not only talked the talk but walked the walk, that in their own lives they adhered to these deeply conservative moral standards. Human nature being what it is, there was no way this illusion could be sustained.
The Foley scandal has changed the nature of the culture wars:
The culture war is supposed to be about morality, but really it’s a crusade to compel Americans to follow certain norms of private behavior that some social and religious conservatives believe are mandated by sociology, nature or God. Republican officeholders have paid lip service to this crusade, all the while knowing that the human family is diverse and fallible. They know that the gravest threat to marriage is the heterosexual divorce rate. They know that Republicans drink, swear, carouse and have affairs, just like Democrats. They know that homosexuals aren’t devils.
Ron:
Another example of Republican Delusional-at-Best-Behavior (from the American Prospect-hattip to Rawstory)
Saved by Foley
By The Prowler
Published 10/10/2006 12:08:15 AM
One of the stories going around Democrat Party circles is that party operatives like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and American Family Voices weren’t quite ready for primetime with the opposition research materials they had gathered for the 2006 election cycle.
According to one political consultant with ties to the DNC and other party organizations, “I’m hearing the Foley story wasn’t supposed to drop until about ten days out of the election. It was supposed the coup de grace, not the first shot.”
So why the rush? According to another DNC operative: bad polling numbers across the country. “Bush’s national security speeches were getting traction beyond the base, gas prices were dropping, economic outlook surveys were positive. We were seeing bad Democratic numbers in Missouri, Michigan, Washington, Arizona, Florida Pennsylvania, even parts of New York,” says the operative. “A month before, we were looking at launching an offensive against Republicans who according to polling barely held a five-seat majority if the election were to be held at the end of August. That was doable for Democrats from September 1 to November 7. But by mid-September, Republicans were back to having held seats for a 15-seat majority. In the Senate, it looked like a wash. We held seats in Florida, Nebraska, picked up seats in Pennsylvania, but that that was about it. They were holding in Missouri and possibly within reach of Maryland and Washington. We were looking at a disaster in the making.”
So how to remedy? “You pull out the bright shiny things that distract the average American voter away from the issues we all know they care about — national security, anti-terrorism — and focus on the ugly: Foley and Iraq.”
“Republicans had to have known we’d be looking to change the national debate,” says a House Democrat leadership aide. “You had our leadership looking at cratering polling numbers. A majority within grasp wasn’t drifting away, it was being yanked back by Republicans. I wouldn’t be surprised if Foley had to be bumped up on the scandal schedule. That makes a lot of sense given where we were two weeks ago, and where we are now.”
Conventional wisdom had Republicans seeing improving numbers in races across the country throughout the month of September after Congress spent the month of August home campaigning in their districts. But some Republicans don’t disagree that the polls were improving that dramatically. “I’ve seen some of the polls and I don’t buy into the notion that we were making up tons of ground in a lot of these races,” says one GOP political consultant. “Some of the underlying data led me to believe that the polling was somewhat flawed, and that this was a lot of spin to re-energize a base that was growing disenchanted.”
What no one disputes, however, was that the GOP was sensing some wind at its back and reinvigorated base with Bush on the stump, and Congress quietly at home not creating any more messes for the media to hit on. Now, of course, the Foley story has left a far bigger mess a month out of Election Day than anyone had expected.
Interesting theory except that it fails to explain why it was Republicans who first broke some of the information to the media. The Republicans just don’t get how much things have fallen apart for them.
Let’s bring this full-circle:
Group fires back Spectator claim they held Foley emails
RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday October 10, 2006
A non-profit group at the center of the Foley scandal has responded to a report in the American Spectator that it held and released the story for political gain by Democrats by issuing a summary of what they contend are media misrepresenations of the group’s involvement.
A number of CREW’s contentions can be verified as true. Others, at this point, cannot be verified or refuted.
The list, as released by CREW, follows:
#
LIE:
The email messages between Rep. Foley and a former page have been in CREW’s possession as far back as April.
FACT:
CREW received the emails on July 21, 2006 and promptly sent them to the FBI, and no one else, that same day. CREW did not discuss the email messages or their content with anyone else. The only call CREW’s Executive Director Melanie Sloan made regarding the matter was to the Washington FBI agent to whom she sent the emails to confirm receipt of the messages.
LIE:
CREW provided the FBI with incomplete information and heavily redacted emails. CREW refused to disclose the page’s name and contact information to the FBI.
FACT:
The emails Ms. Sloan sent to the FBI were not edited or redacted in any way. The page’s full name and email address were in the emails, as was the name and email address of the Congressional staffer to whom the page was sending the emails.
LIE:
The FBI investigation into Rep. Foley was hampered because CREW refused to comply with the agency’s request for additional information.
FACT:
After CREW sent the emails to the FBI, CREW’s only subsequent contact with the Bureau was one telephone call from the special agent to whom CREW had sent the material confirming that the emails were from Rep. Foley. CREW had no further contact with the FBI.
According to several government officials, the FBI sent the emails to three squads: a public corruptions squad, a criminal squad and a cyber-squad. After reviewing the matter, the FBI determined that there wasn’t enough evidence at the time to suggest any criminal activity and did not move forward with an investigation.
LIE:
Fox News’ Sean Hannity said on October 5, 2006 that CREW had “been bragging about [the emails] on its website as early as July 21st.”
FACT:
CREW first posted the emails to http://www.citizensforethics.org on September 29, 2006, one day after ABC News reported them.
LIE:
CREW has been working with ABC on the Foley story and was reporter Brian Ross’ source for the emails.
FACT:
Ross told The New York Times he received the emails from Republicans. CREW was not involved in the broadcasting of his story. In fact, Ross didn’t even know that CREW had the emails until after he broke the story.
LIE:
Rep. Mark Foley resigned from Congress after CREW posted some of his email exchanges with a former page.
FACT:
Brian Ross has reported that Foley resigned hours after ABC questioned him about the sexually explicit internet messages.
LIE:
The blog Stop Sex Predators is owned and operated by CREW.
FACT:
CREW does not own, operate, or have any connection or involvement with the Stop Sex Predators blog. CREW first heard of the blog in media reports after the Foley scandal broke.
LIE:
One of CREW’s funders, George Soros, was behind the Foley scandal and has been directing CREW’s involvement in the case.
FACT:
George Soros had no knowledge that CREW had the Foley emails, nor does he have any input over CREW’s day to day activities. CREW has not discussed the emails with any donors or Democratic operatives, strategists or staffers. All CREW did was send the messages to the FBI. After ABC broke the story, CREW posted the messages to its website.
LIE:
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) called CREW a “partisan 527 organization” on the October 8, 2006 edition of Fox News Sunday.
FACT:
CREW is a nonpartisan and nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
NOW CLASS, REPEAT AFTER ME: It’s about the coverup, not the crime.