House of Eratosthenes

It seems pretty clear Foley is scum, and the Republican majority in the House really has handled this badly. Another thing is abundantly clear: Democrats have no ideas for how to lead this country. None. They criticize, and when people ask them what they’d do differently, they respond with a blank stare, “Go To Candidate XXX’s Website To Find Out,” righteous indignation, or a sudden change of subject.

They might very well win this midterm. They might win both houses of Congress. If they do, they will have won because of Mark Foley and not because of their ideas.

Howard Dean’s been e-mailing me as a “Fellow Democrat,” busily indoctrinating me about how Republicans have a “culture of corruption” and have been making a bunch of messes that a Democratic majority would promptly clean up. How his team would clean it up, he doesn’t want to tell me. I understand I’m supposed to think Democrats would be much cleaner; why I’m supposed to think that, he doesn’t want to tell me that either.

Mark Foley, so far as people can figure out, seems to have been engaged in his shenanigans for a very, very long time. Do we have a clean party-divide between the folks who knew about this and the folks that didn’t…with all in-the-know belonging to the GOP, and all the ignorant klutzes being Democrats? If not, then the Republican guilt, and the Democrat innocence — the two big reasons to vote for a donk this fall — both lose a whole lot of punch. On the other hand, if that is indeed the case, who the hell wants them running, or cleaning up, anything?

Well, via Strata-Sphere, we see the first of those two scenarios is much more likely.

Foleygate May Turn Into CREWgate

The FBI, which keeps meticulous records and has no reason to spin this mess, is now claiming that CREW had the emails as early as April and that they were so heavily redacted the FBI could not do much with them – so says the Washington Post:

Law enforcement officials said then that the e-mails did not provide enough evidence of a possible crime to warrant a full investigation. In the e-mails, Foley praises the physical attributes of one page and asks another teenager for his picture.

In subsequent days, unidentified Justice and FBI officials told reporters that the e-mails provided by CREW were heavily redacted and that the group refused to provide unedited versions to the FBI. One law enforcement official…also told The Washington Post the FBI believed that CREW may have received the e-mails as early as April and that the group refused to tell the FBI how they were obtained.

Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler points us to Newsbusters where we get a little bit of much-needed perspective on this.

ABC�s World News Tonight story on [Congressman Mel] Reynolds being convicted on August 23, 1995, didn�t have any fury about how Democrats could allow this sexual predator in their caucus. For their part, ABC seemed more suffused with sadness than outrage:

Diane Sawyer, substitute anchor: “In Chicago, Congressman Mel Reynolds remains free on his own recognizance after his conviction last night of having sex with a minor. His lawyers say they’ll appeal. In the meantime, the Illinois Democrat will continue to pick up a paycheck, as ABC’s Ron Claiborne reports.”

Ron Claiborne: “In the end, it was Mel Reynolds’ own words that led to his conviction on charges of having sex with a 16-year-old girl. Jurors said the most powerful evidence against him was police tape recordings of his intimate phone conversations with Beverly Heard, now 19.”

Jeslyn Cipriani, Juror: “It was the tapes, the transcripts that we heard, Mel and Beverly talking.”

Claiborne: “At one point on the tapes, which were made with Heard’s cooperation, she and Reynolds discussed what underwear he prefers. He also uses explicit language as he talks about having sex with her and with himself. On the stand, Reynolds denied ever having sex with Heard. He insisted their conversations were only phone sex fantasies. But the jury convicted him of all 12 felony counts, including sexual abuse and sexual assault. He was also found guilty of soliciting child pornography for asking Heard for a nude photo of a 15-year-old girl; and of obstruction of justice, for trying to get Heard to recant her accusations.

“The convictions likely end Reynolds’ promising political career. He had risen from a childhood of poverty in rural Mississippi to Harvard, Oxford Rhodes scholar and to Congress.”

Can’t you just hear that Democrat Wizard of Oz, telling you to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?

Well, whaddya gonna do. Thus ends the 2006 midterm elections, and we’re left not so much with answers, but with a nagging question: Do liberal ideas really work? They’ve been tried lots of times, with a pretty dismal record of success. Their big selling point is supposed to be that whether they work or not, people believe them. Well, do people, really? It doesn’t seem Democrats can even win, unless there’s a Republican scandal. They themselves appear convinced that this is the only way they’ve got a shot at peddling their fecal moon pies at the high school bake sale.

Watergate…some charismatic saxophone-playin’ ladeez-man in a couple three-way presidential races…and, yet another Republican scandal. This time, with the fingerprints of manipulation all over it. Those are the only ways you get Democrats elected on the national stage. Across a third of a century!

Whether they win or lose this round, that pattern will remain solid this year.

We just don’t want them. We’ve outgrown ’em. Even if they end up in charge of everything next year, they’re still done.

Update: Denny tells ’em to stick it.

That editorial cartoon is absolutely brilliant.

Found you from Fark after you posted that I “got it” on the comments about that sicko kid full of excuses.

Your blog is great – right up my alley. I’m bookmarking it.
- Stephanie | 10/06/2006 @ 09:31
Maybe voters will think something like this: “A Republican Congressman was a pervert, therefore I should vote for the Democrats, who are soft on terrorists and tough on the American taxpayer.” I don’t think so.
- Myrhaf | 10/06/2006 @ 19:08

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Foleygate Wrap-UpFriday, October 6th, 2006

Foleygate Wrap-Up
Friday, October 6th, 2006