From a DCCC email:
Last Friday, Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida abruptly resigned his congressional seat amid questions surrounding his inappropriate emails with a former teenage House page. While House Republican leaders had known about this situation for months, they had done nothing.
Parents across the country are more concerned than ever about protecting their children from such online predators, but the Republican leadership did the unthinkable and demonstrated that they cared more
about protecting one of their own incumbents than young people who had been entrusted to their care. These actions have gone beyond just an abuse of power into a betrayal of trust that strikes at a parent's worst fear.
Not bad. Now what we all really need to keep in mind is that this Republican Congressional child-sex scandal is only one part of a larger storyline.
(More below)
In addressing this scandal, we need to put it in its proper perspective and continually weave the Foley storyline in with other storylines, to help communicate a broader narrative.
A broader narrative arc that covers past GOP scandals and can be continually reinforced in the future.
A broader narrative revealing the Republican brand name to be what it truly is . . . a corrupt, power-hungry farce.
A broader narrative communicating the nature and persistence of degenerate Republican behavior and immorality; the failure of Republican leadership and the GOP's overall inability to lead; Republican cover-ups and lies; Republican hypocrisy and thirst for power; etc., to the American people and reinforcing our own storyline in re: the Republican party.
It would be a grave mistake to allow this scandal to be seen as anything other than what it really is - namely, yet another example of highly disturbing patterns of Republican behavior that are ruining this country.
No mention of Foley getting caught and resigning should go by without also mentioning his fellow GOPers Ney, Cunningham, Delay, etc. and their own recent disgraceful exits from Congress.
Foley must be portrayed as only the latest (and perhaps worst) in a long line of corrupt, criminal and immoral Republicans who have become drunk on power and believe they can get away with anything.
They have turned the Congress and the U.S. government into their own mini-version of Caligula's Rome.
The Republicans ignored the warnings about a pedophile among them just like they ignored the warnings of an imminent terrorist attack before 9/11; just like they ignored the warnings about an imminent catastrophe before Hurricane Katrina; and just like they ignored the warnings about a disaster-in-the-making in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Republicans betrayed the trust of the underage boys working as pages on the Hill, just as they betrayed the trust of the people of New Orleans in regard to Katrina; just as they betrayed the trust of the people killed on 9/11 by failing to act to try and stop those attacks; and just like they betrayed the trust of the American people in invading Iraq based on lies.
Reynolds, Reynolds' Chief-of-Staff, Hastert and the rest of the Republican House leadership tried to cover this outrage up, just like the Republicans tried to cover-up the Republican failures that led up to 9/11, and just like the Republicans tried to cover up the truth regarding their stunning incompetence in Iraq.
By covering up the crimes of a Republican pedophile in Congress in order to try and cling to power, the power-hungry Republicans sacrificed the safety of underage boys working in their care, just as they have sacrificed the lives of almost 3,000 Americans in uniform in Iraq.
The well-being and safety of teenage boys was sacrificed on the Republican altar of lies, just as almost 3,000 Americans in Iraq have been.
If the Republicans can't protect a mere handful of underage teenagers in their care, working directly for them and in their own offices, how can they possibly be trusted to protect America's children from the threats we are faced with in the world today.
Etc., etc. etc.
We need to weave this scandal's storyline into larger storylines about the GOP in order to succeed in accurately branding Republicans as a whole.
This scandal should not be presented on its own, but rather as only one example of the disturbed, power-hungry, self-loathing, publicly sex-hating but privately perverted, corrupt and dishonest Republican psyche.
Republicans are drunk on power and are willing to do or say anything to cling to power. They are willing to expose children to a sexual predator simply to protect their hold on one seat in the House.
They are unhinged to the point that they are now trying to condone pedophilia just to won an election and they cannot be trusted to even run Congress, much less the country.
Reynolds, Boehmer, Hastert and the rest of the Republican leadership failed, at the most fundamental level, to preserve the honor and integrity of the Congress and, more seriously, failed to protect the safety of children who were supposed to be under their care.
The Democrats need to stay on the offensive about this.
They need to avoid falling into the trap of becoming defensive as the Republican counter-offensive rolls out.
Any attempt to defend Foley, Hastert, Reynolds or the GOP in general over this should be portrayed, aggressively, as essentially equivalent to a defense of pedophilia. Anybody sticking up for the GOP on this should be portrayed as a pedophile-sympathizer trying to condone Foley's behavior.
If I were on a TV "news" talk show with some right-wing talking head trying to defend the GOP on this, or trying to counter-attack and go after Dems on this, said talking head wouldn't be done with his second sentence before I was talking over him accusing him/her of defending pedophilia and pointing out that the power-mad Republicans have turned the government, and Congress in particular, into their own twisted version of Caligula's Rome. Bribery, corruption, a negligent indifference to the safety and welfare of our troops and now child-molestation - it's all par for the course for the Republicans in Congress.
Etc. etc.