Mark Foley and the FL-16 seat are
not the only story (hat tip
srkp23).
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) issued a statement Saturday in which he said that he had informed Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) of allegations of improper contacts between then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and at least one former male page, contradicting earlier statements from Hastert.
And as the
NY Times, in cataloguing a really bad week for the GOP, notes
The highly publicized case of Mr. Foley, who served in the House leadership as a deputy whip, threatened to build into an institutional scandal as House leaders acknowledged that they had known about the messages for nearly a year, but had relied on Mr. Foley's word that nothing inappropriate had occurred.
It isn't threating to build in to an institutional scandal, it's
already a scandal. The GOP House leadership knew about a pedophile for a year, including Hastert (soon to be the ex-Leader, and a dead man walking), and did nothing. This is not defensible, no matter how much spin the networks are willing to do for the GOP (see the GOP reaction to the Woodward book, which while ineffective, is extensive). Every parent in the country is going to react to this, at the least, as will the values voters (if they mean what they say about values - to be determined).
I can't wait to read the Note on Monday to hear about how the GOP will use this to their advantage and win the 24-hour news cycle.