The 24 hour news cycle could churn this controversy under. This week we have to tie the Foley/Hastert problem to other problems. We have to show that this is just one example of a pattern of failure, corruption and incompetence.
With Iraq, the republicans chose to turn a blind eye to the evidence clearly stating that Saddam had no WMD's and considered Al Qaeda as much an enemy as we do. With Katrina, the republicans chose to turn a blind eye to the evidence that a storm was gonna wreck New Orleans. And with Foley, the republicans chose to turn a blind eye to evidence that one of their own was an enemy of our youth.
More below the flip.
So: the sound bite:
"If we can't trust republicans to defend our children, we can't trust them to defend America."
The pattern is clear. Time after time, when republicans have been told that there was a threat to America and it's citizens, they chose doing their own thing over defending us. Rice was told bluntly: Al Qaeda will execute a major attack against us in a matter of months. She chose to back a pork-barrel missle program instead. Thousands of us died as a result. Bush was told: Them levees are gonna breach, this is huge. He went on vacation. He stayed on vacation even after he saw it happen. Many of us died then too. At least the lucky ones. Some were raped first. And with Foley: I don't care what party you're with. I don't care how important the current state of affairs is. Every adult human has a sacred responsibility: when you see children being victimized, you do something about it. Even if it means you might be brutally murdered, it's more important than you. The republicans didn't just fail as a party. They are failures as human beings in this.
We invaded Afghanistan and put the smack-down on the Taliban because Al-Qaeda commited a dispecible act against us and the Taliban was providing cover for them. They were an accomplice and we treated them as such.
Mark Foley committed dispecible acts against our kids. The House republicans covered for him. They are accomplices as well. And thus, again, the sound bite:
"If we can't trust republicans to defend our children, we can't trust them to defend America."
It's not just the truth, it's a frame. One we own at the moment and we'd be negligent not to do something about this. We'd be failing as humans ourselves if we didn't do whatever we could to hold these monsters to account.
Memorize the bite. Through the elections, this should be your preable whenever discussing this topic. Just say it and let it flow from there.