I've been watching the Corner for the last few hours waiting to see how they'd react to the "thermonuclear" news that the Republican leadership knew about Predatorgate and yet left Foley in charge of a campaign to protect children. Nothing, until John Millar finally crawled out from under his rock just after 11:am
I knew they'd have to say something, but I never expected this kind of bombshell:
If House Republican leaders really did avert their gaze from a problem they knew about, however, Foley could become the new Jack Abramoff. Except that whereas the details of Abramoff's were always a bit complicated for the public to follow closely, the accusations now leveled at Foley are much simpler and more appalling. Foley is on the verge of becoming the poster child of a party that is concerned about little more than preserving its power. This could very well cost Republicans more than Florida's 16th congressional district, which at this point they probably deserve to lose even if they somehow manage to replace Foley on the ballot or come up with another candidate; it might be the Democrats' October surprise.
More below the fold....
K-Lo was cowering. Jonah was
parroting Allen's "156 to 1" spin of the Post's 'slanted' coverage. But all the while regular Corner readers knew or suspected what was really going on. Corner contributors were simply too scared to write anything about the appalling scandal that has erupted this weekend, exposing the dark, hateful soul of the racist Republican party of George Bush and Jack Abramoff: a moral vacuum where nothing counts but power and corruption.
Until John Miller spoke out and laid bare all the lies, stating clearly that whatever the party once may have been, the charade is over. Predatorgate confirms the Republican party is simply: "...concerned about little than preserving its power", power it is almost certain to lose :
The news that House Republican leaders may have known about disgraced former congressman Mark Foley's behavior as early as several months ago is dynamite.
So much for Instapundit's droll faux indifference, Hindraker's pooh-poohing of the significance of allowing a sexual predator to prowl the page list looking for victims or Jonah's pithy smear of the Post. Glenn Greenwald has more on this.
The "thermo-nuclear" dimension of Predatorgate will certainly transform the results of the coming election and may well finish the Republican Party as we know it.
Gay-bashing and fear-mongering are all Republicans can offer Americans. This is the Republican Congressional leadership's "Katrina" moment, where all credibility evaporates in a weekend.
Who will possibly believe a word about the Republicans as protectors of America's virtues?
Dems need to stay focused and positive. Both Houses are now there for Dems to lose. And nobody understands that better than the Cowering Corner Cowards.
UPDATE: Thanks to martianchronic and cookies and milk for their suggestions about language. Their comments actually sharpened my own thinking about the Hindraker defense of Hastert (see Greenwald). I'm happy to change the wording of my own piece, but it is important to note that for Hindraker "gayness" is a "the central issue". Hindraker implicitly claims that Predatorgate actually stems from Foley's sexual identity. No gay people in Congress = no crisis for America.
Indeed, I think Jeff in nyc is dead right, so much so that I'm editing this diary to make "Republican gay-bashing" the formal close to this diary. Predatorgate, without a doubt, will all be laid at the door of gay people. That's wrong, really wrong at about a million different levels. I initially quiped: "What the fuck else can we expect from these morally corrupt cowards?"And don't expect Miller or anyone at the Corner to rise up and protect gay folks on that or any other score. But its more serious than that. We can't let Predatorgate be spun into another attack on gay people, not just to protect gay folks, but because Predatorgate isn't about gay people, its about corruption, dishonesty, power, hypocrisy and hate. In other words, it's about everything that is the Republican Party today. Let
s keep control of the narrative and win it all in November.