Armed With Foley Scandal, Dems Attack

Campaign Ads Link GOP With Page Scandal As Democrats Eye Congressional Control

(CBS/AP)  More Democrats are going on the attack with campaign ads linking Republican candidates to the Internet sex scandal in the House of Representatives, while Republican candidates move to distance themselves from the embattled speaker of the House.

On Saturday, Democrat Patty Wetterling, a candidate for an open House seat, continued the attack in the Democratic response to President George W. Bush's weekly radio address to the people as the party looks to reap political gains in elections Nov. 7.

The Democrats could take the House, the Senate or both. In the House it would take a gain of 15 of the 435 seats being elected, and a gain of six of the 33 Senate seats at stake would swing control of that chamber to the Democrats.

Foley is all over the news and affecting races everywhere, CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports, adding that Republican candidates from Boca Raton to Buffalo are very nervous.

Tom Reynolds is the House Republican campaign chief, whose tough race for re-election in upstate New York is now even tougher since he was among those House leaders told about the original Foley e-mails.

At the heart of the scandal are electronic communications between former Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned in disgrace a week ago, and teenage male pages. They are students from across the country who spend a year in Washington working in the House to learn the U.S. political system.

"Foley sent obvious predatory signals, received loud and clear by members of congressional leadership, who swept them under the rug to protect their political power," Wetterling says in the prerecorded address. "We must hold accountable all those complicit in allowing this victimization to happen."

Republican Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. became on Friday the party's first major candidate to press for Hastert to resign, while campaign appearances by Hastert to show the flag for House Republican candidates were canceled. Hastert has come under heavy attack within his party for damage inflicted on the party just weeks before the elections.

"Hastert should resign as speaker," Kean said. "He is the head of the institution, and this happened on his watch."

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a Republican write-in candidate in the race to replace former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who himself resigned because of legal problems, decided not to pursue plans to invite Hastert to raise money for her campaign after the Foley scandal broke.

"We just made a decision not to have" a fundraiser with Hastert, said Sekula-Gibbs' campaign manager, Lisa Diamond.

However, one Republican heavyweight disagreed with his party's distancing from Hastert. "If they throw Denny Hastert off the sled to slow down the wolves, it won't be long before you'll be crying, 'Hey, you've got to throw somebody over because they knew about it too," said James A. Baker III, a top political confidant and adviser to the first President Bush.

Meanwhile, Democrats stepped up their attacks.

"What is going on in Washington? ... Deborah Pryce's friend Mark Foley is caught using his position to take advantage of 16-year-old pages. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert looked the other way," says an ad for Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, challenging seven-term Rep. Deborah Pryce, the No. 4 Republican in the House in a particularly competitive race.

And in culturally conservative southern Indiana, former Democratic Rep. Baron Hill took to the airwaves Friday with an ad attacking freshman Republican Mike Sodrel for taking thousands of dollars in donations from House Republican leaders "who knew about but did nothing to stop sexual predator congressman Foley."

At the same time, Hastert canceled plans to raise money for Sodrel on Tuesday.

Earlier, Republican Rep. Ron Lewis, a Baptist preacher and social conservative, canceled plans for a fundraiser with Hastert, who also dropped an appearance with Ohio GOP candidate Joy Padgett, who is in an uphill race to replace the disgraced Rep. Bob Ney.

The nonstop news cycles for over a week have been filled with details of Foley's lurid messages to former pages and accusations by former top Foley staff aide Kirk Fordham that top party aides, including some in Hastert's office, knew about Foley's problems and his relationship with pages years ago.

But with no significant developments Friday, GOP strategists hoped the party could catch its breath and gain traction on issues like lower gas prices, the peaking stock market and the economy. Great skittishness remained about unforeseen developments in the Foley saga, nevertheless.

Democrats are increasingly optimistic that they will retake the House and possibly even the Senate. Even a prominent Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, seemed pessimistic that his party will keep its hold on the House.

"It's happened in the past that we've had divided government in terms of the House and Senate," Cornyn said. "I'm sure we'll do our best to work together to try to address the nation's problems."

[drgoodwin12]

Here is a link to all the republicans who have had sexual relations with minors,http://www.armchairsubversive.com/ The names and details on this list are to long to print here.This is the party of morals?

[drgoodwin12]

I want to know why CBS is not covering this story http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2540067&page=1 which proves that Hastert office knew about the nature of Foley and his predatory nature as far back as 3 years ago.Are they being paid off?

[drgoodwin12]

To eldons1 what happened in the past 20 years ago is not relevant to today,the jefforson probe should continue.More republicans in the last two years have been the subject of scandal than Democrats.Delay,Cunnigham,Ney,Reed,Abranhoff and now let us add Hastert,Reynolds,Alexander,Boehner and Shimkus to the list and let us not forget about the NIE report,Woodwards book,Rice's failure to remember only to be confirmed by the state department,the escalating violence in Iraq and we can add Bush,Cheney,Rumsfield,Rove and every republican who continues to vote lock stock and barrel in step with them.A war that was planned 11 days into office(sources:AGAINST ALL ENEMIES and THE PRICE OF LOYALTY)wriiten by republicans and never rebuked along with Woodwards book,the NIE report and you want us to trust republicans?John Warner is a fine man and there are others but the vast majority only vote the party line.That is not leadership,that is a group of sheep following one lamb or in this case several lambs namely Bush,Cheney,Rumsfield and Rove.

[drgoodwin12]

Here is a link that proves Hastert prior knowledge http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2540067&page=1 ,so Hastert,Reynolds,Boehner,Alexander and Shimkus should resign.That way we can get on with facing the real issues facing this country,Iraq,Terrorism not the same until we invaded,dependence on oil,rising deficits,social security being kept viable(stop borrorowing from it)immigration policy which does not fit into the nice little boxes that have been proposed.the list goes on and on.So let us demand their resignation and focus on the bigger issues i am not saying that child molestation is not a problem,this scandal is merely a distraction from the bigger issues in this country

[eldons1]

10 reasons Not to trust the "DoomoCrats" !

Wednesday, October 04, 2006Top 10 Democrat *** Scandals in Congress lists.php?id=17357
Information compiled from the Washington Post, %u201CCongressional *** Scandals in History http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/congress.htm ,%u201D and other sources.

The Old Old Preverbial "Pot Calling Kettle Black"
Syndrome!

[searingtruth]

The Republican Party is the first political party in American history that proudly and boldly attempted to abolish the Constitution of the United States of America.
And they succeeded.

Under their treasonous reign, American freedom died. Without even a whimper.

It is time to reclaim it.

With a roar.
SearingTruth

A Future of thr Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[searingtruth]

"As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought in all governments, and actually will in all free governments ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs, when the people stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow mediated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth, can regain their authority over the public mind?"
James Madison, Federalist No. 63, 1788

"I wanted only a freedom for all that I had coveted for myself."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

newsthought1: come to PolitiPoll.net and debate me on this.

[newsthought1]

TO: iLoveAMERICA
First you said that the Foley emails are innocent and not sexual. No: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/BrianRoss/story?id=2509586&page=1
Now you say the Dems are just homosexual bashing and you try to change the subject to the war and terrorism. Almost nobody is bashing Foley for being gay- it's that he was luring children for his sexual gratification. Add a republican House leadership that would rather look the other way than turn in one of their corrupt club. You ask if the Dems even have an agenda. How about security- going after Osama instead of making Halliburton rich ripping off the U.S. while barking up the wrong tree in Iraq. How about NOT selling port security to an arab company. How about doing the right thing by being the GOOD GUYS instead of inflicting torture, making other countries believe Osama was right. How about energy independence, fiscal responsibility and budget discipline, retirement security, protecting our environment, affordable health care, civil rights and justice, election reform and honest government. Between the corruption, fraud, and influence peddeling of Abramoff, DeLay, Scanlon, Burns, Reed, Ney, plus Rumsfeld, Cheney, Scoter Libby, Rove and the CIA leaks, and now Foley, Reynolds, Boehner and Hastert, I think the republicans have had their turn to show us their idea of government. It is TIME FOR A CHANGE!

Look on the bright side, if the Dems grab the majority in Congress, the Republicans can do just what the Dems have been doing the last six years: tell lies about the war, the economy, the deficit, the health care crisis, the enviornmental crisis, global warming, education crisis, immigration crisis, etc.

Foley's not only going to cost the Republicans the majority, he's going to cost Hillary the White House. Maybe this isn't so bad after all.

www.PolitiPoll.net