Day: October 12, 2006

Shays Compares Page Scandal with Chappaquiddick — Forgets That Laura Bush Also Killed Someone

Pensito Editors

GOP Rep. Chris Shays, who is in the fight of his life to save his seat in liberal Connecticut, proved his Republican bona fides this week by comparing the Foley scandal and its cover-up by his party’s leaders in the House with the drowning accident caused by Sen. Ted Kennedy at Chappaquiddick 37 years ago:

When the congressional page scandal broke last month, Democrats across the country saw a chance to lambaste Republican leadership – including [Shays’ Democratic opponent] Diane Farrell, who called on House Speaker Dennis Hastert to step down.

But when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy came to Connecticut last week to help her campaign, Rep. Christopher Shays hit back.

“I know the speaker didn’t go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day,” said Shays, R-4th District, referring to the 1969 incident in which the Massachusetts Democrat drove a car that plunged into the water and a young campaign worker died.

“Dennis Hastert didn’t kill anybody,” he added.

Over the past two weeks, as a bizarre defense of the actions of Rep. Mark Foley’s predatory emails to House pages, Republicans have been bringing up the tragedy involving the young senator and the woman who drowned, Mary Jo Kopechne.

It’s too bad that Democrats don’t think like Republicans, or they would counter by reminding Republicans that First Lady Laura Bush also killed someone in her youth.

Rove’s October Surprise Is Still Out There

Jon Ponder

When will the other shoe drop?

This election is far from over, and Pres. Bush and his team are desperate. Their entire agenda — not to mention their freedom from investigation and perhaps indictment and even impeachment — rests on a Republican victory on Nov. 7.

On Sept. 21, Raw Story reported that Karl Rove was telling conservative groups that he had a surprise scheduled for the last two weeks of October that would turn the midterms in the Republicans’ favor.

Now, as mid-October approaches, we have to assume that Rove’s other shoe will drop within a week or so.

We have already seen how suddenly the narrative can change in an election. Eight days after the Raw Story report, Rove found the shoe on the other foot, for once, when an unnamed Republican operative outed GOP Rep. Mark Foley as chickenhawk who had been stalking Capitol Hill page boys for years. And worse, GOP leaders, including Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader John Boehner and others, have known about Foley’s predatory ways for months and years, and have been covering it up to keep Foley’s seat in GOP hands. The scandal has had Republicans on the defensive and off-message for two weeks.

There may be more surprises coming in the Foley case — a wholesale outing of all the GOP staffers and elected officials on Capitol Hill has been threatened, for example. But it is just as likely that the story will fade, or be trumped by bigger news. (When was the last time the word “macaca” was in the news?)

What is Rove’s October surprise? As early as Sept. 8, we suggested that the Bush team could have captured or killed Osama bin Laden recently, and have been waiting to reveal this news closer to the election. Others, including BuzzFlash, had similar thoughts.

This election is far from over, and Pres. Bush and his cohorts are desperate. Their entire agenda — not to mention their freedom from investigation, perhaps indictment and even impeachment — rests on a Republican victory on Nov. 7.

They will do anything to win.

Katherine Harris Descriptive Quote of the Day

Buck Banks

“I have never heard of a candidate taking money out of a campaign coffer like it’s an ATM. It absolutely boggles my mind,” said former Harris campaign manager Jim Dornan. “This is a woman who has completely lost touch with reality. You don’t take your campaign contributors’ money, whether it’s yours or not, and spend it to renovate your house. This is absolutely insane.”