Day: October 2, 2006

From beyond the right wing: Leave it to one of our least-favorite arh-wingnuts, Richard Viguerie, to pile on Republican House leaders while they’re all scrambling to cover their collective sorry asses. The man who thinks Barry Goldwater was a bit too liberal issued this press release today:

Richard A. Viguerie, author of the new book, Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause and a founder of the conservative movement, has called for the immediate resignation of any House GOP leaders who knew of former Congressman Mark Foley’s improper contact with underage pages and took no action.

‘Anyone who covers up such behavior should have the full wraith [sic] of the authorities and of the public fall upon them, because they are the enablers who made it possible.’

Viguerie stated that any public official who takes advantage of a page or intern – someone to whom they are “in loco parentis” (in the place of a parent) – should be treated the same as a teacher or member of the clergy who commits a similar act. “And anyone who covers up such behavior should have the full wraith [sic] of the authorities and of the public fall upon them, because they are the enablers who made it possible.”

He said that calls for a Justice Department investigation “could be part of an effort to cover this up until after the election. Once an investigation is under way, they may claim, falsely, that they can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.” He said House GOP leaders must “tell the American people the truth right now, not sweep it under the rug for the next six weeks.”

Said Viguerie: “This isn’t an isolated situation. It is only the most recent example of Republican House leaders doing whatever it takes to hold onto power. If it means spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars on questionable projects, they’ll do it. If it means covering up the most despicable actions of a colleague, they’ll do it.”

“They’ve lost their moral rudder,” Viguerie said of any House leaders who tolerated Foley’s behavior.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was on Fox News Sunday yesterday, and came up with the most off-the-wall explanation yet of the House GOP leadership’s failure to deal with Rep. Mark Foley and his “naughty” emails to minors. Gingrich’s spin would be funny if it weren’t so dastardly:

Well, you could have second thoughts about it, but I think had they overly aggressively reacted to the initial round, they would have also been accused of gay bashing.

How many elections have the Republicans won by placing anti-gay initiatives on the ballot? Gay bashing is standard procedure for the GOP, and the House leadership is among the worst. So the idea that they would be afraid of being accused of gay bashing is just silly.

Perhaps Gingrich meant the leaders were afraid of appearing to bash a gay Republican. If so, he was wrong again. They’d happily do it.

Disarray in the Republican Party escalated another notch today when Joe Scarborough, a former GOP congressman from Florida and current host of one of the Fox-Lite rightwing gabfests on MSNBC, posted a harsh critique of his former colleagues on his network’s website:

The fact that Republicans allowed Mark Foley to continue as Chairman of the Committee on Missing and Exploited Children is terrible. The fact that they let him lead the charge on a bill to stop the exploitation of minors on the Internet is unpardonable.

Scarborough also suggests that within the conspiracy by the leaders to cover up Rep. Mark Foley’s emails to the 16 year old boy there was another conspiracy:

Someone had these IM’s and held on to them for a year so to inflict maximum damage on Mark Foley and the Republican Party. Why did this person (or people) withhold possible criminal evidence from authorities? Shouldn’t they also be arrested for obstructing an investigation and preventing congressional leaders from taking whatever steps is necessary to protect these high school pages?

The GOP leadership sat on this thing, hoping to kick it down the field until after the election in order to suppress it until after Foley was re-elected, at which point they would quickly force him out so that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush could appoint a GOP replacement before his term as governor ends in January.

Joe Scarborough suggests that someone had contrary objectives. This person — a disgruntled staffer or someone in the leadership ranks — leaked the emails to thwart the GOP’s continued control of Congress, or perhaps to get Foley personally.