GOP consultant: "Who's getting thrown overboard...to get this to go away?"

NYT/AP: Analysis: Foley Shadows GOP Election
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 2, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a twist on the old Watergate question, the Republican Party is struggling to answer: What did GOP leaders know of a congressman's salacious exchanges with underage male pages and when did they know it?

The truth could determine not only their own political futures but also whether the party can recover from the scandal surrounding former Republican Rep. Mark Foley -- and manage to remain in power on Nov. 7.

''I don't think this is so much about Foley as it is about the handling of this,'' Rick Davis, a Republican strategist, said Monday as the drama rocked the House GOP five weeks before midterm elections, much to Democrats' delight.

''The question becomes who's getting thrown overboard besides Foley to get this to go away,'' said Tony Fabrizio, another GOP consultant....The tawdry turn of events set off finger-pointing among House Republicans and overshadowed what the GOP had hoped would be a triumphant final work week highlighting the party's national security credentials before the campaign's homestretch.

But, the Republican Party -- already facing an unfriendly political environment and the fallout from a new book critical of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war -- finds itself knocked even further off message and working to contain the political damage....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Foley-Fallout.html

I say, throw ALL of them overboard, one by one, in leisurely fashion, with Hastert served up the Friday before Election Day.

I went to http://www.fec.gov and http://www.thegreenpapers.com and clicked through to state General Election voter information pages. Here are the incumbent names, states and districts, Democratic challengers, and campaign homepage URLs:

R Incumbent (State-District) ....... Democratic Challenger
Homepage

Mark Foley (FL-16) ..................... Tim Mahoney
http://www.timmahoneyforflorida.com

John Shimkus (IL-19) .................. Danny Stover
http://www.stoverforcongress.us

Thomas Reynolds (NY-26) .......... Jack Davis
http://www.jackdavis.org

Rodney Alexander (LA-05) ......... Gloria Williams Hearn
NO WEBSITE LINK AT THEGREENPAPERS

John A. Boehner (OH-08) ............ Mort Meier
http://www.victimsofjohnboehner.org

Denny Hastert (IL-14) ................. John Laesch
http://john06.com

Roy Blunt (MO-07) ..................... Jack Truman
http://trumanforcongress.tripod.com

See http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/9/30/212758/946/426#c426 for more details.

Here's where you can go to help some of these candidates. Most of these Democrats are on their own with very few resources. One doesn't even have a website!

IMO, what they need most is help with local media, press releases, photo-ops, etc. IMO, their only hope of gaining office for themselves is to ignite local media feeding frenzies to bloody up and then devour the coverup leadership. You can even find lists of links to their local media at the bottom of General Election webpages for their states at http://www.thegreenpapers.com .

It'll be like Abramhoff.. The gift that keeps on giving