Spin cycle seems busted

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/15675082.htm

WASHINGTON - Even when damage control seems a lost cause, I suppose you have to follow the playbook.

So Mark Foley resigns his House seat in a nanosecond and then explains those creepy electronic messages to young congressional pages by declaring himself an alcoholic, effectively blaming it all on demon rum. House Speaker Dennis Hastert promptly calls for a really thorough -- meaning really slow -- investigation. The rest of the Republican leadership declares itself shocked and/or saddened but agrees that the time has come to move on, folks, nothing to see here.

These practiced responses have long served politicians, but you don't get the sense that anyone thinks they'll work this time. There's really no effective spin you can put on the Foley scandal, no way that even the Republican Party's image-making geniuses can make people feel good about a 52-year-old man discussing masturbatory techniques with a male teenager via instant message.

About all the party leadership can do is hope the whole affair is so unsavory that some voters will be too grossed out to pay much attention. Then maybe it won't sink in that House leaders were told in November 2005 about an inappropriate e-mail that Foley had sent to a House page. The situation was handled with nothing more than a quiet warning.

The leadership didn't launch an investigation, which probably would have unearthed the much more explicit instant-message exchange between the Florida Republican and another young male page that surfaced last week. House leaders even let Foley continue to serve as co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, an irony too sad and unforgivable to properly enjoy.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested over the weekend that House leaders may have worried last year that if they pursued the Foley matter, they'd be "accused of gay-bashing." Clearly, in terms of his spinning skills, Gingrich has lost a step. The issue was whether a congressman was having improper communications with a child, not whether the congressman was gay. And anyway, it's a little late for the Republicans to denounce gay-bashing after raising it to an art form.

Too Many Oversized Loads Are Taking Their Toll On The Well Oiled Machine!

Edit...The Agitator in Chief is far beyond the Maytag Man's depth of field, in this latest doggie and pony scene.

"The Big Republican Party - Not just for pedophiles anymore!"