There they go again - Republic brings up Chappaquidick to respond on Foley

Shays Hits Hard In Page Scandal
Invokes Chappaquiddick In Rebuking Farrell; Polls Show Issue Not Helping Democrats
October 11, 2006
By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- When the congressional page scandal broke last month, Democrats across the country saw a chance to lambaste Republican leadership - including 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

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-foley1011.artoct11,0,4392221.story?coll=hc-big-headlines-breaking

Maybe Farrell should have responded with a question, "Was that before or after Laura Bush ran down & killed her ex-fiancee?"

First Bill Clinton in the 90s, then Studds in the 80s, now Kennedy in the 60s... pretty soon we'll be back to FDR or Wilson. I mean, every time Kennedy is mentioned, the Republic response is "Chappaquidick" - not even to respond to what he is saying.

they just do not get it

They just want to win — by any means available.

It doesn't even have to make sense, as long as it "resonates" with their side.

For those of you who want the PERFECT rejoinder to any repuke who brings up "Chappaquiddick" as a defense for the burgeoning Foley/Hastert/Boner/Reynolds scandal, simply say,

"At least Teddy got the gender right!"

Offensive to normal, thinking, people? Yes. But... will it click with wingnuts? YES!

Unfortunately, to effectively answer a smug right-wingnut, you have to think like one--at least for a few seconds.

my ass

Repuke party is full of dirty old men.

As long as we are digging skeletons out of the closet, fair game.

Someone needs to mention about Jankalow (R) mowing down the motorcyclist in South Dakota, after he had already had previous speeding violations??

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E14FA34540C728EDDA10894DB404482&n=Top%2fClassifieds%2fAutos%2fTopics%2fHandle%20Bars

You wanna dig, WE'LL play. Let's get real CONS.

THE ASCENDANCY OF THE CREDIT CARD INDUSTRY

"Had circumstances been less dire, the news of four urgent phone calls from a New York bank in a single day likely would have been easier to ignore. "Nobody's historically more suspicious of outsiders than South Dakotans,'' Bill Janklow, the former governor of South Dakota, told FRONTLINE in a recent interview.

But it was 1980, South Dakota's economy was a mess, and suspicion was an instinct that Janklow could not afford. "We were in the poor house,'' he recalled. "It cost 42 cents a bushel in 1980 to haul wheat. When something's only selling for $2.20 a bushel, you certainly can't afford to be paying almost 50 cents a bushel to ship it.''


The calls were from Citibank, which was having a serious problem of its own. "It was very simple,'' said Walter Wriston, then the chairman of Citibank. "We were going broke.''

The bank had lost more than $1 billion on its audacious foray into the credit card business, and the future looked even worse. The trouble, simply put, was that the rate of inflation exceeded the amount of interest Citibank was allowed to charge its credit card customers under New York usury laws."

(snip)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/rise.html

A truly despicable man, and a truly despicable "industry".

comparable to this latest scandal. that said, the 'but billy did it too!' defense is something i expect from a third-grader, not a an adult politician.

Forty years ago? Forty years isn't now.

Or, you could just quip: Forty years ago? That's so September 10th.

that forty years from now, no one will throw Mark Foley in the face of Republicans because they (as a party) will have committed so many other crimes and misdemeanors that no one will even remember the little perv. Republicans are pathetic.

Clinton or Kennedy - they've certainly come in handy for the repug spin machine. And BTW, Mary Jo was 29 or so.

please explain to me how these particular scandals make it okay to excuse the Foley scandal?

If RW(nuts) are soooooooooooooooo upset over Kennedy, Studds, Clinton - then why aren't they equally upset over Foley? Are they really saying they want to excuse Foley's trangressions because dems had scandals? Are they saying it's ok to prey on kids because dems had scandals?

Are they advocating a new criminal defense? Not guilty by reason that the dems had scandals too?

She made some really, really horrible choices that day. I believe she chose to join in the drinking... and then she took a ride with Ted, who was probably too drunk to drive. I feel most for her poor parents.

But she was neither forced nor tricked into that car.

These pages were as young as 15. And if you've ever worked with, or raised, kids that age, you know that they are very, very easy to fool. In fact, the smarter the kid, the more gullible--because they think intelligence is enough to protect them, and it's not. Experience is needed, too, and TIME is the only thing that can bring experience.

it is totally irrelevent. wtf? give me a break

this simply proves how desperate the republicans are...

hey repukes... keep on trying to change the subject
with irrelevant stuff... it make you look wonderfully ridiculous

and adult gay men stalking little high school boys, who those adults have sworn to protect, while those high school children, are away from their homes and parents, serving their country?

with much greater frequency. We should make sure that her running down and killing her ex-boyfriend is as well known as Chappaquidick.

As soon as a Repuke mentions the word "Chappaquidick" to me, I remind them about Pickle's little "accident". I've met a few who had never even heard about it (I'm assuming that Fox "News" doesn't spend much time talking about decades old car wrecks that do NOT involve Ted Kennedy) and one who refused to believe it was true ("libural media lies" or whatever they like to call real FACTS these days). :crazy:

But, I think it was a softball type question, like how did this terrible incident affect her life...

I learned about it from reading DU.

I don't know why, but she does. We don't want to garner sympathy for her and lose any anti-perv votes.

That hasn't stopped the RW from bringing Chappaquidick up at every opportunity. Bill and Hillary have large followings as well, and that doesn't stop the unrelenting attacks on them. These attacks don't seem to have hurt the RW much. In fact, they seem to gain by being constantly on the attack.

If more people knew about Laura's little incident, she might not have quite so much sympathy.

Along with Hastert, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice....oh wait - we'll have to rent a bus for all these assholes.

Even Karl Rove can't help them now.

Because... the RW was just as alive and just as deadly then as now (they just didnt have the media yet).\
Im just saying...
JFK = gone
What would have been worse to the RW than another Kennedy.
RFK would have been president... gone.

here comes Teddy. He would have been president...
his bad actions effectively killed him too. (like clinton's almost got him eventually)
But... what if there had been something on the road that nite that made him swerve? What if he had been slipped a mickey?

Think about it... John F. K Jr. would have been president one day. Next thing you know he is gone too.

I know its a stretch, but the RW has tried to get rid of every liberal forever. They believe in preemption. I will never put anything past them again.
tib

One of the books about Chappaquidick (can't remember title) put that forth.
He stepped up to take the heat for a young family member.
Who knows?

They keep bringing up events that happened years ago, crying about what an outrage it is that these people survived these scandals. For instance: "Clinton never even came to NYC when the WTC was bombed." I don't recall that even being an issue at the time. Where were these people with their rage then? The truth is, things were different back then, and the atmosphere has become poisoned by the wingnuts' campaign to unseat Bill Clinton. This is nothing but Monday-morning quarterbacking, applying today's standards to yesterday's perceived transgressions. Obviously, as far as Chappaquiddick is concerned, people were more forgiving back then, and Ted has certainly proven to be a superb Senator.

Warren G. Harding
Ohio Republican
29th President of the United States.
1921-1923 (died in office)


If repugs want to keep bringing up ancient history in their continuing "They're just as bad as we are" rebuttal to the Hastert/Foley cover-up (and how lame an argument is THAT?), here's some REALLY JUICY, REALLY ANCIENT history:

Everything old is new again.
Sexual peccadillos? Check.
Sealing presidential papers for 100 YEARS? Check.
Paying hush money? Check.
Financial scandals? Teapot dome, the mother of them all.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2368044

There are so many current scandals with these folks, that we do not need to reach back 40 years to find something.

Jack Abramoff
David Safavian
Jeff Gannon, gay prostitute visiting White House 200 or more times.
Bob Ney, the coin scandal, Abramoff ties.
Duke Cunningham, buying votes with hookers at Watergate
Tom DeLay
Scooter Libby
Rove aide that recently resigned
Dennis Hastert Turkish spying scandal
AIPIC with Douglas Feith & others
Paying off of columnists to write pro-Bush material
Phony news propaganda items to promote Bush ideas.
Halliburton
Enron

How many people were distracted by the comment?