October 6, 2006
Nancy Pelosi vows to “drain the swamp” if the Democrats take control of Congress and she becomes, God forbid, Madame Speaker. All this excitement and frothing at the mouth over a scandal involving a Republican congressman and a House page. Is this all they've got? And imagine this – Democrats lecturing Republicans on morality.
Have they forgotten Democrat Barney Frank taking up with a male prostitute then allowing that piece of feculence to use his Washington residence as a brothel? Have they forgotten Democrat Congressman Gerry Studds and his sexual relationship with a male page? Studds was merely censured on the House floor and his constituents back in Massachusetts saw fit to send him back six more times. Speaking of Massachusetts , who can forget the antics of ole Uncle Teddy Kennedy who drunk drove his car into the drink and left a young girl to die while he swam to the safety of his accommodations and slept it off. Ah, and the granddaddy of all Washington sex scandals, the Bill and Monica side show that prompted a gathering of Democrats on the White House lawn to proclaim him “one of our nation's greatest presidents.”
Now, don't misunderstand me. The conduct of former-Congressman Mark Foley is reprehensible and indefensible. But that's the difference, isn't it? Nobody from the Republican Party is coming to his defense. No one is suggesting that he merely be censured or that it was just a minor indiscretion and he'll go down in history as “one of our nation's greatest congressmen.” No, the Republicans demanded, and got, his immediate resignation.
But let's get back to “draining the swamp.” Nancy Pelosi is all atwitter at the prospect of seizing power. She vows to roll back the Bush tax cuts that have sparked our miraculous economic recovery since 9/11. She's vowed to immediately raise the minimum wage which study after study has concluded will actually destroy jobs for the very working poor she claims to want to help. She promised to “break the link between lobbyist and legislation” when she was the target of a lobbying scandal over a 2001 trip to Puerto Rico .
You see, Pelosi and company expect to use the Foley scandal as a pole to vault themselves over the top in November. The very fact that they've latched on to the Foley matter demonstrates their unconscious admission that the American people have repeatedly rejected their agenda. Mandates are created by ideas, not on the back of some disgraced congressman. The American people have sent a message loud and clear to Washington for the past twelve years that they do not want to be taken in the direction of liberal politics, big government and unbridled entitlements. That's certainly not to say that the Republicans have come shining through on all counts but they are infinitely better at it than Democrats.
Every attempt to saddle the Republicans with a scandal has failed. The Democrats nostalgically turn to Watergate as the magic elixir. Let a scandal run the Republicans from power and they can fill the void. I may be surprised come election day but I just don't see the Foley scandal resonating with the populace as a Republican scandal. It may take Denny Hastert out as speaker if we find out he knew more than he's letting on but I can't see how that would translate into a regime-toppling scandal.
To be quite honest, the American public could almost stomach the disgraced Mark Foley as speaker before they could put up with the incessant nagging and the eternal pessimism of Nancy Pelosi. Heaven help us if I'm wrong.