washington, dc

The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Foley Scandal/Cover-up and House Races

It’s too early to gauge the political ramifications of the still-unfolding Foley scandal/cover-up and it’s clear more revelations are forthcoming. Thus far, the blogs are a step ahead of the newspapers-of-record in sharing the inside skinny on the political fallout. A good place to start is “Fight the Foley Five” at Daily Kos, which reports on five GOP-held seats that may be endangered by the scandal and their Democratic opponents. Also check out The Left Coaster Steve Soto’s “Will The Foley Cover-Up Take Down The GOP House Leadership?” In his MyDD post, “Time For Hastert To Resign,” Chris Bowers says “there is simply no way that we lose FL-16 now.” The New Republic‘s Michael Crowley reports in “The Plank” that NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds may be especially vulnerable:

Although the New York Republican chairs the National Republican Campaign Committee, a post usually held by a safe incumbent (thus allowing him to focus on other races) Reynolds has always faced an inconveniently dicey re-election fight. Indeed, as reader CS notes, a September 28 SurveyUSA poll showed Reynolds with a mere 45-43 lead over his Democratic opponent, Jack Davis…In all likelihood, then, Reynolds is effectively down by a few points. And now newspapers in his own district are running headlines like “Reynolds accused of inaction on Foley.”

And Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo covers the political fallout from more than a dozen different angles here.

One comment on “Foley Scandal/Cover-up and House Races

  1. mike on

    What needs to be done? For starters the House leadership (from both parties) needs to demand that each member of the House issue a public on the record statement of what they knew about Rep. Foleys actions towards Pages and what they did about it. Will most of them lie through their teeth? Yeah probably but at least we will have their deceit on the record. If 16 year olds knew this guys reputation its a bit difficult to believe that members of Congress or their staffs were so blissfuly ignorant. Maybe we need more off the record interviews with Pages. It might be amazing the things we learn about our members of

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.