The Foley Fallout

The Wikipedia Foley File is continuously updated with the latest on the scandal.

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) has known Foley for years in and out of Washington, as he helped her in her run for the House with both money and the assistance of the ubiquitous Kirk Fordham.

She told her local paper, the St. Petersburg Times in a piece, House member marks distance, that Foley may have a lot of problems, but alcohol wasn’t one of them. She calls Foley a “cheap date”, having known him to nurse a single glass of wine the entire evening.

The Washington Post ran a story a couple of days ago, Rep. Kolbe saw Foley messages in 2000, indicating that Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) had talked to Foley back in 2000.

Kolbe indicated today that he hadn’t personally seen the messages, but he forwarded them to the Clerk of the House, Jeff Trandahl, and Foley’s office after his office received a complaint about them from a former page.

Given what a mess this is, I’m beginning to suspect that internal Republican polling for the House has been showing major losses for some time, and thus the pressure to ignore current problems in hopes of eking out a majority in the election.

Foley is from a normally Republican district. If he had not run again, the Republicans would have probably retained the seat. If Foley had resigned last year, the new Republican would have almost certainly retained the seat, and Hastert and Reynolds might even have been fairly certain to retain theirs.

Unfortunately, sooner or later the Reptilicons will revert to their Stalinist roots and have a purge. The Log Cabin Republicans may as well brace for the attack, because with Kolbe, Kirk Fordham, and Jeff Trandahl openly gay, and Foley forced out of the closet, this is going to get vicious. The Religious Reich will demand heads.