A serious post, on a serious subject...

No wiseass sniping in this one...

Posts by Stacy at AZCongresswatch and Man Eegee at Man Eegee Latino Politico, plus an email from the Simon campaign (CD1), a perusal of a couple of campaign websites, and an article in the Business Journal of Phoenix all made me do some thinking about the events that are unfolding in DC and Florida.

This is just a piece of advice for the Democratic candidates that are now campaigning on Mark Foley's emails and IMs:

Stop. Now.

Keep it in reserve.

Keep it available as a counterpunch to the inevitable Republican mudslinging.

Make sure they don't get to sweep this under the carpet.

Keep an eye on the FBI's investigation, both into Foley's actions and the Republican leadership's coverup.

Make sure that the system deals with Foley in an manner appropriate to any actual crimes that he has committed.

Make sure that the FBI doesn't become the whitewash branch of the Republican Party.

But don't harp on it so much that people get even more disgusted than they are and declare a "pox on both your houses."

And damn sure don't forget that there ARE victims here, and they should NOT be politicized.


Full disclosure part of the post:

Partisan that I am, I looked for direct links between Foley and our Congressmen, particularly JD Hayworth and Rick Renzi.

There weren't any unusual ones that I could find. No donations, no endorsements.

There were a few common committee assignments, some common bill co-sponsorships and the like, but no "smoking guns". I'll reexamine the records for any ties as I think of different avenues of inquiry, but until documented and verified evidence is found, I'm not going to try to link any specific Congressmen to Foley.

And I recommend to bloggers and campaigns alike not to do it either, at least until there is evidence.

There's two reasons for this -

1. There's no need to make up stuff about these guys. The stuff that we can prove (Abramoff, Mantech, etc.) is pretty damning all by itself; and

2. It's wrong. Period. It was wrong when the Reps did it to the Clintons; it'll be wrong if we do it to them now.

When the scandal broke a few years back about the Church's coverup of priests molesting children, I thought then that everyone involved, the pedophiles and their protectors, regardless of any civil or criminal penalties they faced, should have been immediately excommunicated.

Likewise today, any/everyone involved in the coverup of Foley's activities should be removed from office and permanently barred from holding any public position of trust ever again.

And still have to face any civil and criminal actions that may result from all of this.

Some recommendations for the various incumbents:

JD needs to stop trying to spin this into an attack on Harry Mitchell. Nobody's buying into his schtick anymore, and it just insults us when he keeps trying to blow it by us.

As for everyone else, including JD? If they have anything minor that *does* tie them to Foley, go public with it now, because if we find it first, there won't be any holding back for decorum's sake. There won't be any tolerance for lies or coverups.

The one exception to that is if they knew about the issue before it became public.

In that case, instead of talking to us (or reading blogs like this!) they need to talk to their lawyers.

And update their resumes.